VideoPsalm

The fastest way is to use VideoPsalm's integrated edit functions:

• Put VideoPsalm into its “Edit” mode, by clicking the “Pencil” icon located at the right side.
• Then select the “Edit” tab at the top.

• In case you want to add your new songs into a new songbook, create a new one by clicking the “New Songbook” button.
• Select the songbook where you want to add your new songs, by clicking on it.
• Create a new song by clicking the “New Song” button.
• In the middle panel, type in the song lyrics.
• To put lyrics onto a new slide, leave an empty line between two song verses / stanzas.
  You can tag a song verse as a verse, or chorus, pre-chorus, bridge, tag, intro, outro, slide, instrumental or other.
  For example, if you want to tag a song verse as a chorus, type the word “chorus” as the first line of the song verse.
  You can add a number after a tag, for example “Verse 2”.
  You can use abbreviations: v for verse, c for chorus, r for refrain (in french), etc.

Note  Tags can be useful to identify slides more easily in the “Slides” panel. They don't fulfill any other purpose at the moment.

• When you are finished, save your work by clicking the “Save” button on the “Edition” tab.
  VideoPsalm will also remind you to save your work when you close it, if you haven't done so before.

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Many songs that you collect here and there are in text format. For example, you collect song lyrics from a web site, youtube, CCLI, etc.
You may have some friend who sent you a file with lots of songs into it, or even a PowerPoint with slides containing songs.
The idea is to use a text editor to put together these songs in text format, and import them all at once via the VideoPsalm text import assistant:

In the text editor, while editing your songs, the song lyrics must correspond to the format that VideoPsalm is expecting.

Here is a description of the text format that VideoPsalm is expecting (see also the example further down):

Song #. Song Title
Author (optional)
Composer (optional)
Empty line
V#. Lyrics (where # is the verse number. Use “C.” for Chorus, instead of “V.”)
Lyrics
Lyrics
etc..
Empty line
Next verse #. Lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics
etc..
Empty line
etc. (other lyrics)
Empty line
Copyright symbol: © (Alt+0169) (+ optional copyright text on the same line)
At least two empty lines
Next song


For example:

1. Blessed be the name of the Lord
Clinton Utterbach

V1. Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Most High! (Repeat)

C. The Name of the Lord is A strong tower,
The righteous run into it,
And they are saved. (Repeat)

V2. Glory to the name of the Lord,
Glory to the name of the Lord,
Glory to the name of the Lord
Most High! (Repeat)

C. The Name of the Lord is A strong tower,
The righteous run into it,
And they are saved. (Repeat)

© 1988 Polygram Music Publishing Ltd.


2. Above all
Lenny LeBlanc & Paul Baloche

V1. Above all powers,
Above all kings,
Above all nature
And all created things;
Above all wisdom
And all the ways of man,
You were here
Before the world began.

C. Crucified, laid behind the stone;
You lived to die,
Rejected and alone;
Like a rose trampled on the ground,
You took the fall and thought of me, 
Above all.

V2. Above all kingdoms,
Above all thrones,
Above all wonders
The world has ever known;
Above all wealth
And treasures of the earth,
There's no way to measure
What You're worth.

C. Crucified, laid behind the stone;
You lived to die,
Rejected and alone;
Like a rose trampled on the ground,
You took the fall and thought of me, 
Above all.

© 1999 Lensongs Publishing/Integrity's Hosanna! Music/Sovereign Music UK


Notes

• Leave at least two empty lines at the end of each song.
• Leave only one empty line between song verses.
• The copyright symbol “©” enables VideoPsalm to identify the copyright text. This line is optional.
  
• To obtain a “©” symbol, type Alt+0169.
  
• Use “C.” to tag a chorus.
  
• In french, use “R.” to tag a chorus (refrain).
  
• Song verses don't need to be labelled. If a song verse has no label, VideoPsalm will consider it to be a song verse and increment its number: The first verse will get number 1, the second verse will get number 2, etc.

Careful  Microsoft Windows Notepad saves text files in the ANSI text format by default.
However, VideoPsalm expects the text to be in the Unicode format, because this enables world languages encoding.
There are two solutions to this:

• When you save your text document, tell Word to save the text in the Unicode, Unicode big endian or UTF-8 format, not ANSI.
  There is an option for this in the “Save under” dialog for this, at the left of the “Save” button.
  
• Use Notepad++, which is a full fledged free text editor.

Summary  The text format is the simple file format there is. You can create or edit a text file containing lots of songs with a simple text editor. These songs need to follow a simple syntax so that VideoPsalm can import them properly. You can then import them all at once into your VideoPsalm.

In case of any difficulty, please use the contact form.

Most of the time, this approach is what is needed:

• Each verse is displayed in full screen.
  ​This allows people sitting at the back of the room to read the text despite the distance.
• It is good to know that you always get one single verse per slide:
  VideoPsalm doesn't take you by surprise while trying to arrange itself several verses on a slide or maybe cutting at the wrong place a verse that is too long.

In some cases, however, this approach is not good enough. Here are three scenarios that can cause problems:

• The pastor reads a whole chapter or several verses. Some verses are very long, others are short.
  -> It should be possible to split the verses that are long into two or more slides, and be able to put several consecutive short verses on the same slide.
• The pastor is interested in some specific words of the verse (the beginning, the end, the middle, etc..).
  -> It should be possible to display just a part of a verse.
• The pastor wants to show several non consecutive verses or part of them on the same slide.
  -> It should be possible to edit several verses together.

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VideoPsalm enables you to easily turn a biblical passage into an editable “free text”, and edit it like you can do for a song.

Here's how:
Let's consider a passage with verses of different lengths, for example 1 Corinthians 13.
You will want to split in two the verses that are too long and glue together consecutive short verses.

VideoPsalm can display the selected verses on the fly, without them being into the agenda. However, in our case right now, it is necessary to put the Bible verses into the agenda, because this is where we will be able to make them editable.

Note: In general, it's always a good idea, during the service, to put all viewed items into the agenda, especially the items that you add on the fly.
This way, you have them on hand in case the pastor returns to some previously cited verse.

Click the “Add” button to add the Bible verses to the agenda:

This has the effect of transforming the Bible verses into a free text (or song lyrics), that you can edit at leisure.
VideoPsalm puts this Bible verse "Song" in a new songbook called "Bible verses", that VideoPsalm creates on the fly if it does not exist already. VideoPsalm will add consecutive Bible verse "songs" to this same songbook (internally, this songbook has a unique identifier that VideoPsalm recognizes).

The following screen shot highlights how VideoPsalm transformed and formatted the Bible verses into a song:

In the above screen shot, several areas are surrounded by a red circle, to highlight what happened during the transformation operation:

1. VideoPsalm created a booklet called “Bible verses” (if it does not already exist).
   It is in this booklet that VideoPsalm will put custom Bible verses.
   For more information: If necessary, you can create several booklets of Bible verses.
2. The icon of such booklets is represented by a Bible. Biblical verses are represented by an “Message bubble” icon, as can be seen in the titles.
3. The Bible verses are editable. In the example above, I have slightly edited the verses, by removing the line break between verses 6 and 7, and between verses 9 and 10, because these verses are short and can fit on a single slide.
   As well as for songs, you can edit these Bible verses even during the presentation.
4. The slide numbers correspond to the verse numbers. Note that you can edit your verses, for example merge two consecutive verses that are short, and the verse numbers will keep matching.
5. Note that the headers and footers of the songbook slides are configured to display the Bible verse reference as well as the version of the Bible (NIV in this case).
   This all is done automatically when you ask VideoPsalm make the Bible verses editable.

To complete the operation, you can configure the booklet to display its verses with a similar style as your Bibles, for example by assigning a Bible image to its background. This way, all the Bible verses in this booklets will automatically appear with this picture.

Tell us if this suits some of your scenarios!

Other articles of interest

• Display verses from two different Bible translations at the same slide (bilingual display)
• How easily and fast you can display song lyrics and Bible verses to your assistance
• Tricks: Display Bible verses quickly, the way you want them to be (bilingual, several verses on one slide, etc.)