How to change the background of a song or a whole songbook - Cascading styles - Part one

This article describes:

• How to change the “Base” background,
• How to assign the same background to all the slides of a song,
• How to assign a different background to each slide of some Bible verses.

See also:
How to assign a background to a song verse or to the whole song - Cascading styles - Part two

The “Base” style level

1. The “Base” style level is displayed when no slide is displayed.

2. It specifies how the slides are displayed:
their background, font, font size, font color, header and footer template, etc.

3. The “Base” style can be overridden at higher levels (song, Bible, verse, etc.).
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4. You can force the display of the base background at any moment by pressing the “Moon” button:

By default, the base background consists into a black background, which simulates a switched off video-projector.
A black background is usually the desired behavior.

Adjust the “Base” background

1. Select the “Base” style level:

2. Assign a background image to this “Base” style level, for example a light blue cross on a black background:

3. Save your changes, like described here.
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Set the background to a specific color

1. Use the color picker located to the right of the image gallery:

2. Save your changes, so that you get your settings back the next time you start VideoPsalm:

Note that VideoPsalm would not prompt you for saving changes when you close the program, if the only changes you did, concerned global styles (this might be ameliorated in a later version).

Global styles are:

• The “Base” style
• The “SongBooks” style
• The “Bibles” style

So, remember to save your changes after editing these global styles.

Notes

• Instead of an image, you can assign a colored background or a video loop at any style level.
• Any slide that does not have its own specific background will inherit from the “Base” background.
  In other words, a slide will be displayed with this “Base” background if the higher style levels don't have any specific background:

This “Cascading” mechanism enables you to change the settings for a whole range of slides in a simple and rapid way.

To pursue this mechanism further, what I usually end up doing, is assigning a specific background to the “Songbooks” style level, and a different one to the “Bibles” style level.
This way, each song that hasn't any specific style setting, gets displayed with the “Songbooks” style settings.
The same applies similarly to Bible verses.

Assign an image to the “Songbooks” style level

1. ​select the “Songbooks” style level, either like so:

Or simply by clicking the “Songbooks” button. This automatically selects the “Songbooks” style level:

2. Assign the background of your choice to the “Songbooks” style level, in the same manner you did before to the “Base” style level, for example a piano keyboard:

3. To make your changes permanent (ie. getting them back the next time you start VideoPsalm), you need to save them, like described here.

Assign a background at the “Bibles” style level

1. Click on the “Bibles” button. This selects the “Bibles” style level:

You can see that the “Bibles” style gets automatically selected in the style level selector :

(Alternatively, you could select the “Bibles” style level from this drop down).

2. Select an image background, for example a Bible:

After selecting this background image, every Bible verse will be displayed with it, except those that have a more specific image (for example defined at a higher style level, like the Bible, Testament, Bible book, chapter or verse level).

Save your changes

3. To make your changes permanent (ie. getting them back the next time you start VideoPsalm), save you changes:

Note that by default, changes that you do to Bibles are not saved.
You need to enable this in the VideoPsalm settings:

Clear all style settings at a specific level

The “Brush” icon enables you to clear all style attributes defined at the selected level.
This icon is enabled when at least one style attribute is defined at this level.

A style attribute may consist of the following:

• Background (image, color, video loop).
• Text attribute (font, font size, bold, italic, underlined, horizontal alignment, vertical alignment),
• For the body, header and footer.
• Position and size of the body, header and footer frame.

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Clear a specific style setting

In case you need to clear a specific style attribute, use the style explorer.

1. Open the style explorer by clicking on the small ribbon button:

This opens the Style Explorer panel:

The style properties that are defined at this style level are displayed in bold.

2. Clear their value by clicking on their “Brush” icon.

​3. Save your changes like described here.
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Assign a specific image to a song

1. Click the song.
This will select the “Song” style level:

2. Select the image that you want to assign to that song from the image gallery.

3. Save your changes.

Assign a specific image to a slide (a song verse)

1. Click the song verse.

2. Select an image from the image gallery.
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The same method applies to following style levels: Bible, Testament, Bible books, chapters, verses.

​When exiting VideoPsalm, it will remind you that there are unsaved changes:

Click “Yes” if you want your changes to be permanent, ie. to get the same backgrounds or any other change that you did, the next time you open VideoPsalm. This applies also to song changes or new songs that you may have typed in.

If you have any further question, please contact us.

You will sure need to experiment a bit with the VideoPsalm cascading styles. Once you get used to it, you will appreciate how simple it is to prepare your presentation with VideoPsalm.

See also:
How to assign a background to a song verse or to the whole song - Cascading styles - Part two