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Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

Can I help with OpenLP?

OpenLP is possible because of the commitment of individuals. If you would like to help there are several things that you can get involved with. Please see: Contributing for more information.

I use and like OpenLP and would like to tell others online. Where can I do this?

A variety of places!

Are you on facebook? Then become a fan
Are you on twitter? Then follow openlp, and retweet the announcements.
Give us a thumbs up on the SourceForge project page
If you have a website or blog, then link to our site http://www.openlp.org with a few words saying what the software is and why you like it.
Add a placemark on our Worldwide Usage map, so others in your locality can see someone close by is using it.
If you are a member of any Christian Forums or websites, and their rules allow it, then perhaps review the software or ask others to review it.

What operating systems will OpenLP 2.4 support?

OpenLP 2.4 is designed to be cross platform. Currently it has been known to run on Windows (Vista, 7, 8, 10), Linux (Ubuntu and its variants, Fedora, Debian, ArchLinux, Mint, OpenSUSE and many many others), FreeBSD & Mac OS X. Please let us know if you have successfully run it on something else.

Which programming language is 2.4 developed in?

OpenLP 2.4 is written in Python3 and uses the Qt5 toolkit. Both are cross-platform which allows the software to run on different types of machine and so allow more people access to free worship software. Python is one of the easier programming languages to learn, so this helps us develop and find bugs quicker, and also allows more developers to contribute with the project.

Which written languages does OpenLP support?

OpenLP has support for multiple languages which can be seen on the Settings -->Translate menu. However some of these translations are incomplete. If you would like to help complete or start to translate OpenLP into your language then see the Getting started page.

Upgrading

Can I upgrade from any 1.9.x or 2.0.x release to 2.4?

No, you should first upgrade to the last stable release in the 2.0-series (2.0.5) and then upgrade to 2.4 to ensure that data is correctly converted. You can download OpenLP 2.0.5 from <http://sourceforge.net/projects/openlp/files/openlp/2.0.5/>_. Can I upgrade directly from 1.2 to 2.4? --------------------------------------- No, you will have to install 2.0.5 first, then import the 1.2 data and then upgrade to 2.4. See the 2.0 documentation for how to upgrade from 1.2 to 2.0. You can download OpenLP 2.0.5 from <http://sourceforge.net/projects/openlp/files/openlp/2.0.5/>.

Does 2.4 replace older 2.x versions, or can they be run side by side?

OpenLP 2.4 and earlier 2.x versions cannot run side by side. When running 2.4 for first time any existing 2.x data will automatically be converted to the 2.4 format. Note that OpenLP 2.4 is not backwards compatible with earlier 2.x versions. Once you have upgraded from the older OpenLP versions cannot read the upgraded files. OpenLP 2.4 will ask if it should make a backup on startup, which can be used in case you want to downgrade again.

OpenLP 2.4 cannot read service files created by OpenLP 2.0.4 and earlier, it can only read service files created by OpenLP 2.0.5.

Using OpenLP

I have started OpenLP, but I cannot see the songs or bibles section in the Media Manager

When you installed OpenLP, the first time wizard would have asked which plugins you wanted, and songs and bibles should have been selected. If for some reason they were not, then you will need to activate them yourself. See below for instructions.

How do I activate / deactivate a plugin?

Plugins can be turned on and off from the Plugin List Screen. Select the plugin you wish to start/stop and change its status. You should not need to restart OpenLP.

What are these plugins that I keep seeing mentioned?

The plugins allow OpenLP to be extend easily. A number have been written (Songs, Bibles, Presentations) etc but it is possible for the application to be extended with functionality only you require. If this is the case then go for it but lets us know as we can help and it may be something someone else wants.

How do I enable PowerPoint/Impress/PowerPoint Viewer?

First of all ensure that the presentation plugin is enabled (see above). Then to enable a presentation application, go to the Settings dialog, switch to the Presentations tab and check one of the enabled checkboxes. OpenLP will automatically detect which of the three you have installed, and enable the appropriate checkbox(es). Check the applications you require, and then restart OpenLP for the change to be detected. Note, PowerPoint Viewer 2010 is not yet supported, use 2003 or 2007.

Why can LibreOffice Impress not be used on Mac OS X?

Currently the presentations plugin does not support Impress on OS X. The reason for that is that the interoperability component (pyuno) in LibreOffice on Mac OS X cannot be used by OpenLP due to incompatibilities between the version of Python used by LibreOffice and the Python version used by OpenLP.

Why can MS PowerPoint not be used on Mac OS X?

Currently the presentations plugin does not support PowerPoint on OS X. The reason for that is that so far we have found that the available method to control PowerPoint on OS X is not good enough for integration with OpenLP. If this changes we will look at including this feature.

I am on Windows and PowerPoint is installed, but it does not appear as an option

Try installing the Visual C++ Runtime Redistributable.

Is it possible to get Bible x? How?

The Bible plugin has a Import Wizard which can import Bibles from a variety of sources. The following sources are supported:

CSV

The format is documented in the OpenLP API documentation.

OSIS

An XML format for Bible. You can export Bibles from the Sword Project into OSIS using the mod2osis tool. After using the Sword software Media Manager (or other Sword frontend, like BibleTime or Xiphos) to download the required Bible, run the following command from the command line (works on Windows and Linux):

mod2osis <name> > <name>.osis

The <name> parameter is the name of your Bible, as you see it in Sword. Note that the <name> is case sensitive on all environments. Once you have exported your Bible to OSIS, the Bible import wizard will the read <name>.osis file and import your Bible.

OpenSong

OpenSong has a good selection of Bibles on their download page.

Web Download

OpenLP can download Bibles on demand from the following 3 sites:

Zefania

The Zefania project has many bibles available from their website

Why do my Bible verses take a long time to load?

In order to better conform to copyright law, the Web Download Bibles are not downloaded when you import them, but on the fly as you search for them. As a result, the search takes a little longer if you need to download those particular verses. Having said that, the Web Download Bibles cache downloaded verses so that you do not need to download them again.

My Bible is on the Web Download sites, but my Church is not on the internet. What options do I have?

When you create and save a service, all the items in the service are saved with it. That means any images, presentations, songs and media items are saved. This is also true for bibles. What this means is you can create the service on your home computer, insert a Bible passage from the web, save it and then open the service using your church computer and voila, the Bible passage should be there! Note this can also be done with songs, etc!

(Advanced) Where do I find the configuration file?

Linux, FreeBSD & PC-BSD

If your distribution supports the XDG standard, you will find OpenLP's configuration file in:

/home/<user>/.config/OpenLP/OpenLP.conf

If that file and/or directory does not exist, look for:

/home/<user>/.openlp/openlp.conf

<user> is your username.

OS X

You will find your configuration file here:

/Users/<user>/Library/Preferences/org.openlp.OpenLP.plist