documentation/manual/source/faq.rst

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 2.2 support?

OpenLP 2.2 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 2.2 developed in?

OpenLP 2.2 is written in Python3 and uses the Qt4 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 2.2?

No, you should first upgrade to the last stable release in the 2.0-series (2.0.5) and then upgrade to 2.2 to ensure that data is correctly converted.

Can I upgrade directly from 1.2 to 2.2?

No, you will have to install 2.0.5 first, then import the 1.2 data and then upgrade to 2.2. See the 2.0 documentation for how to upgrade from 1.2 to 2.0.

Does 2.2 replace 2.0, or can they be run side by side?

OpenLP 2.2 and 2.0 cannot run side by side. When running 2.2 for first time any existing 2.0 data will automatically be converted to the 2.2 format. Note that OpenLP 2.2 is not backwards compatible with 2.0. Once you have upgraded from 2.0, version 2.0 cannot read the upgraded files. OpenLP 2.2 will ask if it should make a backup on startup, which can be used in case you want to downgrade to 2.0 again.

OpenLP 2.2 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:

• Crosswalk
• BibleGateway
• BibleServer

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

<user> is your username.

Windows

On Windows, OpenLP does not use a configuration file, it uses the Windows registry. You can find the settings here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\OpenLP\OpenLP

Troubleshooting

Something has gone wrong, what should I do to help get it fixed?

If you have found an error in the program (what we call a bug) you should report this to us so that OpenLP can be improved. Before reporting any bugs please first make sure that there is not already a bug report about your problem:

1. Check the Launchpad bug list
2. OpenLP support System
3. Check the http://forums.openlp.org/ forum

If there is already a bug report, you may be able to help by providing further information. However, if no one else has reported it yet, then please post a new bug report.

1. The preferred place for reporting bugs is the bugs list on Launchpad.
2. Alternatively, if you do not have a Launchpad account and do not want to sign up for one, you can post in the bug reports forum.
3. If none of these ways suits you, you can send an email to support (at) openlp.org.

What information should I include in a bug report?

Since OpenLP 1.9.4, there is a bug report dialog which automatically opens when OpenLP hits a serious bug. However, this does not appear all the time, and in some behavioural bugs, you will have to file a bug report yourself. The following items are information the developers need in order to reproduce the bug.

Operating System

Include information such as the version of your operating system, the distribution (e.g. Ubuntu, Fedora, etc.) if you are using Linux, or the edition (e.g. Home, Basic, Business, etc.) if you are using Windows.

Version of OpenLP

You can find out the version of OpenLP by going to Help --> About

Steps to Reproduce

The exact steps the developers need to follow in order to reproduce the bug.

Version of MS Office or LibreOffice

If you are using the song imports or the presentation plugin, you will need to supply the version of Office or LibreOffice.

Bible Translation and Source

If the bug occurred while you were working with Bibles, specify the translation of the Bible, and the source format if you imported it yourself.

Any Other Information

Often bugs are caused by something that might not seem to be directly related to the bug itself. If you have any other information with regards to actions you performed or other activities when the bug occurred, it would be welcomed by the developers.

The more information you give us, the better we can help you.

I have been asked to email a debug log, where do I find this?

We may need a debug log to help pin-point the issue. A new log file is created each time you start OpenLP so copy the file before you run the software a second time. On Windows a Debug option is available in the start menu. On other systems, you will need to run OpenLP from the command line, with the following option: `-l debug`. Please note, that is a lowercase L.

If you have not been given a specific email address to send it to, then please do not paste the log contents straight into a forum post. Instead, open the log file in a text editor (such as notepad on Windows) and copy and paste the contents into somewhere like pastebin.com. Then give us the link to the page that is created.

Windows

Find the OpenLP 2.2 folder in your Start menu. Choose the "OpenLP (Debug)" option.

OpenLP will start up. Go to the Tools --> Open Data Folder menu option, and an Explorer window will appear containing folders such as alerts, bibles, custom etc. Keep this Explorer window open.

Now repeat the steps you need to take in OpenLP to reproduce the problem you had, and then close down OpenLP.

In the Explorer window you left open, navigate up one level into the openlp folder. You will see the openlp.log file. This is the file to e-mail.

Linux/FreeBSD

If you installed OpenLP from a package:

@:~$ openlp -l debug

Alternately, if you are running OpenLP from source:

@:~$ ./openlp.pyw -l debug

If your Linux distribution supports the XDG standard, you will find the log in:

~/.cache/openlp/openlp.log

Otherwise, you will find the log file in:

~/.openlp/openlp.log

Mac OS X

Open Terminal.app and navigate to where you installed OpenLP, usually /Applications:

@:~$ cd /Applications

Then go into the OpenLP.app directory, down to the OpenLP executable:

@:~$ cd OpenLP.app/Contents/MacOS

And then run OpenLP in debug mode:

@:~$ ./openlp -l debug

Once you have done that, you need to get the log file. In your home directory, open the Library directory, and the Application Support directory within that. Then open the openlp directory, and you should find the openlp.log file in that directory:

/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/openlp/openlp.log

<username> is your username.

The command line shows many error messages

When running OpenLP from the command line, you might get something like this:

WARNING: bool Phonon::FactoryPrivate::createBackend() phonon backend plugin could not be loaded 
WARNING: bool Phonon::FactoryPrivate::createBackend() phonon backend plugin could not be loaded 
WARNING: Phonon::createPath: Cannot connect  Phonon::MediaObject ( no objectName ) to  VideoDisplay ( no objectName ). 
WARNING: Phonon::createPath: Cannot connect  Phonon::MediaObject ( no objectName ) to  Phonon::AudioOutput ( no objectName ). 
WARNING: bool Phonon::FactoryPrivate::createBackend() phonon backend plugin could not be loaded

These error messages indicate that you need to install an appropriate backend for Phonon.

Linux/FreeBSD

If you are using Gnome, you need to install the GStreamer backend for Phonon. On Ubuntu you would install the `phonon-backend-gstreamer` package:

@:~$ sudo aptitude install phonon-backend-gstreamer

If you are using KDE, you need to install the Xine backend for Phonon. On Kubuntu you would install the `phonon-backend-xine` package:

@:~$ sudo aptitude install phonon-backend-xine

If you know which audiovisual system you are using, then install the appropriate backend.

phonon-backend-vlc may also be worth trying on some systems.

Windows & Mac OS X

Phonon should already be set up properly. If you are still having issues, let the developers know.

There are no menu icons in OpenLP

This may affect (only) Linux users with XFCE or Gnome. To solve the problem, follow the instructions on this bug report.

MP3's and other audio formats do not work

This is a known issue on some systems, and we have no solution at the moment.

Videos can be slow or pixelated. Background Videos are very slow

If you are just playing videos from the Media plugin, try selecting the Use Phonon for Video playback option in the Media configuration, accessible by going to Settings --> Configure OpenLP --> Media. As for text over video, we have no solution for speeding this up. Reducing the monitor resolution and avoiding shadows and outline text will help. We are hoping a future release of the toolkit we are using (QtWebKit) will help improve this, but there is no timeframe at present.

Features

Why has popular feature request X not been implemented?

There are only a handful of developers working in their spare time. If we were to try and include everything we wanted to implement, then 2.2 would not likely ever get released.

I have a great idea for a new feature, where should I suggest it?

First of all check it is not on the Feature Requests page. If it is, then you need to say no more, it has already been suggested! If it is not on the list, then head to the forum and post the idea there.