.. title: Commercial Presentation Applications
.. slug: 2008/03/06/commercial-presentation-applications
.. date: 2008-03-06 08:03:47 UTC
.. tags: 
.. description: 

So, we've been developing openlp.org for a few years now, but to be
honest, I've never looked at the commercial offerings. I know about
them, and I know that most people seem to hear of them first, but I've
never actually installed them and tried them out.

So last night I installed 4 applications:

-  EasyWorship
-  SongShow Plus
-  SongPro
-  Sunday Plus

I basically just installed everything, and then opened each program and
tried to figure out how to use it without looking in a manual.

Installation

Apart from SongShow Plus, the applications installed in apretty straight
forward manner. SongShow Plus, however, was a nightmare. It has a whole
bunch of "components" which you can choose to install, only each and
every component is an installer in and of itself. This means, that with
a default install (pre-selected components), you install 26 components,
and you have to click buttons on each installer a minimum of 3 times...
that's a minimum of 78 clicks! It took about 15 minutes to install
SongShow Plus, thanks to all their installers. I was not impressed with
SongShow Plus after that.

First Impressions EasyWorship

If you wanted to say that openlp.org copied someone's interface, it
would be EasyWorship's. Of all the applications, EasyWorship's interface
is the most like openlp.org's. For me it was simple and easy to see what
to do and how to do it. EasyWorship is also written in Delphi, like
openlp.org, but it uses the archaic Borland Database Engine.

SongShow Plus

SongShow Plus has a very flashy interface, with a silver look and little
effects here and there. However, as my wife pointed out, all the icons
look the same. It's interface is somewhat similar to openlp.org and
EasyWorship, but not quite as intuitive.

SongPro

Eyesore. That was my first impression of SongPro. It doesn't look good.
The backgrounds of the text boxes are turquoise or yelow, and I couldn't
initially figure out how to put together an order of service. The
buttons are all too big, there's too much whitespace around certain
elements, and it really looks like it was hastily put together with no
regard for how it looks.

Sunday Plus

Bizarre, just plain bizarre. When you open Sunday Plus, it shows you  a
small window in the middle of your screen that looks more like a
calculator than anything else. From there I was absolutely baffled as to
what to do. How do you set up an order of service? How do you
add/edit/delete songs? I couldn't figure out how to use Sunday Plus
after 5 minutes, so I just decided to leave it.

Some Thoughts

Features are not king. If you application doesn't look good, and isn't
easy enough to figure out how to use, then people will not be impressed
with it. From what I've read in forums on the Internet, a lot of people
like EasyWorship because of it's smart, not too simple but not too
complicated, and easy to use interface.

I think it's important to have a decent set of features, but it's more
important that your interface looks good (but not flashy) and that your
program is easy to use, without having to read the manual.

Comments

If you think I'm right or wrong or missing something or overlooking
something, please leave a comment.
