.. title: At Long Last, OpenLP 2.0 Has Arrived!
.. slug: 2012/12/02/long-last-openlp-20-has-arrived
.. date: 2012-12-02 07:12:29 UTC
.. tags: 
.. description: 

    *O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth.
    Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after
    day.*

    Psalms 96:1-2

We are ecstatic to announce the first stable release of the 2.0 series
of OpenLP! We've been developing this new version of OpenLP for four
years now, and this long awaited mature release contains numerous
improvements over OpenLP 1.2.

New Features We Like Most
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is difficult to pick a single favourite with so many new features, so
we decided make a list of our top favourites instead:

-  Support for four major operating systems - Windows, Mac OS X, Linux
   and FreeBSD (a first priority for many of us)
-  Better media support by integrating VLC into OpenLP (requires
   `VLC <http://www.videolan.org/vlc/>`__ to be installed)
-  An enormous list of programs to import songs from, so that switching
   to OpenLP is fast and easy (see below for a full list of supported
   programs)
-  More Bibles available (there are more import formats supported)
-  Remotely control OpenLP via any device with a browser
-  Android remote control app
-  `Stage view <http://manual.openlp.org/stage_view.html>`__
-  Show and control PowerPoint presentations through OpenLP

For a full list of features, check out our
`Features <http://openlp.org/features>`__ page.

Features You'll Know From Version 1.2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And of course most of the old core stuff works just as well as, or even
better than before:

-  Presenting songs and Bible verses
-  Showing images and playing videos
-  CCLI reports

Making the switch
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We all know that the worst part of switching to a new program is getting
all your songs from the old one into the new one. Typically this
involves a whole lot of copying and pasting between programs, or just
plain re-typing songs from scratch. We realised that this is a huge
pain, and so OpenLP ships with a song import wizard which can import
your songs from a record number of existing applications. OpenLP will
save you time and import your whole lyrics database from any of the
following programs:

-  DreamBeam
-  EasySlides
-  EasyWorship
-  FoilPresenter
-  MediaShout
-  OpenSong
-  PowerSong
-  SongBeamer
-  SongPro
-  SongShow Plus
-  Songs of Fellowship
-  Sunday Plus
-  Words of Worship
-  ZionWorx

Known Limitations on Some Platforms
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-  Not all versions of VLC work with OpenLP.  VLC 2.0.3 has been tested
   and is known to work well.
-  On Windows, OpenLP is a 32bit application and therefore only works
   with a 32bit VLC.
-  On Mac OS X, the only version of VLC that works with OpenLP is 2.0.3.
   Using an alternate version will cause OpenLP to crash.
-  Transparent themes have stopped working on Windows.

What Makes OpenLP So Awesome?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The number one thing we are proud of is that it is free software, and is
licensed under the `GNU General Public
License <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_General_Public_License>`__.
This means that OpenLP is and always will be free. Not only free in that
you don't have to pay for it, but also you can freely download the
source code and add your needed feature or let someone else do it for
you. Furthermore, as long as there is at least one developer who needs
improvements in OpenLP, the project will not fade away, like a number of
commercial solutions have, leaving you with a program which will not run
on your current operating system and all your songs locked away in a
now-useless database.

In short, even if your church's budget is not that tight, there are
plenty reasons why OpenLP is still a winning solution.

Where Do I Start?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow, you made it all the way down here without rushing off to download
OpenLP? Impressive dedication! Well, go ahead and `download OpenLP
now <http://openlp.org/download>`__!

If you are new to OpenLP, take a look at our `list of video
tutorials <https://www.youtube.com/user/openlpvideos>`__ done by members
of our community. A good video to start with is the `Getting started
with your service in
OpenLP <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX9fQkEB_j0>`__ tutorial. If you
get stuck, or want to learn more, we have a `user
guide <http://user-guide.openlp.org/>`__ (currently still being worked
on) to show you how to do the most common tasks in OpenLP, and a
`reference manual <http://manual.openlp.org/>`__ which contains
everything you'll ever need to know about OpenLP.

Finally
~~~~~~~

Last, but not least, I want to thank all the folks who have managed to
make OpenLP 2.0 a reality. I would not have been able to accomplish such
a huge task by myself. So, to the core team, Tim Bently, Jonathan
Corwin, Andreas Preikschat, Martin Zibricky, Stevan Pettit, Wesley
Stout, John Cegalis, Philip Ridout and Mattias Põldaru, and to all the
others who have contributed to OpenLP, I want to say a big **THANK
YOU**. You guys have been awesome, and I really appreciate all the hard
work you do. It is often a thankless task.

| In His name,
| Raoul Snyman
| OpenLP Project Leader