5.2 KiB
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 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
- Show and control PowerPoint presentations through OpenLP
For a full list of features, check out our 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. 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!
If you are new to OpenLP, take a look at our list of video tutorials done by members of our community. A good video to start with is the Getting started with your service in OpenLP tutorial. If you get stuck, or want to learn more, we have a user guide (currently still being worked on) to show you how to do the most common tasks in OpenLP, and a reference manual 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.
Raoul Snyman
OpenLP Project Leader