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83 lines
3.3 KiB
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.. title: Commercial Presentation Applications
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.. slug: 2008/03/06/commercial-presentation-applications
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.. date: 2008-03-06 08:03:47 UTC
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.. tags:
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.. description:
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So, we've been developing openlp.org for a few years now, but to be
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honest, I've never looked at the commercial offerings. I know about
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them, and I know that most people seem to hear of them first, but I've
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never actually installed them and tried them out.
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So last night I installed 4 applications:
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- EasyWorship
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- SongShow Plus
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- SongPro
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- Sunday Plus
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I basically just installed everything, and then opened each program and
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tried to figure out how to use it without looking in a manual.
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Installation
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Apart from SongShow Plus, the applications installed in apretty straight
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forward manner. SongShow Plus, however, was a nightmare. It has a whole
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bunch of "components" which you can choose to install, only each and
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every component is an installer in and of itself. This means, that with
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a default install (pre-selected components), you install 26 components,
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and you have to click buttons on each installer a minimum of 3 times...
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that's a minimum of 78 clicks! It took about 15 minutes to install
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SongShow Plus, thanks to all their installers. I was not impressed with
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SongShow Plus after that.
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First Impressions EasyWorship
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If you wanted to say that openlp.org copied someone's interface, it
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would be EasyWorship's. Of all the applications, EasyWorship's interface
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is the most like openlp.org's. For me it was simple and easy to see what
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to do and how to do it. EasyWorship is also written in Delphi, like
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openlp.org, but it uses the archaic Borland Database Engine.
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SongShow Plus
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SongShow Plus has a very flashy interface, with a silver look and little
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effects here and there. However, as my wife pointed out, all the icons
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look the same. It's interface is somewhat similar to openlp.org and
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EasyWorship, but not quite as intuitive.
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SongPro
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Eyesore. That was my first impression of SongPro. It doesn't look good.
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The backgrounds of the text boxes are turquoise or yelow, and I couldn't
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initially figure out how to put together an order of service. The
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buttons are all too big, there's too much whitespace around certain
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elements, and it really looks like it was hastily put together with no
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regard for how it looks.
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Sunday Plus
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Bizarre, just plain bizarre. When you open Sunday Plus, it shows you a
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small window in the middle of your screen that looks more like a
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calculator than anything else. From there I was absolutely baffled as to
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what to do. How do you set up an order of service? How do you
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add/edit/delete songs? I couldn't figure out how to use Sunday Plus
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after 5 minutes, so I just decided to leave it.
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Some Thoughts
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Features are not king. If you application doesn't look good, and isn't
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easy enough to figure out how to use, then people will not be impressed
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with it. From what I've read in forums on the Internet, a lot of people
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like EasyWorship because of it's smart, not too simple but not too
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complicated, and easy to use interface.
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I think it's important to have a decent set of features, but it's more
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important that your interface looks good (but not flashy) and that your
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program is easy to use, without having to read the manual.
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Comments
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If you think I'm right or wrong or missing something or overlooking
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something, please leave a comment.
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