Background Images

[Akora]

How do I use different background images for different songs and save them so that anytime the song is used, the chosen background loads with it. At the moment, I can only apply one background image and that is set as the default for all the songs in the database.
Help needed as I want to use different background images for different titles on our church projection system.

Akora

[Jonathan Hills]

The only way you can do this is to create a style for each of the songs, then apply that style each time. Whether that will save you any time is debatable, as you would have to select the style from the drop down list.
The concept of Zionworx is that you have the base data and that you apply a style depending on the service you have - youth, senior citizen, guest, family, all age. You might use the same song in each but would vary the font/background to suit the audience.

[vetto]

Akora, LOL...I have asked for the same feature. (more important than the bible plugin, for me at least)

Again, here is my argument:
I don't change backgrounds based on the audience...the background sets the mood for the congregation based on the theme/words/mood of the song! Look, my job is to help the congregation get to a mental and spiritual place where the Spirit can minister to them...setting the correct mood/feeling is very important and IS song dependent...not audience dependent.

Additionally, I have a number of songs that have more lines per slide than most...and every time I select these songs I have to reformat the text. This is difficult (or at least clumsy) in the middle of a Spirit-filled worship service where the Leader calls an "audible" from the platform and I have to immediately throw up an unplanned song.

[ChrisClark]

The ability to define a style for a song on an individual basis is planned for the next major version of ZionWorx. To implement this satisfactorily there is a considerable amount of work required including database and screen design.

What we are deciding is whether it is worth making a minor modification in the next intermediate release to allow the user to assign a default style (from the list of saved styles) to a song. If defined this song style will be used as a priority overriding any style selected or default style defined when added to the play list.

The benefit is that it allows you a little more control over a song's default display. However you would need to save a style to be able to apply it to a song, which if you intended a different style for each song would not be practical.

So the question is whether an intermediate modification would be much benefit based on how you intend to use it?

[brainier]

Yes please

[webmaster]

Personnally I don't see any benifit in having a default picture and style for a song as every worship plan in my case in different.

I can see in some cases it may be helpful but the way it is works for us

I do see the ability to have a songs chorus in italics a way forward, however careful planning on how this feature works without making it too comlicated for the user is a must.

I have a policy that software should be designed on the KISS approach(Keep it Simple Stupid) moving to multiple styles and backgrounds per song may tie the use in knots especially if they don't wan a backdrop behind the text for that particular worship time.

So for me we would not use this feature it would be a waste of time, unlike the ability to display Video and live video feeds this is a must.

Regards
Edd

(a personnal view not a zionworx view)

[davepartridge]

I personally like the simplicity of having just a few styles - we only use one, with a plain background and standard font size etc. I find that it makes ZionWorx exceptionally straightforward to use for those in the congregation with much less computing experience.

[ChrisClark]

Interesting thoughts that people have mentioned. It is good to hear that the status quo works for some people however to have the capability to do something in a way that doesn't interfere with how other people use the application shouldn't be too bad.

The only motivation for making this particular modification is to provide extra functionality that some users may appreciate that in itself doesn't take a considerable amount of time to implement (in comparison to some of the other - and I agree more - desirable features). Other changes will require significantly more work to implement in screen and database changes

The present intention is to add another radio button to the save style screen to allow the user an option to 'Save Style as Default for Selected Song'. This will assign the configured style to the selected song in the play list at a database level. The next time the song is added to the play list it will use this configured style as it's default, overriding any selected saved style or application default style. To clear the style the user will have to edit the song and unselect a 'custom style'.

Edd raises a good point about would this be inconvenient for a user if they don't want to use the song's default style - however perhaps this is no more inconvenient then for a user that wants to add a song and not use one of the selected/default styles.

[brainier]

We have about five styles, the only difference between them is slight font size changes to fit slightly longer songs on the screen. So this change will be excellent, as the song will always appear with the correct style and therefore not have line breaks in the default place but where the song actually suits a line break. No more needing to use the Up/Down buttons right at the start of projecting a song to get the breaks in the right place.

[vetto]

I agree with brainier...applying a default style to a song for the purpose of fixing the font size problems is important and VERY beneficial.

Now I and my team are fairly technologically adept and would like to do this without saving the style and then applying it as a default for the song (two steps for each song) but would rather somehow save the font and background in each song without creating dozens of styles, one for each song. How about a default style that each song will inherit from the get go, and then let the user assign a background and font for each song in the song edit dialog?