Zionworx

And the licence allows the installation of the software on up to three machines for one purchase - it is not like most other application licences from Microsoft. As it says on the tin, the licence is designed for the Home.

Yes I actually bought that version myself when it came out.
For some reason I just find Office 2007 to be really slow though..?
I ended up going back Office 2003 because Word at least starts up in a few seconds rather than 30 seconds!

Also, I'm not a big fan of the 'ribbon bar' thing?
That said, would any of you like to see the new 'ribbon bar' type of user interface in a future version of ZionWorx?

Christian.

Personally I like the current ZionWorx interface - it does what I need it to in a logical manner. I also prefer Office 2003 to 2007 because I know where everything is!

The benefit of the "ribbon" interface, which is currently planned to be in all built in apps in Windows 7 too, is that is is dynamic to your current task. Rather than needing to view the Tables toolbar in Office 2003, in Office 2007 when you are inside a table the table ribbon is available. This means that everything the product does is exposed via the ribbon - not as in 2003 and earlier, where the most common stuff only is shown.

So for ZW, which does not have that many functions, the ribbon does not add any benefit. Maybe if video overlay was added to the product or something else extra you might find a lack of standard toolbar space. But having said that, there are features of ZW that are not on the toolbars and might benefit from being located on it - and so a ribbon style bar (which is larger too, so better for the current style of bigger monitors) would benefit. If you are currently showing PPT then the ribbon shows standard + ppt stuff, if you are showing/editing bible text then the ribbon does not show PPT, but instead shows standard+bible etc.

I am surprised to see from the poll that there is no mention of the idea for logging songs used to allow completion of the CCL license info. My wife seems to spend an inordinate amount of time doing this. I am missing something? I thought it would be a great use of technology to save time.

The CCLI stuff could be done quite easily. CCLI require an email containing the song's projected/printed etc. in a given licence year. The format of the email I do not have to hand, but it would require each song in Zionworx having an extra column in the database and then when it is shown on the screen is recorded in an additional table. Once a year a reminder generated and the email sent.

The latest CCLI software also does a HTTP upload instead of an email - a network protocol analyser would generate the format of that (unless they use HTTPS for the upload).

I think that useablity continues to be paramount - so that all content be it video, powerpoint, song or whatever is accessed in the same way - for example F3 / F4 to move through the "playlist" (and end the previous playlist item that was on display) and "spacebar" to move through pages / slides in content - or for videos to pause / play.

Adding video support is in fact mostly a useability issue - my users do not cope well with using a seperate application to Zionworx to display videos. I have had to resort to using Powerpoint and VBA macros within them to allow users to have a seamless ability to display videos as part of the Zionworx playlist. My solution is not ideal, sometimes things can go wrong such as Zionworx losing focus, or not freeing up the screen used for Powerpoint. A proper integration of all this would make the use of multimedia and song display in church much easier, seamless and professional looking.

These days there are many small churches that may use Zionworx. Like my church they may have to get inexpereienced users to control Zionworx during church services. Its important therefore that Zionworx and associated multimedia presentation is easy for a complete beginner to use. I don't mind additional optional complexity when setting up services, but it needs to be easy to use during the church service.

Subject to useability during a church service, here are the features important for my church, in order of priority:

1) Improved song formatting options - ability to have lines within a song formatted differently from other lines

2) Integration with CCLI so reports of songs used can be easily generated

3) Ability to display videos and play audio (a) as a separate item in the playlist (b) as a background to songs. Possibly all via the VideoLan activex control. Should include an option for the video or audio to loop or end normally. Either loading or displaying another playlist item should normally end the video / audio automatically, although it would be nice to have an option for the video or audio to continue across more than one song in the playlist.

4) Ability to obtain and use an offline version of NIV bible, so that bible readings can be called up and displayed during church. In most cases we set these up in advance, using the Online resource, but offline is occasionally needed.

5) The ability for choruses and verses to be separately tagged allowing the ability to easily locate and jump back to the previous verse.


In addition, but much less important ...

6) Look at formatting of bible verses so they display as well as possible without editing, avoiding orphaned lines, verses split across screens.

7) Integration with CCLI SongSelect so that lyrics can be downloaded

8 ) ability to categorise and search for songs by key, keywords etc or user definable searchable fields

9) I automate zionworx so it works with a remote control using a program called Girder. The ability to select and activate windows and options within ZIonworx either by use of shortcut keys and / or by the individual panes / window titles being accessible to programs like Girder (which uses LUA), or some sort of API, or VBA interface would be helpful to enable such automation to work reliabily and simply for users. Probably not many would benefit from this, so might not be worth much effort. I can provide more specifics if needed.

LexLuthor wrote:I really ask you to reconsider your priorities regarding all this fancy video/dvd support.
There is plenty free movieplayer software out there and frankly I can't remember the last time I watched a DVD in church.
Zionworx 3.0 is overdue so you should not overreach yourself with adding more and more multimedia features that are barely used.

What's urgently needed is a decent search bar for bible verses, because thats what people need to use in 100% of all church services.
Also before adding video backgrounds it would be much more useful to have at least some basic formatting options for the song texts.

The ability to display videos is used weekly in our church, whereas the need to display bible verses on the fly is only occasional (as they are planned in advance). Whilst I agree that video backgrounds are less important than song formatting (and we would rarely use them solely as backgrounds), the benefit of having the option for video backgrounds is that it effectively enables lyrics or subtitles to be added to videos that otherwise do not include them, with minimum effort. This we would probably use at least once a month.

kck wrote:I don't want to start an argument but those who want to do complicated things with video overlays and the like are more likely to have the expertise and resources to consider buying one of the many commercial packages that are around.

Not so in our church - we have very limited funds and could not afford a commercial package. In addition the simplicity of Zionworx is important as we have few people that would be able to operated anything complex - so a commercial package even if we could afford it would probably be a step in the wrong direction.

Can at least solve one of your requests now.

ZionWorx integrates with OnlineBible - which has a number of translations including NIV. The program itself is free but you will need to pay for the NIV download.
http://www.onlinebible.org/html/eng/bib ... rsion.html

Is there any ETA on V3, and a full feature list of what is intended to be in it?

Unfortunately no. ZionWorx is worked on in available time and with new babies arriving in the team this available time is greatly reduced. Most of what you will have seen in the new feature poll - such as greater formatting features, video support, ccli support is planned but no ETA is possible.

ohh Babies ... congrats!!

Yeah I know the feeling - and wish I wasn't just a web hack so I could offer to help out (then again I'm a mac user so maybe I wouldn't be much help).

Just noticed the poll says about "live video background". While I agree this is useful - in the context of a church sevice they could be somewhat distracting, and I think they would be less useful than the ability to include videos in the playlist to get seamless operation of different types of media content with ease.

apwood wrote:9) I automate zionworx so it works with a remote control using a program called Girder. The ability to select and activate windows and options within ZIonworx either by use of shortcut keys and / or by the individual panes / window titles being accessible to programs like Girder (which uses LUA), or some sort of API, or VBA interface would be helpful to enable such automation to work reliabily and simply for users. Probably not many would benefit from this, so might not be worth much effort. I can provide more specifics if needed.

In the absence a full API or some sort of interface, some of the following would be useful, and perhaps easier:

Command line paramters to open a specified zionworx playlist (xml service list) and launch zionworx if not already running

Command line parameters to control other aspects of zionworx

Command line parameters or other method to query what is the currently running item (name or index) from the Zionworx playlist (xml service list)

Of course, all these sort of things would vastly increase the power of Zionworx, enabling users to add their own features and control options.

I just tried voting for "Other" (but I'm not sure it worked ... suspect I may have voted years ago, but not posted a comment).

While all of the other options on the list are "would be nice"s (esp. Impress integration and more song formatting options), the top of my wish list for Zionworx is user definable keyboard mappings ... and maybe of more functions than are currently key-mapped, esp. those that may require multiple clicks to access. This aids not only (increased) simplicity of use, but also improves flexibility for use with remote control software.

Thanks for reading.

TTFN.,
Graeme

Have just received a new computer and am trying to install 2.6 - I've been using 2.5 up to now. Installation appears to go fine but ... I have many additional backgrounds in my 2.5 version and want to transfer them but can't seem to figure out where to put them. Also (2.6 Upgrade to 2.5 Install) Although I have enabled PowerPoint, it doesn't show up in Zionworx as an option (bottom left) even though the Bible tab has appeared. Any ideas??? I don't see where the services and the PowerPoint files are stored in the way they were under previous versions. I DID manage to import the 148 songs that I had in 2.5 and get them to register. Thanks for any help or pointers!!

In His Grip,

Al