Setting permanent fonts and Backgrounds for individual songs

[BrianSc]

As per Christians suggestion, I would like to add this to the wish list. I would like to have the facility to keep different settings for individual songs. When setting up song lists for a sunday service, I usually do this at home and then uploaded via usb flash before the service. This allows me more time to individually play with font styles and sizes Having found a good mix that displays well with the songs for that day, it would be neat to just save them as they are for use on another day. but, as we know, once you close for the day, everything reverts to whatever your default setting is, so next time, you have to do it all over again. the same with backgrounds, it would be great to be able to set different backgrounds for different songs and really pep up your overhead ministry instead of having the same single colour or single photo etc.
What do you say guys, can this be done.
Brian.

[Christian]

Thanks Brian - everybody else please share you views, and please vote in the poll that William set up:

'Save customised background, font, colour etc. to database'

[zer0burn316]

in my dealings with church youth missions and small band uses i deal with several people with several different scopes of music. the default should in my opinion be a solid color such as black (what I use). then that be the universal default, when you in the youh just click the youthy background when in church click the church back ground and so forth, but when in clubs for bands ministering like a few local bands who take praise and worship on an alternative scale chose an outragious background. but on the otherhand if all you use your zionworx software for is one setting sure that would be a good feature to have, but for me traveling and all it just would not benifit me at all cause of the vast various people groups i minister too

PS. another reason i use black is to match the screen but also being able to click the backgrounds instread of a default, i like this. i have 4 backgrounds the same, but different colors and in a concert setting for a local band using a popular praise song, i was able to click background after background and it looked like an animated background or something gave a cool effect for the club/alternative kids scene.

[nathbeadle]

I have to say that this feature should be at the top of the implementation list. I lead worship at my church, but am also the worship team leader that goes around the country.

I use songs repeatedly...and it would definately be nice to save fonts/backgrounds to a song so this way I can just pull up songs and go at it instead of having to spend time re-tagging them with fonts and images.

[zer0burn316]

true, but like i said it is just something i feel is useless to me, but if it is a feature most other people can use them then cool, but for me and my ministry it just seems like something i would not use. blessings and peace

[Christian]

Mmmm... I suppose this feature would really need to be optional then to prevent it becoming annoying for people like Daymond who like to use a simple global default style as a starting point.

The trouble I can foresee is that style information might only be useful on one PC (and maybe only for one operator). If you gave your database to someone else or imported song information from someone else's database, then the data could create annoyance. For example you might be running at a different screen resolution (hence font sizes look different), you might not have the background images installed that are referenced in the database etc. In those situations it could become annoying to load a song and the style looks bad...instead of loading a song and seeing something plain but useable.

This brings up another point - if the saved style information is important to you i.e. you've invested time in getting it 'just right', then you'd probably want some way of marking that song to say that it's been specially 'styled'. But if there are a number of people helping out on your 'video desk' at church then I can foresee problems because some operators (myself included) get very fussy about the style and don't always agree what looks best! For example one week you could spend ages getting "Amazing Grace" looking superb, then the next week another person loads it up and decides that the bright green outline text you chose just doesn't do it justice, so they change it. The week after you load the song again (expecting it to be perfect) and somebody's ruined it!

N.B. I'm not trying to be negative, just trying to prompt some more thought and discussion about what this feature really IS and how we can make it really useful rather than annoying - it needs to be flexible enough to work for everybody!

[Malc]

My first thought on the 'individual settings per song' were originally in respect of background images- but I take the point that it could become mundane always seeing that same trickling stream or beautiful sunset behind 'How great Thou art'.
The real danger is we end up distracting people - they look at the trickling stream/sunrise and not the song. We end up sings and not worshipping.
But purely on a practical basis...do you remember those worship meetings where we had to scrap around with acetates? You know, those funny A4 sheets of clear film.
The (one) good thing about those sheets was that it was possible to adjust the font size so that longer hymns, shorter choruses all (mostly) fitted on one sheet. (assuming you printed your own)
It would be good to just adjust the font size in ZW for the longer songs so that more songs fitted onto one slide.
Keep it simple. I'm not sure I'd personally make use of different fonts per song - but the option to change size would be good.

[zer0burn316]

Features like this are good but for some and others kinda weird or in my case useless but there if i ever would need it. i al cool with everyone and their opinions and do not disagree, just think we all have different views on how we use zionworx for ministry, see i may use zionworx in the club or alternative worship seen which needs on the fly changes like backgrounds and all, but for the one in church who use the same background every week, that is cool. my opinion is to vary your backgrounds every month or something to keep te congregation from becoming shall i say bored with the worship, GIVE THEM VARIETY. i say that from a experience i have in my church. but anyways peace and blessings to all

[nathbeadle]

Me again!!

Some interesting points being discussed here...good stuff everyone!! I agree in the respect that it's good to change the backgrounds for the congregation to prevent boredom, something no one wants at church. I'm just coming from a different aspect of the use of this program...I'm using this for massive youth events that happen at a whole bunch of different locations...so the crowds are never the same.

I'm wondering if the style you apply to a song could be saved in a seperate file so that the actual database isn't changed at all. THis way is you chose a song you can turn on a style function and it will search for the song and then read the style that's been saved in the seperate file. This way the database isn't changed, and also this file can be shared to others to use with their songs.

Not sure exactly how to implement, but it's my thoughts and that is what this is all about!!

[Williamting]

After you have done all the formating, picture/text alignment, text size, colour, etc, save the service list (File->Save). The system will prompt you for a name, say, youthday1.

Exit Zionworx and navigate (using file explorer) to the Zionworx directory (c:\program files\Zionworx). You should find the following file:

Setting.ini
Margins.ini

In the \Zionworx\Services\ folder, you will find youthday1.bin.

All you need to do is copy the above three files into their respective directories on other PCs and you should get what you want, and the setting of Zionworx will also be identical.

Setting.ini - Preferences, etc saved in this file
Margins.ini - Default margin setting for the background pictures
youthday1.bin (*.bin) - format information for all selected songs.

Ensure that all the pictures in ALL the PCs must also be the same. Otherwise be ready for abnormal behaviour of Zionworx.

God bless and have fun!

[zer0burn316]

Hey guys you know i never really shared my opinions and ideas like this and love to hear what others are doing and all. it all goes to show we all have creativity and annointing in the area God has given us. i really like hearing you guys opinions and abilities, i have learned alot since being in the forum, Blessings and peace from the Lord Most High.

by the way i just sent the website to a young couple who are now missionaries to China and they emailed me and said zionworx helps out great in the underground church of china. and they send their greetings to the staff and creators of zionworx. infact this section i shared with them and they said you guys tips and tricks are greatly helping them learn the program.

[AliBy]

Time is often vital when we want to be sponteneous! If you can save a background to a song it releases you to make specific changes rather than having to redo and find sutable backgrounds for each song.