Three weeks ago we released our first beta of OpenLP 2.0, and as usage of OpenLP becomes more widespread we have decided that it is a good time to make some changes to the way we provide support.

Up until now we have only provided support in English due to most of the project team being English. In light of this, we have created some new forums for support in German, Spanish and French. We'd also like to offer e-mail support in these languages.

We consider this an experiment - if the community is able to provide support then the forums will stay open. So, if English is not your native language, please consider helping us and volunteer by leaving a comment below (or speak another language).

Cheers, Andreas

PS: This doesn't mean we're not looking for English folks to help with support, documentation, web site maintenance and other roles within the project.

Hello folks,

We are happy to announce the release of our first beta aka Maverick Micah. We have put a lot of effort into this release, squashing bugs, adding new features, and enhancing existing features, to make this the best release yet.

We're really excited about this release, because it marks the changeover from version 1.2 to version 2.0. You see, from now on, we will only really be supporting version 2. It is much less work to support version 2.0, and we feel that version 2.0 is at a point now where it can go into mainstream use. We will still support version 1.2, but there won't be any more bug fixing or releases of that version.

If you have not used OpenLP before, we recommend you use this new beta release, rather than version 1.2.

A number of people have already been using the alpha versions in their church services, and have been extremely happy with the stability of those releases. While we can't guarantee 100% stability, we feel that OpenLP 2.0 is stable enough to be used in your church services.

Some of the new features and improvements:

• A First Time Wizard which will help you to do the basic configuration and allows you to import sample songs, Bibles and themes.

• Additional song imports: EasiSlides, Folipresenter, SongShow Plus

• In addition we added OpenLyrics import and export support, which allows you to easily transfer songs between different OpenLP installations. OpenLyrics is an independent standard, built to facilitate interoperability between various presentation applications.

• The ability to print Service Order Sheets (File → Print Service Order)

• Define your own Display Tags to format slides individually

• Better media support

• A reference manual (very much a work in progress though!)

Other improvements and bug fixes:

• An improved song search

• General usability improvements

• New search box for Bibles (just like the new search box for songs in the previous release)

• A revamped web interface

• Many bugfixes

Important note: Service files created in a previous release of OpenLP are not compatible with OpenLP 1.9.5

Finally, the downloads links:

• Windows (XP and up, 32 and 64 bit)

• Mac OS X (10.5 and up)

• Linux

  • Ubuntu/Kubuntu/XUbuntu (Release PPA)

  • Fedora (Updates)

  • Arch (Arch User Repositories)

See the download page for more distributions and operating systems.

Don't forget to Like the OpenLP page on Facebook, retweet OpenLP's tweets, and tell everyone you know about OpenLP!

If you have any problems setting up or using OpenLP, please read the new manual as well as the Frequently Asked Questions.

1"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4And you know the way to where I am going." 5Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 6Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him."

8Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us." 9Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.

12"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.

15"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

18"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." 22Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" 23Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

25"These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I will come to you.' If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

John 14 (English Standard Version)

In v1 of openlp.org, there is the option to enable keyboard shortcuts. However these hotkeys require you to press 3 keys at once, and as such are not very easy to use.

In v2 we've improved the situation. You can now for example use the left and right keys to go the previous/next item in the order of service, and Esc to hide the display. We also plan in the future to add shortcuts to allow the user to skip straight to a verse or chorus and the ability to customize the shortcuts.

However one shortcut we haven't yet implemented is blank screen, and we're trying to figure out what key to use as the default. The obvious is "B", but we want to reserve that in the future for "Bridge"...

I've looked at other software, and discovered that there doesn't seem to be any standard for this. V1 uses Ctrl+Alt+B, SongPro uses Z. OpenSong uses K. Mediashout uses F6. Easyworship uses Ctrl+B, Words of Worship uses ESC.

My assumtion so far is that "T" will blank to theme. I'm wondering whether to change hide the screen to be "H" instead of ESC, which would affect single screen users the most. Then we could use ESC for blank. Another option would be "E" for say empty.

So the question is, what key would you prefer or what other suggestions do you have? We'd prefer to stick to single keys rather than combinations and reserve any verse tags.

For the next release due at the end of the month a "First Time Wizard" has been developed to help set up a new environment.

This will allow a user to:

• Choose which plugins they want activated

• Download Songs, Bibles and Themes from the web

• Set up the Initial display screen and the default theme.

As a number of users already have a working setup they will still need to run this wizard.  In most cases this will allow them to add additional bibles and themes BUT it may change their plugin settings and if they choose to download the songs it *will overwrite their current songs database*.

The default option is not to download any Songs, Bibles or Themes.

This Wizard has be added to the code base.

OpenLP is getting closer and closer to the release of version 2.0. As we draw nearer to that date more and more of you are testing it out and that is great. Testing helps the developers fix both problems large and small before the final release. There are, however, a few things we as testers can do to help the process along.

The preferred place to report bugs is through email to: bugs at openlp.org.

Here are some thing that need to be included to speed the process up:

• First please read the Frequently Asked Questions.

• What Operating System you are using: Windows, Mac, Linux (please include the distro also) OpenLP is crossplatform so this is very important.

• Please include what build of OpenLP you are using, such as the relases: Alpha 3, Alpha 4, etc. Or you may possibly be using a build other than a release, you can find this info from Help -> About OpenLP. An example of a build number is: 1.9.4-bzr1264 where 1264 is the build number.

• Please also include how you got the release of OpenLP if you downloaded a release, a nightly build, from your Linux distro's package manager, or from bzr.

• If something such as a file import fails, please attach that file.

• If something looks wrong, missing, out of place, or something that is hard to describe, please include a screenshot. Many times a picture truly is worth a thousand words.

• Write in detail every step involved to make the occurrence happen. Please write this in a very clear way so that someone can know nothing about the issue and follow step by step how to replicate the bug.

• After writing the detailed explanation of how to produce the bug, follow that explanation before sending and make sure you can replicate the results.

• Pleas also include the debug file, you can find info on how to do that in the Frequently Asked Questions.

Please also be courteous in your correspondence. Remember that all the developers are volunteers. They are donating their time and using their skills as programmers not just to make a living but also as a ministry. Since this is a part time endeavour for them please exercise patience.

All the testing is very much appreciated, we are just trying to get the info to the developers in a way that will help them do the most with their time as they fix problems, and add new features. OpenLP 2.0 is set to be a fantastic release and that is due to the efforts of a wonderful community that is developing, testing, and using OpenLP.

Hi All

The new correction release on the 1.2.x line is available. The main changes are:

• Fix for OOS changes not being saved in certain circumstances

• Fix for Message dialog sometimes opening on the wrong monitor

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR WINDOWS USERS

Please note, if you're using Windows, you need to uninstall the previous version of OpenLP. We upgraded some of the components used in OpenLP and there seems to be a conflict on Windows, as reported by some users.

Yes folks, we've done it again! Here is another pre-release release of OpenLP 2.0. We're very excited to bring you OpenLP 1.9.4 Alpha 4, codename "Jumping Jonah".

PLEASE REMEMBER TO READ THE FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS BEFORE USING AN ALPHA RELEASE

Some of the new features in this release are...

• New search box for songs

• Song re-indexing tool

• SongBeamer import

• Importing songs from the service file

• openlp.org 1.x Bibles added to Bible import wizard

• An additional web download Bible source

• Auto-completion of Bible book names in the Quick Search

• Brand new theme wizard

• Resizing of preview panes as per openlp.org 1.x

• A new shortcuts dialog, though it is not yet functional

• Bug report dialog now hooks into your e-mail client

PLEASE RUN THE NEW SEARCH RE-INDEX TOOL AFTER UPGRADING

Not only do we have all these new features, but a couple of our testers have started writing a reference manual for OpenLP 2, which can be seen on our new manual site. They are continuously working on it, and as they update it we update the new manual site with their latest work.

We also tried to put a lot of polish into this release, cleaning up bugs, making OpenLP work better behind the scenes, tweaking the GUI, etc. Our list of open bugs has grown since Alpha 3, but then so has our list of fixed bugs.

As part of the "polish" exercise, our Mac OS X packager has done a lot of work to fix up the errors in the OS X build. If you're an OS X user, please check our list of bugs, and let us know if you are experiencing any of them.

Head on over to the download page to get it now!

Here's a list of bugs fixed in Alpha 4:

• 684901: Editing solid theme

• 684905: Saving a theme name

• 688647: Bible Import code requires SQLITE package to be avaliable

• 691952: To create a songs fails

• 694148: importing theme produces errors

• 598356: Slide Controller preview screen does not resize when screen size changes.

• 643506: Updating song in media manager doesn't update song in service manager

• 651076: Preview/Live issues with saved Song/Bible/Custom items loaded into Service Manager

• 652380: OpenLP1.x database fails to import in 1.9.3 with character issues

• 656177: saved ppt file to order of service

• 660448: Activating a presentation while "blank" causes presentation to go live

• 661965: Preview/Going Live of video fails in build 1093

• 685331: Service Manager fails after 1 instance

• 686103: Labels in theme wizard out of alignment on Windows

• 690335: The slides of a customs item cannot be reduced to one

• 696979: Open Service dialog shows no files

• 697271: Songs maintain the list of songs topics authors

• 594909: Editing theme name creates a theme

• 599146: Theme changes not getting saved

• 647931: OSIS Bible importer imports "1Sam.x.yy" as "1 Samual" (misspelling)

• 649999: Extra line is being added to end of Verses and Choruses

• 655102: CCLI song importer brings in some text not needed

• 657465: Media Types and File Types detection not complete

• 657712: image slides slow to open or mixed up

• 668630: Error when previewing a media file in the media manager

• 686126: OpenLP 2 song import crashes with "alternate_title" attribute error.

• 692684: Theme Wizard not updating

• 693694: Web interface does not always send all necessary data

• 696313: "Open Last Service" incorrectly opens the most recent service

• 598393: After adding a new image to a selected (image) item in the service manager it is not selected anymore

• 626070: GStreamer backend for Phonon has issues

• 636835: songs.sqlite will not be downsized when deleting songs

• 641661: Web Bible Import doesn't handle network problems

• 693150: Custom Slide Display footer option

• 697405: Theme editor looses settings

• 656958: 'Blank to Theme' is not working for image backgrounds

• 661867: Invalid author added in song dialog

• 667837: Revision 1102 broke themes

• 668789: Bible wont display any verses when clicking search

• 674023: When adding media to the media plugin the file window does not show all supported video/audio file types.

• 693202: delete theme

• 696362: Songbook number left from previously opened song edit dialog

Here is the latest installment of the 1.2.x line sporting the following corrections:

• Correction for loading of OOS where the name of a song in the OOS existed multiple times in the song DB

• Correction for corruption of OOS when no theme selected for storing in the OOS

• Correction for handling of embedded items in a PowerPoint slide in Office 2007 and above

Enjoy :)

From all of us OpenLP folks, we would like to wish everyone a blessed Christmas. We pray that your day is (or has been) filled with joy, happiness, and reflection on His birth and His message. Let's not get carried away by the presents and the food and the celebrations, but take time to think about the "reason for the season".

About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David's town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant.

While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel.

There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God's angel stood among them and God's glory blazed around them. They were terrified. The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you're to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."

At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God's praises:

Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.

As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. "Let's get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us." They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger. Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child. All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.

Mary kept all these things to herself, holding them dear, deep within herself. The sheepherders returned and let loose, glorifying and praising God for everything they had heard and seen. It turned out exactly the way they'd been told!

Luke 1:1-20 (The Message)

We have decided to delay the release of OpenLP 1.9.4 (aka 2.0 Alpha 4) for two weeks, till the 9th of January. Due to some unforseen technical difficulties (namely my Internet connection at home giving up the ghost), we have been unable to fully prepare for the release.

By delaying the release for 2 weeks, we hope to give the translators a chance to get their translations up to speed, and give the testers and developers a chance to iron out most of the remaining bugs. This will hopefully ensure that we have a well-rounded release.