GUIDE TO “SING AND READ” 1.6 & 2.2
This is a guide to the basic features of using this program "Sing And Read".

Every screen that appears requires a selection to be made, and may also require some input from the keyboard.  The whole of "Sing And Read" has been designed so that it can be operated by the keys alone, or by a pointer and keys.  Almost any button on the screen can be clicked by pressing the key on the keyboard that appears underlined on the button.  More basic details may be found in the other Guide, available by clicking the button below.

SCREEN SIZE
Please note that this program is designed for display in VGA or SVGA format.  These may be converted to a video signal if required, using suitable hardware.
VGA is a sufficient quality for text display and, at least until recently, VGA projection devices were much cheaper and more common than SVGA ones.
In the standard single monitor version, all the screens are designed to use all the available screen space, if possible.  When using SVGA, when a screen cannot fill the screen it will appear centralised.
In the deluxe dual monitor version, screens often appear as windows.

BEFORE STARTING A MEETING
This program has been designed to be used at meetings.  The expected plan of action is that the program is started before a meeting begins.

The first Introductory screen is for logging details of the operator and the location, and for obtaining agreement to the basic copyright principles.  In order to go any further, the program's operator agrees to these principles, which apply to display of song texts and of Bible texts.  Further details about copyright issues may be obtained from publishers, or (relating general matters) from this program's author.  Every user has to agree to these terms on the first occasion that they use the program.

Whenever an operator continues beyond this initial screen, their details are logged in a permanent file and are included in the report, which is produced for copyright purposes, probably annually.  This is an extra facility which is made available to a church or group as part of the total software package, when "Sing And Read" is registered with the author.

During evaluation, an extra prompt appears asking whether the program has now been registered and if so, what is the name of the church or group.  Once entered, this name will appear as the registered user and this query will not reappear.

The second screen reminds the user about the essential issues involved with the use of copyright songs and scriptures, etcetera.  There follows an instruction advising that nothing more should be done until the main welcome menu appears.  The screen then shows the Online Bible loading (more information about this below).

The third screen is the main welcome menu for “Sing And Read”.  The options available relate to 

•	the expected display sequence for the day,
•	the general setup of the program (including loading fresh songs into the list of those available for display),
•	the actual display.

SETUP
There are various utilities that may be used to load in fresh songs texts, format song texts, format the menu screens, etc. These are described below.  Most of the info relating to the initial setup procedure is included in the Readme file that comes with the program.

The most likely utility to be used at the start of a meeting is that for "New Songs".  This will read song texts from a floppy disc, or from anywhere on the PC, and reformat them into the basic structure needed for a smooth display.  This includes simple verse numbering and a large space between verses and choruses, so that only one unit appears on screen at once.  The formatted song files are automatically stored in the "Sing And Read" Songs folder.  Each file is named as the first line of the song, without any commas etc. which could confuse alphabetic ordering.

Please note that I have found through experience that no users should be allowed to type up songs directly into the format used by "Sing And Read", and to enter these song files directly into the "Sing And Read" Songs folder.  This often leads to slight errors in formatting, which can make the display look silly!  The utility provided does the job well and is very fast to operate.  You must insist that all new songs are in the simple TXT format.

I also suggest that you warn those providing these new songs not to try and “cheat” by renaming files so as to make them appear to be TXT format.  "Sing And Read" will not be fooled and will reject such files!  It really does want the simple TXT format, which can be achieved by re-saving any other text format from your usual word processor.  This is not difficult, but must be adhered to!

SEQUENCE
The expected sequence of songs for the day should be set up before the meeting begins.  Once selected, this sequence will be remembered until it is cleared out or replaced, even if the program is switched off.  So it can be set up on one day for use the following day.  The group of songs may be reformatted to a different font size (or style) by use of the reformatting utility option.  The original format may be restored after the meeting, as part of the closing down process.  The program detects whether files have been reformatted and asks the operator whether to revert to the original format, or to store the new one.

BIBLE SETUP
Passages from the Bible may be displayed by an automatic link from "Sing And Read" to the "Online Bible" (OLB).  This is published by Larry Pierce and is available separately.  More details are included in the Readme file that comes with this program.  See the following web site for full info and FREE downloads: www.onlinebible.net.

If the Bible is to be displayed, then the OLB MUST be set up (but does not need to be started) before "Sing And Read" is started.  If the OLB is set up to run from its CD, then this MUST be inserted in the PC before "Sing And Read" is started.  Since this can easily be overlooked (!), this is a good reason for setting up the OLB to run from the hard drive in the PC, if you have enough space there to store all the translations of the Bible which you are likely to need.  This whole setting up procedure is described in the OLB.  Once done, it should not need to be repeated, unless it gets disturbed by, perhaps, the OLB being started without its CD in position!  (This will become clear through experience! … It is not really a problem)

Part of the automatic OLB setup should be installation of the special OLB Desktop file included in the "Sing And Read" package, named church.usr.

THESE ARE THE VITAL SECTIONS !!!

DISPLAY DURING A MEETING
From almost any point in the "Sing And Read" program, the display may be changed to another song, to the Bible, to a text, or to the "Wait" screen.  The song or text to be displayed may be the next in the sequence, the previous in the sequence, any one of the sequence, or any other song or text stored in the "songs" or “texts” folders in the computer's hard drive.  These folders are subfolders of the area where the main "Sing And Read" program is held, and will have been set up as part of the initial installation.  Details follow.

SONG OR TEXT SELECTION
There is one screen dedicated to building a sequence of songs for the current meeting, and another for building a sequence of texts.  These are hopefully self-explanatory.  (If you find them at all confusing, then please tell the author, who will try to simplify them!)

In the standard single monitor version, while displaying any song, or the Wait screen, you can go directly to the next or previous song in the sequence by clicking one button or pressing one key.  If you are not sure which song is the next or the previous, then you can display it’s first line in the bar at the top of the screen, by moving the PCs pointer (with the mouse) over the “Next” or “Previous” buttons at the bottom of the screen.  You can also jump directly to any song in the sequence, for the first to the sixteenth songs, by pressing the function F key for that number (if it exists on your keyboard).  For example, pressing the function key F5 (not the keys F and 5) will take you to the fifth song in the sequence.

All these options are even easier and quicker in the deluxe dual monitor version, where the first lines of all the songs and texts in their sequences are displayed, along with those of the verses and the chorus of the current song.

You may move around the texts in their sequence in a similar way.  In the standard single monitor version, the same function F keys will take you to a text when pressed while the text screen is displayed, but will take you to a song while the Wait screen is displayed.  In the deluxe dual monitor version, all the options are available all of the time, so a text file included in the texts sequence is displayed by holding down the Ctrl key while pressing a function F key.

If you need to go quickly to a song that was not in your original sequence, then one button or key will display the selection menu.  In the standard single monitor version, this will appear briefly on the screen (and on the large screen!).  For this reason it would be best if the large screen could be switched off, frozen or switched to another source, perhaps a video camera, when required.  One of these options is usually simple to arrange.  However, the menu appears only briefly and would not be a great problem, unless you use an older slower PC and have a collection of several hundred songs, when there can be a slight delay.  In the deluxe dual monitor version, the appearance of the menu on the display screen is not an issue, since the menu appears only on the Controls screen.
 
The quickest way to select the unplanned song from this menu is to begin to type its first line.  The menu begins by showing a list of all the first lines, which will probably go off the bottom of the screen.  This list is immediately reduced as you enter text, reducing the choice to those beginning with what you have typed.  This can be very quick, even with a large collection of songs.  Once the required song is in the visible menu list, it may be selected by using the pointer and / or scrolling and the Enter key.

NB  The song names do not include commas or similar punctuation which might confuse a search.  So you should exclude such punctuation when entering the first line to find the song.  This should make life easier!

This facility is probably the most resource hungry in this system!  Once your song collection exceeds a couple of hundred, then sorting and searching the list can make a visible delay for a slower PC, e.g. a 486 (which came before Pentiums).  Please try to be patient at this point, or get a faster PC!  As an encouragement, I found that it is not a significant problem with 1700 songs and a 486 DX4 100 PC.

NEW with 1.6.6…
Every time you select a song as above, it will be automatically added to your original sequence, so that you can jump back to it again later in your meeting, using a function key.

MOVING AROUND THE SONG TEXT
In the standard version of "Sing And Read", the current position and the structure of the song are continuously displayed in the bar at the top of a song.  For example: “chorus – next verse is 2 of 3 and chorus”.  In the Dual Monitor version this appears at the top of the Controls screen.

Once a song text is on display, you can move to the next part, next verse, next chorus, to the bridge or to any particular verse, by clicking one button or pressing the underlined key for the button, or by pressing the key for the verse number.

Most of the time, the simplest way to proceed will be to press the space bar, which will display the next part, whether it be the next page of words, the next verse or a chorus (if any).

You can scroll up or down a verse, chorus or text using the Page Up and Down keys on the keyboard.  Use of the arrow keys would make the display jump in a way that is hard for the congregation to follow while singing.  They should be comfortable to know that every time the screen changes, they should look to the top for the next words.  To enforce this method, the arrow keys are automatically disabled during a song display, although this restriction may be removed using the Options utility.  This utility can also add this restriction to text file displays, if wanted.

At the end of the song it is probably best to either stop, or to continue to press the space bar.  If the space bar is used, then the first verse will be displayed again.  In the standard single monitor version, if the buttons bar is visible, then a small message appears in the bottom right corner of the buttons bar - and in the corner of the large screen! - to say that the next verse (after the final verse!) could not be found.  In the deluxe dual monitor version, this small message appears in a space at the centre of the Controls monitor.

A bridge is a part of a song that is neither a verse nor a chorus, but is used to connect other parts or to be the final part.  If a song has a bridge, then this must be displayed by a specific instruction, via the bridge button or the R key.  After a bridge, pressing the space bar will always take you back to the first verse.

TIMING OF SCREEN MOVEMENTS
After many years of experience, I have found that it is vital to get the timing right!

Those singing the words need to see them before they have to sing them.  It is not good enough to jump to the next line of song words just as the musicians hit the first note for that line.  This is usually easy to achieve when changing from one verse to the next, but takes care when scrolling down a long verse using the Space Bar or Page Down.

The secret is to change the screen to display the next line as soon as people are singing the last one or two words of the current screen.  Even the younger operators can achieve this, providing they are concentrating and following the song words on the screen!

When the singer is performing solo, then it is especially important to get the words on the screen before they are to be sung.

SCREEN SIZE AND FONT SIZE
One of the great advantages of “Sing And Read” over transparencies is that the font size may be increased to aid visibility, depending on the sizes of the room and the screen.  This is done using one of the utilities provided.

When the font size exceeds 36 points or thereabouts, most song lines have to fold over onto the next line of the display.  For very large font sizes, the display is reduced to only a couple of lines of the song, which then needs the Page Down key to be pressed frequently.  Even so, this can be useful.  I have used this in a large room when the only screen available was a small TV.  Even this can be very successful, but needs the operator to be very alert, so that he keeps the words in time with the music.

BIBLE SELECTION
There are two aspects to this, the translation (or version) and the passage.

The version should be selected before the meeting begins.  This can be any of those stored in the PC, if running from the hard drive, or any of the many translations and languages held in the OLB CD.  The font used can simply be changed by use of an OLB utility.  The version can be changed during a meeting, using the right mouse button.  This then applies only to the passage being displayed.

Once "Sing And Read" is running, the Bible may be accessed many times from a variety of screens.  Every time that the Bible is accessed, you are immediately asked for the verse to be displayed.  This is usually entered as a code, e.g. Joh 3 16, which is explained in the OLB documentation, or the full name of a book can be used.  Usually the first 3 characters of the name of the book will suffice, but if you enter an incorrect code, an error message will appear.

To display a further passage, when already displaying one, you can use the OLB keys, which are F2 or Ctrl-F1 depending on which version you have, or you can click on the "Sing And Read" Bible button.

It is possible to display a text before the preacher has read the first line of it.
This has proved to be an extremely popular feature with preachers and listeners.  It enables the preacher to refer to many more scriptures without fear of the people feeling that they have been left behind, turning the pages of their Bibles.

When the selected Bible verse is displayed, so are the following verses.  The display can then be scrolled by use of Page Down, or the arrow keys.  Usually Page Down is the easiest method of scrolling for a congregation to follow.  Every press of the down arrow moves the display down one line or verse, depending on the version of the OLB.  In the latest version, the down and up arrows move down or up 1 line, the right arrow moves down 1 verse and the left arrow moves up 1 verse.  At the end of a chapter, there is a gap in the displayed text.  If you then scroll to the last verse and continue to scroll, the next chapter will appear.  The OLB has a variety of options and many facilities that do not need to be described here.  See the excellent Help facility within the OLB.

Once the required Bible passage has been displayed, the program can be returned to the previous screens.  In the standard single monitor version, simply click on the Go Back bar below the OLB window.  In the deluxe dual monitor version, just click somewhere on the Control “desk” on the Controls monitor.

COPYRIGHT
Please note that every text of a song or scripture that is displayed at a meeting requires the organisers to have the appropriate copyright.

With regard to songs, this is fully covered by CCLI arrangements, which specifically include this function.  It is the responsibility of the church or other organiser to ensure that they have a current license that covers this function.

With regard to scripture, the position is less clear, partly because this seems to be the first software that has enabled this function to become practical.  As the author of this program, I personally feel that it is reasonable for a church to consider displaying a Bible text as another way of reading it out aloud.  Since the reading of the Bible does not require a license, I feel that purchase of the Bible in book form and in software form may prove to be sufficient payment.  But this is not necessarily the formal legal position in any particular country.  It remains the responsibility of a church to decide what to do in their meetings.

NOTICES AND NETMEETING™
For convenience during meetings, there are quick links from “Sing And Read” to programs that can display notices, and to Microsoft NetMeeting™.  The locations of these programs on the computer’s hard drive must be setup using the “Sing And Read” utility called Set File Locations, accessed from the main welcome screen.  This utility can also be used to reset the location of the Online Bible.

The notices program may be any program preferred by the operator, for example Microsoft PowerPoint™ or Lotus Freelance Graphics™.  The notices to be displayed can be setup in advance and/or loaded into the program at the start of a meeting.

NetMeeting™ enables “broadcasting” of a meeting.  The program is freely available from the Microsoft website and is included with Windows 98™ and later versions.  If this is to be used in a meeting, then it must be started BEFORE “Sing And Read” is started.  At the moment, it is only possible to use it in the one-to-one mode, so that only one person can tune in to your meeting at any time.  If you use the video facility in NetMeeting™ then you must be careful not to overload your computer.  You can slow it right down!  The ideal would perhaps be to have a separate (very fast) PC running NetMeeting™, with input from “Sing And Read”.

Author's note:
I hope that you find this program to be a practical tool that will make the admin and execution of meetings a little more simple, smooth and flexible, and so permit churches to give more attention to our main task of giving worship to God.

Peter Morgan
Email peter at melted dot com
Website http://www.singandread.com