With over 100 new features, ProPresenter 4 represents a major leap forward for the best selling Worship Presentation Software for the Mac platform. If you’re new to ProPresenter just to cover the basics, it is a lyric and media presentation package geared toward the live worship service. ProPresenter’s intuitive, thumbnail-based approach to display, is very simple for beginners but allows a vast degree of customization that is sure to please the power users as well. The interface for version 4 has been tweaked just a bit to provide some more continuity while maintaining the clean look that ProPresenter’s users have been enjoying for years.

The heart of any display software is its display engine. In ProPresenter 4 the display engine has been completely redesigned to allow more capabilities than ever before. Multiple objects can now be placed on a single slide with precise control of spacing, alignment, and style. Adjustments for kerning, line color, and fill color as well as other parameters make it simple to create a custom look without sacrificing the overall ease of use of the software.

A new feature for ProPresenter 4 is Templates. Templates are a simple way to change the style of any presentation in the library quickly and easily. If you want to use a certain song as lower thirds to go over the top of a live video feed, just create a template with the text constrained to the lower part of the slide. Place a graphic behind the text and apply the template to your presentation. It’s that easy. Changed your mind and want that same song to full screen, just apply your normal full screen template and it’s done.

The Props Layer is another new addition to ProPresenter 4. Props are objects that can be placed on certain slides, multiple slides, or an entire presentation independent of the other layers that are being displayed. For example, does your church have a logo that you would like to place in the lower right hand corner like a screen bug. No problem, just create a prop and place the logo where you want it to sit on the slide. Props also maintain any transparency settings for graphic formats that support them.

PP4 even has a feature that enables very simple and affordable environmental projection (if you don’t know what that is, wait for our upcoming blog post about Environmental Projection to find out more).

These are just a few of the new features offered in ProPresenter 4. There are plenty of others to check out when you install the free 30 day trial that is available at http://www.renewedvision.com/pro_download.php.

Fowler Productions also offers a training class for ProPresenter 4 every other month for $99. The next class is September 14^th at 6pm CST, so be sure to register soon!

Last week I was on vacation with my family. We packed the family vehicle to within an inch of its life with groceries, clothes, gear, and kids (not necessarily in that order) and headed off for a week of wilderness fun! Upon arriving at the campgrounds it fell to me, of course, to set up our tents. Feeling quite the outdoorsman and ready to teach my children the joys of living in commune with nature, I encountered the only real setback of our otherwise idyllic trip. In all our frenetic packing, I had failed to bring a hammer, an essential in staking down the tents. Well, I was not about to be deterred by such a small detail, so after a little searching, I found a fairly hefty piece of wood that I thought would work out pretty well and commenced a-hammering. And in the end it all worked out, but not without several sore fingers, a cramp in my right forearm, and a caustic look from my wife about the “new words” that our 5 year old twins had learned. Just kidding!

It was during one of the more painful moments of this adventure that I began to think longingly of the hammer that I knew was in my tool chest back at the house, which is undoubtedly the right tool for hammering tent stakes into hard ground. As I see it, the right tool gives us three major advantages in any job;

1. It makes the job easier

2. It makes the job faster

3. It provides a better finished product

This brings me to the subject. Worship Presentation Software has become, if not a necessity, at least a trend in the church and worship world, and for good reason. Almost regardless of which product a church or ministry might choose, the advantages and benefits over a regular slide show creation program like PowerPoint™ are marked and numerous. Now this is not to knock PowerPoint™. It’s a great program and it does exactly what it was designed to do, it goes from slide to slide to slide with tremendous reliability. It’s just that most of our church services don’t go from slide to slide with anywhere near the same kind of reliability! There is a lot more spontaneity built into even the most programmed church service, than in any sales or corporate presentation (which is what PowerPoint™ is specifically designed to do).

Ideally, the church will look at the biggest Worship Presentation Software players in the market and decide which feature set is right for them THEN purchase a computer that runs that software well. This seemingly backwards approach is because, arguably, the top two competitors run on different platforms; Windows and Mac. As of right now, EasyWorship runs in Windows only and ProPresenter runs on Macs only. They both do a fantastic job of serving up song lyrics and Bible scriptures on demand but they each have some defining features. By choosing the features your church needs, then choosing the computer to run it on you will generally be better served in the long run.

EasyWorship includes a rich feature set, with motion backgrounds, built in scripture database, and support for running PowerPoint™ files directly from within the EasyWorship interface being some of the most popular. It is very easy to operate and volunteers can be quickly trained to operate it.

ProPresenter 4 has a beautifully designed, very graphical user interface, which provides an intuitive working environment for beginners while maintaining an outstanding set of advanced features for power users. If your church does a lot of live video production, ProPresenter has some features that help it to fit into that environment more seamlessly.

Fowler Productions provides monthly training classes for EasyWorship and ProPresenter to help anyone from the first time user to the old pro to better utilize either of these tremendous tools to the greatest advantage.

EasyWorship and ProPresenter training dates will be changing starting in January 2010. Instead of being on Tuesdays, they will be on Thursdays.

Dates currently listed for EasyWorship:
January 14th, March 11th, May 13th at 6:00-7:30 pm

Dates currently listed for ProPresenter:
December 8th, February 11th, April 15th at 6:00-7:30 pm

Fowler offers training on every product we sell. Just ask your sales representative to include it in your system recommendation. If you would like a more customized training program for your staff and volunteers, our trainers will also make house calls. If you need something more specialized, call us – we want to help your church do multimedia better.

EasyWorship Training Fowler offers LIVE online training for your EasyWorship presentation software. This class is FREE for 90 days with the purchase of a projection system, and is good for one session with two logins. Standard training starts at the low price of $99.00. Group discounts are available.

Fowler Productions, Inc is now offering ProPresenter training in addition to EasyWorship Training. ProPresenter is an Apple based worship presentation software.

Click here to check times and sign up!