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Category Archives: feature updates

Who Is Actually Viewing the Worship Plans?

Man with guitar in front of computer

You’ve prayed, planned, and shared the worship flow with your team in WorshipPlanning.com.  But now you want to know who is actually looking at the plans ahead of time.  Hopefully it is evident by how prepared your team members are when rehearsal comes.  But there certainly are times when you’d like more concrete information before rehearsal.  Well, now you can know. Right on the worship flow editor page in your WorshipPlanning account there is a “view count” that looks like this:

Screenshot of view count on the worship flow page.

When you click on the icon, it shows you a list of the viewers.  This more-detailed information is only available to those with the ability to edit the worship flow.

Notice at the top of the window there is an option to be notified the first time a person views the worship flow.  Notifications can be sent via email or text.  We have more information about all this in an article on our Support Center, including when we don’t count views.  Be sure to check it out!

Get Feedback with “Likes”

As a small feedback mechanism, we’ve added the ability for your team members to “like” a worship flow that you’ve shared with them. The “thumbs up” icon on the worship flow page shows the number of likes for that service

You, as well as anyone else that can see the worship flow, can see who else has liked the flow. Exactly how this feature is used is up to you. For example, it could be a great way for your team to a give you an acknowledgement that they have everything they need and have begun practicing.

Multiple Accounts – Made Easy

Young family sitting on couch sharing a laptop.

Do you manage multiple WorshipPlanning.com accounts?  Perhaps you are a parent that manages your account as well as the accounts of your children that serve at church.  Or maybe you serve at more than one church that uses WorshipPlanning.com.  Either way, you’ll appreciate a recent update that makes it easier to get into the right WorshipPlanning account.

Here’s what you do:  First, ensure each account has the same primary email address and password (in the past WorshipPlanning did not allow this, but now it does).  You can change your primary email and password on the Profile page, which is under the “account” menu option when you log in.  Of course, the password should be something secure and not easy to guess.

With email addresses and passwords being the same across all accounts, the next time you log in you’ll be presented a list of accounts that match those credentials.  Just click the one you’d like to log into, and you’re on your way!

By the way, if you share an email address with someone else and need to prevent that person from accessing your account, simply make sure your password is different from the other account.

One last note, if you manage the account for another person, but that person wants to receive notifications at a different email address, you can add that email address as a secondary email.  That way, notifications will go to you and the person whose account you are managing.

New Feature: Song Arrangements

Arrangements Icon

Song Arrangements

 

For years, churches using WorshipPlanning.com had to create a separate song in their library to accommodate various arrangements.  With the release this morning of version 5.6 (a free and automatic update for all users), handing song arrangements has become much easier and organized.  Plus, we gave the Song Details and Song Edit pages a nice facelift.

First, let’s take a look at the new Edit Song window.  The fields above the row of tabs are song data that apply to any

Edit Song Dialogand all arrangements (including the “default arrangement), which every song as.  Just click in these fields to edit them.  We also added a couple new fields like “Artist” and “Meter”.  Now notice the new green “arrangements” tab on the left.  When clicked, it will expand from the left edge to allow you to add, delete, rename, and select arrangements.  As you select different arrangements, the information below the tabs changes to show you info specific for that arrangement.  By the way, when you create a new arrangement, it starts with all the data from the “Default Arrangement”.

 

Selecting Arrangement In Worship FlowWhen adding songs to your worship flow, the arrangement selection comes after you’ve add the song.  Once the song is added, if you need to select an arrangement other than the default, click the arrangement icon next to the name song name.  This is also how you can add a new arrangement on-the-fly, if you need.

 

 

 

 

 

The selected arrangement name will show in the worship flow directly under the song title (including in MyWP and all printouts).  If the “default arrangement” is selected, no arrangement name will show.Arrangement Selected

 

For those wanting to clean up separate songs that need to be moved into an arrangement “family”, we’ve added a way to merge songs on the Songs Library page.  Simply click the checkboxes next to the songs you wish to merge, then go to the actions menu option and select “merge songs”.  You’ll be given further instructions at that point.

We hope you enjoy this new feature and look forward to any feedback you’d like to share!

 

Rockin With The Cross Integration

Rockin With The Cross

Happy 2018!!!  We are excited ring in the new year with an announcement of another integration…one that could be a huge benefit to all worship musicians.  Rockin With The Cross (RWTC) is an enormous collection (over 300,000) of Christian music chord charts, guitar tablature and arrangements by worship songwriters.

Once you authorize worshipplanning.com to connect with your RWTC subscription, searching and importing songs is a snap.  Right on the worship flow page, you can search the RWTC library by keyword, then drag and drop the song right into your worship flow.

Most songs have lyrics and chord data, set to the key that is indicated when the song is added.  Those chords can be easily changed by using the “transpose key” feature in worshipplanning.com.

Additionally, most songs have the various song part indicators, which means you can “song map” how the song is to be performed.

We hope this new integration helps with easily getting the information you need so that your musicians can be ready to lead worship!  To learn more about Rockin With The Cross, head on over to their site: https://www.1christian.net/rwtc/

Church Community Builder Integration

WorshipPlanning-CCB-Gears

WorshipPlanning.com now synchronizes data with Church Community Builder, a leader in online church management software. This means you no longer have the hassle of duplicate data entry (or worse, missing or obsolete data one system).  Setup is easy, the 2-way synchronization is automatic, and there is no extra charge for this functionality that “just works”.

What data is synchronized?

For the first phase of integration, user data is synchronized.  This includes their name, email address, phone numbers, and birth date. From within WorshipPlanning.com, you can create new users by importing one or more people from your CCB account.  If the person exists in WP but not CCB, you can instruct WP to create that user as a new person in CCB.  And if they exist in both systems, it’s easy to “link” them (individually or in bulk).

Once people are linked between the two systems, any changes to their info (name, email, etc.) in either system will magically be updated in the other system.

Will more data be synchronized in future phases of integration?

Yes!  We are working on deeper integrations that will allow information related to groups and serving to update across systems, all to help reduce your administrative workload and provide you better reporting.

Get Started Right Now!

If you have accounts with Church Community Builder and WorshipPlanning.com, you and integrate right now (no extra charge).  Just follow the integration guide.  If you don’t have an account in either or both systems, use the links below to get started.

WorshipPlanning.com – Info PageSign-up Page –  Free 30-day trial (no credit card required).

Church Community Builder – Info PageTalk to their sales team

Release 5.4.5.5 Details

Happy Easter! This morning, we updated WorshipPlanning.com to version 5.4.5.5.  You can find the release notes on our support site, but we wanted to highlight a few of the features in this blog post.

 

OnSong Logo

When you update to version 1.99993 of OnSong, you’ll have access to our latest integration.  With this, you’ll be able to import worship-related files from WorshipPlanning.com right into your OnSong app, where you can then annotate, transpose, rehearse, and even perform.  We’ll be promoting this integration in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for it.  In the meantime, be sure you check out all that OnSong can do!

 

Last Performed Indicator – Event Flow Page

Last Performed ScreenshotIn the previous release, we added the Last Performed column to the Songs Library page.  With this release, we added this same information right on the event flow page.  The color coded bubbles let you see in a glance when the last time the song was performed.

Red – performed in last 2 weeks
Yellow – performed in last 2 months
Green – performed in last 6 months
Blue – performed more than 6 months ago

Hover over the black “?” icon above the filter field to get a reminder of what the colors mean.  Right now, this date is across all locations.  But we may had the ability to narrow the scope to just a single location.

 

 

YouTube Playlists

YouTube Playlist ScreenshotYouTube links have been a song detail for years (and we even populate our “top songs” list with them).  Today, we make it easier for worship teams to rehearse using a YouTube Playlist link.  The link has been added to the same places that the MP3 and Spotify playlist links were, including Event Flow page accessible by your team when they log in.

 

 

That’s the list of main features for this release.  But stay tuned for another release coming soon!

 

worshipplanning.com + Proclaim, from START-to-FINISH, and BEYOND!

From Start to Finish and Beyond

It is now even easier to create presentations slides for your worship flow details.  After having become acquainted with Proclaim Church Presentation Software some months ago, worshipplanning.com reviewed and shared with our community the significance of this valuable resource. And now we are excited to announce and present worshipplanning.com’s integration with Proclaim!

From Faithlife, the makers of Logos Bible Software, Proclaim launched its presentation software in 2012 with the concept of making worship presentations a team effort that is centralized in the cloud. Proclaim’s user base extends beyond the sanctuary computer, and its collaboration capabilities allow continuous workflow possibilities.

Those of you not familiar with Proclaim will be enthused to hear about this compelling product, and the numerous features it offers making service presentation preparation vastly easier.

With the new opportunity of worshipplanning.com and Proclaim working together, your service will effortlessly flow from START (organizing and planning) to FINISH (production and presentation), and BEYOND with seamless publishing of your service, digital message and sharable media! worshipplanning.com and Proclaim platforms will interact seamlessly by way of a one-time authorization of your worshipplanning.com credentials into Proclaim. worshipplanning.com users will be able to easily import the set list, lyrics, and even song-mapping, allowing Proclaim to turn out the appropriate lyrics to various slides, all while maintaining the theme of your presentation.

For example, let’s say you’ve created a worship flow that looks like this:  

Worship Flow in WorshipPlanning.com

With just a couple of clicks in Proclaim, your songs would be imported directly from worshipplanning.com, in the right order, with the right song mapping, and matching the presentation theme you had already defined in Proclaim for this service.  Notice how the songs lyrics are automatically split onto different slides.

Proclaim Interface

 

Win a Year of WorshipPlanning.com and Proclaim

To help promote the program, worshipplanning.com users will be invited to follow us on a virtual Faithlife group called, “WorshipPlanning”. If you’re not familiar with Faithlife, it’s like a Facebook for churches and much more! On the WorshipPlanning Faithlife group you will be able to read and share tips, questions, product information, and announcements from Proclaim and worshipplanning.com.

By joining our WorshipPlanning Faithlife group (which is free) you will be asked a few questions and entered into our Premier Giveaway Package* to win a free year of worshipplanning.com and a free year of Proclaim! Earn a additional chances to win by simply inviting a friend (or two, or ten!) to join the group.

worshipplanning.com users who sign up for a free trial of Proclaim can also enter to win our Ultimate Giveaway Package**, including a free year of worshipplanning.com, a free year of Proclaim, and access to Proclaim’s Pro Media library!

How do I win?

  1. For a chance to win the Premier Giveaway Package
    join the WorshipPlanning group on Faithlife! Invite friends and increase your chances!
  2. For a chance to win the Ultimate Giveaway Package
    sign up for a free trial of Proclaim!

Learn more about worshipplanning.com / Proclaim integration.

Learn more about Proclaim or Faithlife.

*Premier Giveaway Package includes: (1) free year of our worshipplanning.com Bronze level plan, and (1) free year of Proclaim’s Basic plan. Prize package value exceeds $380, depending on congregation size.

**Ultimate Giveaway Package includes: (1) free year of our worshipplanning.com Silver level plan, (1) free year of Proclaim’s Pro plan, and access to Proclaim’s Pro Media library. Prize package value exceeds $660, depending on congregation size.

Enter now through February for your chance to win. One winner will be chosen at random for each package giveaway. Winners will be chosen in early March. .

 

New “Self Sign-up” For Your Team Members

The v5.4.3 update that recently came out includes a highly requested feature called “Self Sign-up”.   When you enable this for your team, your team members will be able to find and sign up for available roles, on their own, without you having to individually schedule them.  They just log in to MyWP (or access the WorshipPlanning.com mobile web app) and select the “Sign Up” link.  They will then see a list of available roles scheduled for your team, and click the “Sign-up and Accept” button.

Sign Up and Accept

 

They can also do the same on the mobile web app by pointing their mobile device to http://m.worshipplanning.com (http://wplan.me will get them there also).  If they are on a team that has “Self Sign-up” turned on, they will see a new “Sign-Up to Serve” menu option on the main page.  Once they select the desired available role, they’ll simply need to confirm:

Mobile Self Sign-up

We’ve created a brief video for team leaders and account administrators that shows how to enable and use this feature.  It’s easy to get configure, and even easier to for your team members to use!

 

 

Emoji and Non-Latin Characters Now Supported

Smileythumbs-up-sign
When worshipplanning.com launched in 2003, emoji didn’t exist. Instead, Internet users made use of ASCII characters to create “emoticons”.  The database driving our software used an encoding that was considered “best practices” at the time but had fallen a little out of date recently.  This past weekend, we performed a significant update to that database that provides support of “extended” character sets, including emoji, non-Latin-based characters, and “special” characters often used in desktop applications (like fancy quotes or dashes).  So, let your creative emoji juices flow and tell your international friends that worshipplanning.com is now extended-character friendly!

Update v5.4.0 Text Notifications, Location Management, and SongSelect Integration Improvements

This morning, worshipplanning.com was updated to version 5.4.0, and we wanted to share some of the exciting details.

Text Notifications
worshipplanning.com has offered SMS text notifications for several years (you can learn more about how it works here), but now team leaders and account admins can enable SMS Text messaging on behalf of users.  Before this update, only the end user could enable text notifications by logging into their own WP account.  The was done to reduce the risk of people being unexpectedly charged for text messages.  Now that “unlimited” texts is much more popular, and it is easy for recipients to stop messages, we feel the benefits outweigh the risks.

User SMS Settings

When an appropriately-privileged planner adds or edits a user, they will be able to indicate which number(s) support text messaging by using the corresponding checkbox.  Once checked, and the country is selected, a new communication method will be set up for the user without any validation being required.

Also, any SMS text recipient can stop all text messages from WP by replying “STOP” to any message (and restart the flow of messages by  replying “START” to any message from WP).

SongSelect™ Integration Improvement
Like text notifications, SongSelect integration has been part of worshipplanning.com for a number of years.  The integration has been per planner, meaning that if Jim Planner and Jill Planner both wanted to use the SongSelect integration in WP, they had to each authorize that integration.

The update we rolled out with version 5.4.0 adds a “church level” integration, meaning that church account admins now have the option to authorize an integration for use by all planners.  Technically only security level 1 (Worship Editors) and up could use the church-level SongSelect integration, since security level 0 users (Ministry Planners) can’t edit the worship flow or song library.

If both a church and an individual are integrated, WP will use the individual’s integration.  This allows churches to track specific usage (on the SongSelect side) for individual SongSelect accounts.

SongSelect

More Location Settings
Also included in this update is greater management over your locations.  To start with, we’ve added a new “Locations Management” screen where admins can centrally add, delete and rename the various locations used by your church.

Next, we add “locations” as an attribute setting to your teams.  Perhaps you have a different worship team for each location.  You no longer have to shoehorn the name the location into the team name field, like “Worship Team – Downtown Campus”.

locations

And we’ve added a location filter on the team management page so that you can easily hide teams not at a specific location. By the the way, the location filter setting is remembered as you move about the site.  Finally, the People Scheduling page had its location filter upgraded in the following ways:

  1. Your filter setting will also show/hide teams based on their location settings, making it easier to figure out which teams are appropriate to schedule for that location.
  2. You can now filter by more than one location.  Perhaps you want to see the worship team schedule for this weekend, across two or three locations, at once.  Now you can.

We hope you find these updates useful in making your planning process simpler.  Our team continues to work on updates frequently asked for by customers.  And, as always, your feedback is welcome.