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iTunes Gift Cards Giveaway

iTunes Gift Cards

Some might consider it a shameless way of getting followers, but we just want to be your Twitter and Facebook friend.  On August 1st, we will give away two (2) $20 iTunes gift cards. One card will be awarded to a randomly selected Twitter follower, the other to a randomly selected Facebook fan (follower? liker? whatever you call it these days).

So, to get in on the action, just follow us at http://twitter.com/worshipsense and/or “like” us on our Facebook page at http://fb.worshipplanning.com before 11:59pm (eastern time) on July 31st.  Winners will be notified via Twitter direct message or Facebook message. Oh, and if you are already a Twitter follower or “like” us on Facebook, you are already entered to win.  But maybe you can share the love and retweet about our contest!

Good luck, everyone!

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Song Library and More

As many of you saw in an email from us, we recently applied some major site updates to WorshipPlanning.com.  In addition, we’ve begun improvements to our communication channels that we think you’ll find helpful. Let’s start with the features we rolled out Monday evening.

Song LibrarySongs Library
We’ve changed the page layout to make it easier to find the song(s) you want and quickly view the information you need. You can perform actions on multiple songs through the use of checkboxes (i.e. add a theme/category, change life-cycle stage, delete). And churches that have hundreds or even thousands of songs, you should notice the page loads MUCH faster.

Songbooks – This organization tool lets you virtually create and save personal or team libraries (or ‘books’) of songs. Team members (even of other teams) can be given access to view or modify the songbook contents. And while building a worship flow, you can open a one of your songbooks and pick songs from its concise list, rather than having to search through the long list of all your church’s songs.

WP’s Most Popular Songs – We’ve compiled a list of the most popular songs in WorshipPlanning.com and given you access to it. Each song contains general information, including title, author, and record label. But, to really help you and your team out, we have found the YouTube video and Amazon MP3 pages for most songs. This means your team can now have instant access to the music, either freely streaming from YouTube, or by buying it from Amazon.

iPhone App
If you follow our Twitter, FaceBook, or Blog, you have seen that our iPhone app was finally approved by Apple in late June (for the record, Apple has yet to tell us the reason for the very long delay). We certainly will start promoting the app more on our site, but in the meantime you can find it in iTunes and the App Store by searching for Worship Planning. Keep in mind, this is the first version of this app, and we have plenty of more functionality planned for it. If you are so inclined, tell us your suggestions at feedback@worshipplanning.com

Social Media Updates
We’ve hired an expert to help us take advantage of the social media channels. Our goal is to open up the communication between our team and yours, and provide you timely, valuable information. Follow us on Twitter (@worshipSense) and/or Facebook (http://fb.worshipplanning.com) to get in the action!

Newsletter
And speaking of communication, we are in the planning stages for a recurring newsletter that will cover worshipplanning.com happenings, as well as other planning related information. Our next communication to you should have more details on how to sign up for that.

iPhone App – Finally!

WorshipPlanning.com iPhone AppThe big news we have been waiting for has finally arrive. The WP iPhone app was approved by Apple this afternoon, and we are delighted! It is now available in the App Store (just search for “Worship Planning”). Once installed, you may notice the version number on the splash screen to be 0.9rc2. If we had our druthers, it would have said version 1.0. But the source code is virtually identical. In the confusion to get Apple to approve our app (see our June 15th blog post), this 0.9rc2 version was submitted instead of version 1.0. Again, they both contain the exact same code, just a different version number.

What you can expect from this app is functionality similar to MyWP. Future releases will certainly contain functionality that more closely resembles the main site. But for this release we wanted an app that had features used by both Planners and Helpers.

So, feel free t

o install and give it a try. We look forward to your feedback to help shape the future releases. And, as always, if you have any questions or issues, feel free to give us a call (1-877-399-3342) or send us an email (support[at]worshipplanning.com).

O iPhone App, Where Art Thou?

I know many of you are wondering this exact question. The short answer is that it appears to be “stuck” in Apple. Read on….

Back in February and March, a few dozen WorshipPlanning.com users beta tested the iPhone app we developed. By the time beta testing was done, it was receiving very positive reviews by most beta testers. On March 24th, we submitted it to the App Store for review. A few days later, Apple moved it from the initial “Pending” queue, to the the “In Review” queue. For 8 weeks, it sat in this queue, despite my email pleas for Apple to do something with it. We would have even settled for a rejection so that we could fix whatever the problem was and resubmit it. But Apple only responded to one of our emails, stating something to the effect of “Don’t bug us. We’ll tell you when we are done.”

On May 27th (9 weeks after the original submission), we removed the seemingly-stalled app from the review process, and resubmitted it. Our hope was that by resubmitting, the app would not fall into the mysterious black hole that the previous submission had. A few days later, it entered the “In Review” status (again) and we detected they were actually testing the app (we got an assignment response notification). That was about two weeks ago. At the time of this blog post, the app is still “In Review”, and our frustration is on the rise again.

So, what is our next steps? If there is no change in status by this Friday, we will begin sending emails to Apple in hopes they give us some indication of what is going on, or what is wrong with our app. If we ever find that out, it will be our highest priority to get it fixed. In the meantime, we will resume our plans to develop Android and Blackberry apps, as well as the Facebook app. And, of course, we will be praying about it.

I sincerely apologize for the delays. We are so very excited to make this app available to you.

More Great News About File Uploads

A week or so ago we rolled out the multi-file upload feature. We didn’t want to mention at the time, but that update was a precursor to an exciting announcement: Paid subscribers now have unlimited storage space for file uploads. You read that correctly: unlimited! Here is a screen shot of our new pricing page. This change is already in effect for all current accounts not in trial, so enjoy!

WP Version 3.9 Update and iPhone App Status

Greetings WP’ers! It has been a little while since we’ve posted an update, but that certainly doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy. This Sunday night (April 18th) we will update WorshipPlanning.com to version 3.9. There are a couple significant changes you will notice right away, and many other subtle changes that will simply make your experience using WP smoother.

The biggest change Planners will notice is an extremely helpful menu system that makes getting to the pages you need quick and efficient. For those with the proper security settings, creating a service, series, or new Planner account is always just one click away.

The other significant change we made was to the worship pages (flow, roles, etc.). Our goal for this page was to more efficiently and intuitively use the space on the page. Rather than describe the changes, take a look at the screenshot below.

This shows one of the menus opened (when you hover over the Service navigation link), as well as how we’ve cleaned up one of the worship pages. The space above the worship tabs is now more efficiently used to show the general service info. We also pushed the date/time/location of the service into the top blue banner. The left side now has the clickable calendar opened by default, and the various team panels listed below. And, by the way, if you are using Internet Explorer, many of the nice rounded corners you see in this screenshot will appear squared off. That’s simply a limitation of IE (and one of the many reasons we recommend using FireFox or Chrome).

Here is a few other enhancements we made that might interest you:

– Planners can now indicate their own skills
– Helpers can specify their own profile picture
– Fixed a number of graphic design inconsistencies
– Fixed a number of mixed term references (i.e. “finalized” vs. “locked”)
– Improved process by which user passwords are changed (more intuitive and secure)

For those looking ahead, let me share with you a few things in the development cycle right now. First, we are nearly done with a feature update that will allow Planners to upload multiple files at once. We are also working on some very cool enhancements to the Songs Library page(s), which will include the ability to create “sub-libraries” of songs. This should make finding and organizing songs much easier and personalized. Finally (as in, that last one I am going to mention here), we are looking into making mobile versions of MyWP available for Android and Blackberry devices. For an update on the iPhone app we’ve developed, read on….

iPhone App Status
Most of you know we have developed and beta tested an iPhone app for WorshipPlanning.com. We had great feedback from the gracious folks that were willing to help us make the app the best it could be (for version 1.0). The app was submitted to Apple for review on March 24, and it is still officially “in review” by their app development review team.

This review stage is taking longer than we expected, though it is still well within the “typical” timeframe, according to Apple. We suspect the cause for delay might be the influx of iPad apps they now have to review. As soon as we learn more about our app’s approval status, we’ll certainly pass that information along to you.

Partnership with All About Worship

We are excited to announce a partnership between WorshipPlanning.com and All About Worship.

For those not familiar, AAW is an online resource specifically designed for “equipping and encouraging worship leaders and songwriters”. They do this through podcasts, training webinars, retreats, articles, and much more.

The goal of this partnership is two-fold. First, we hope it will help give WorshipPlanning.com worship leaders easier access to a variety of resources AAW develops. In April we will begin sharing some exciting benefits for WP Planners as part of this partnership. Second, we hope AAW will be a means by which new WP features and benefits will be shared with those that have either never tried WP, or not visited our site for a while.

AAW has a great podcast that can be found on iTunes. Their website AllAboutWorship.com also has a link to the latest podcast, as well as a growing number of other resources.

Keep an eye on our blog and twitter feed to learn more on the fruits of this partnership.

WorshipPlanning.com Site Updates – Version 3.8

This evening we updated WorshipPlanning.com to version 3.8, and we’re quite excited to share with you what these updates include. So, let’s get right to it.

Helpers can view ALL services – If authorized, any of your Helpers can now access service details of all services, not just the ones for which he or she is scheduled. This includes worship flow, assignments, virtual stage, files, and printouts. Authorization is granted on the page where you add/edit the Helper’s information (People >> Helpers tab >> add/edit icon). We’ve added a checkbox that says ‘Can view all services (including ones not scheduled for).’ By default, no Helpers have this checkbox checked.

Worship Flow Edits Improved – If your duties include modifying the worship flow, you’ll notice a nice improvement to the way you add and edit worship elements. The worship detail fields now appear on a small pop-up window on the worship flow page. We’ve also changed the dropdown fields to have an ‘auto complete’ behavior (so you can simply start typing the desired entry, and WP will attempt to auto complete your text). Plus, we have put the Extra Notes on the same pop-up window, reducing the number of clicks needed to get all your information entered.

MyWP Home and Assignments – As we posted in our blog last week (http://worshipplan.wpengine.com), we have redesigned the main page used by Helpers. The redesign makes it much easier for Helpers to access the information they need. We’ve also included a calendar view (that shows by default if they have no pending assignment requests), and some quick links on the home page to frequently accessed functionality, like team files, password changes, and adding text/email alerts. And our video tutorials have been updated, so anyone can always check there (or contact us) should questions arrise. If you’d like to see the updates to MyWP for yourself, you can do so by logging in to http://my.worshipplanning.com using your email address and WP password.

One last thing I want to mention is that our Worship Flow page improvements are really Phase 1 of some exciting plans we have. Phase 2 will likely include drag and drop of people and (hopefully) songs into worship elements. We also know some churches need down-to-the-second tracking of element durations. We anticipate including that in Phase 2 as well.

If you have any questions of issues with these new features, be sure to let us know via our support site: http://support.worshipplanning.com.

A Little Love for the Helpers

In the next week or so, we will be rolling out a major update to the MyWP site that we think your volunteers will really love. I’ll detail it out more in a blog post the evening we roll it out, but here are the highlights, plus a little screenshot to whet your appetite.

  1. Fancy calendar that shows their assignments and rehearsals.
  2. Cleaner assignments page with much more intuitive access to service and team information.
  3. Default worship flow display with Extra Notes for the Helper showing by default.
  4. (and this is a BIG one) Ability for authorized Helpers to view services details of ALL services.

We are in the last phase of testing, so keep an eye on our Twitter, Facebook, and Blog updates for when we roll it out. And we plan on updating our video tutorials in time for the roll-out as well.

WP iPhone App…Testers Wanted

Our iPhone app is oh so close to Testing phase. If you are interested in helping test and being the first to use this slick extension of WorshipPlanning.com, we invite you to sign up now using the link at the bottom of this post. Here are answers to a few questions you might have:

Q: Can anyone be a tester?
A: We have a few requirements.

  • Own an iPhone or iPod Touch.
  • Have a Planner or Helper account with a church that is currently subscribed to WorshipPlanning.com (no trial accounts).
  • Be willing to give us feedback on the app.
  • We are also putting a limit on the number of testers, so if you want to sign up, don’t dilly dally.

Q: When will the app be ready to install?
A: We are hoping around the middle of February.

Q: How long will the test phase last?
A: It depends on the kind of feedback we get. Ideally, a month of testing would be nice. But if our testers find many things we need to fix for the first public release, it could be longer.

Q: How will I provide feedback on my experiences?
A: A few times throughout the test phase we will create some brief online surveys using our 360WP site. If you need immediate support, or just can’t wait to give us your thoughts, we’ll ask that you use our Support Center (http://support.worshipplanning.com) to contact us.

Q: What can I do with the app?
A: The app offers most of the functionality of the MyWP pages: view services, respond to assignments, access contact info of team members, download (some) files. If you find it is missing functionality you’d like on your mobile device, let us know. We plan on updating the app on a pretty regular basis.

Q: What happens after the test phase?
A: Once we certify the public release version as being ready, we will submit it to the App Store. Current estimates for app approval by Apple are up to 3 weeks.

Q: Will the app cost anything from the App Store?
A: No, the app will be free. Of course, it will only be useful to people with accounts in WP.

Q: Will trial accounts be able to use the App Store version?
A: Yes.

Q: Once I sign up to be a tester, what will happen next?
A: When the app is ready for you to install, we’ll email you a couple of files and the instructions on how to install it (using iTunes 9). Then, you’ll need to take an old ball cap, write “Quality Assurance Tester” on the front of it, and wear it whenever you run the app.