Sing And Read     (1.6 & 2.2)    by Peter Morgan

	This program is the first of it's kind (to my knowledge) that displays the 'OnLine Bible' AND songs, AND links to a slide show Graphics program like Microsoft PowerPoint™, AND links to Internet "broadcasting" using Microsoft NetMeeting™.

	I suggest that these few pages are viewed in full width format and preferably printed.

	***REQUIREMENTS***

1)	PC with: 
a)	Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000 or XP™
b)	a 486 or better processor (a K6 or better is fine)
c)	a VGA (or better) monitor;

2)	An Installation Directory or Folder, 
preferably  C:\PROGRAM FILES\SING AND READ;

3)	Song words saved in separate files.
a)	For your convenience, 5 sample song texts are included in the FREE evaluation package.  See below for how to load more songs.
b)	1200 formatted songs are provided FREE when you register as a user.

4)	Hardware for projection:
a)	a VGA (or better) data/video projector or tablet, ORr
b)	a 'VGA to video' converter or a graphics card with “TV out”, with
i)	a video projector or tablet, OR
ii)	a large TV screen.

	***OTHER IMPORTANT PROGRAMS***

5	The "OnLine Bible" (if scriptures are to be projected).
	See below for where to get the latest FREE version.

6	Microsoft NetMeeting when Internet "broadcasting" is to be used.  The latest version of NetMeeting is available FREE from the Microsoft web site http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/NetMeeting.

7	A "slide display" program like Microsoft PowerPoint, if notices are to be shown in the best possible ways.  Some churches already use such methods, and these may be continued, using the quick and simple link from “Sing And Read”.

	***INSTALLATION***
1

During installation, the program will automatically unzip itself and load the program files and this Readme file into the directory or folder selected by the operator. I refer to this as the Installation Folder.

2

It will also try to install a setup file for the OnLine Bible, named CHURCH.USR, into the directory where the OnLine Bible is installed, which is preferably C:\PROGRAM FILES\BIBLE, and into the user’s “My Documents” folder.

3

The installation program also downloads 5 sample songs, and automatically stores them in the “songs” subfolder of the Installation Folder. The program will not run without some songs!

These song words that I am making available are only examples, provided to enable you to evaluate the program.  They are, to the best of my knowledge, free from all copyright restrictions. 

4

If scriptures are to be displayed, the OnLine Bible MUST be set up BEFORE “Sing And Read” is run.  “Sing And Read” can only start up and use the OnLine Bible if it has first been set up.

The OnLine Bible no longer needs to be started independently of “Sing And Read” every time that “Sing And Read” is to be used, as was the case for early Beta releases of “Sing And Read”.

Please note that “Sing And Read” is completely independent of the OnLine Bible.  It is vital for anyone using the OnLine Bible to read the instructions provided by its author and to use it at their own discretion.  
We cannot in any way provide support for any problems relating to the OnLine Bible.  From my years of experience of using it with “Sing And Read”, you probably won’t have any problems!

5

When Internet "broadcasting" is to be used, then Microsoft NetMeeting should be downloaded from the Microsoft web site and installed as per its instructions.  It must be set up before use with "Sing And Read", and MUST be started first, before starting “Sing And Read”.

During setup of NetMeeting, I recommend that the option is selected to "Accept all incoming calls".  One meeting area that is very well used and well worth trying is at ils.bytebeam.com.

As you set up NetMeeting, the “comment” that you enter in the information section will appear in the shared listing of users in NetMeeting, be seen by all the hundreds (perhaps) of browsers in NetMeeting, and will determine whether anyone tries to call you!
INSTALLATION continued

Please note that “Sing And Read” is completely independent of NetMeeting.  It is vital for anyone using NetMeeting to read the instructions and warnings provided by Microsoft and to use it at their own discretion.  We cannot in any way provide support for any problems relating to NetMeeting.

6

To use the Graphics feature of “Sing And Read”, a "slide presentation" program is required.  I could have produced a simple version, but others have done the job very well and it seems best to use their products!  This also provides a simple transition for those groups who are already displaying notices in this way.  Such programs include Microsoft PowerPoint.  Your selected program should be installed in its usual way.  The location of the program and the program name (as it appears in the top left corner of the screen) should be entered in the “Set File Locations” utility.  The default settings for “Sing And Read” include details for the default location of PowerPoint.

7

On the first occasion that you run “Sing And Read” in any new setup, it will attempt to find the OnLine Bible.  If you click on the links to the Graphics and NetMeeting programs, then it will attempt to find them.  If it cannot find these in their default locations, then it will ask you to enter the correct locations, and attempt to store these.
It is just possible that the default locations may cause problems during initial setup.  In this case, the locations may be edited outside of “Sing And Read” using any text editor.  They are held in the file ‘sources.txt’ which you will find in the “Sing And Read” installation folder.

	***EVALUATION***

In order to evaluate and weigh up the costs and benefits of “Sing And Read", a church should consider the following (among other issues):

1

The Software:

The costs of obtaining the OnLine Bible (see below).  The basic software pack and various translations of the Bible are available for FREE download from their web site.  Many more translations, plus many study aids, are available on their CD.

If the “deluxe” dual monitor version of “Sing And Read” is to be used, then there is the cost of registering it (see the next section).

Both of these costs are far less than the cost of obtaining suitable projection equipment, unless this is already available.

The standard single monitor version of “Sing And Read" may be registered FREE of all charges, if downloaded from the web site http://www.singandread.com.

EVALUATION continued

2

The costs (in time and money) SAVED by NOT needing to:
    print song sheets,
    buy or replace hymn books,
    buy or replace 'pew Bibles',
    print, buy or replace orders of service,
    print weekly notices,

3

The time and energy saved by church members (perhaps officers) because they no longer need to prepare slides of song words or scriptures,

4

The great relief given to those members of the congregation who will no longer need to use reading glasses for singing or for Bible references.
This has proved a vital factor for many older members of churches,

5

The benefits to the congregation and leaders of an almost instant display of song words and of Bible texts, in the translation being used by the reader (perhaps even in two languages at once!), in large clear print, without spelling mistakes,

6

The flexibility of being able to use any of the stored songs and any verse of scripture within a few seconds,

7

The potential to display these on a combination of big screens and/or TVs, in the main meeting room and/or on TV relays, all from one computer,

8

The need to have a church computer available (which need only be a 486), or to have someone in the church who will bring a portable computer to meetings.

9

The need for someone to operate the computer during meetings, which could theoretically be the leader of the meeting or of the music, but would better be another person, perhaps someone who is less able to lead but wants to be involved.  Since “Sing And Read” is so simple to operate, there could be a small group of people trained up, including some older children (10-year-olds can do it!).  One 14-year-old user delegated the task to younger assistants!

EVALUATION continued

10

The opportunity (and thrill!) of “broadcasting” your meetings live on the Internet.

11

See the end of this Readme note for a brief comment on the effect at our own church

12

NB NB NB
When a church has had a look at “Sing And Read” and decided that they are really interested in trying to use it, they must register it (FREE for the standard version).  This can be done by responding to an invitation on the web site www.singandread.com/sarregistration.htm.

See below for the benefits of registration!

	***REGISTRATION***

1

When a church has evaluated “Sing And Read” (see above!), and decided to proceed, then they must register (FREE for the standard version) with the author at the address shown below.

2

Registration (FREE for the standard version) provides the church with:
•	the ability to use more than the sample of songs and texts,
•	the extra part of the program required to comply with copyright requirements, which produces an annual report of how many times every song has been displayed,
•	immediate and automatic notification of improvements,
•	free access to a library of over 1200 songs, hymns and texts already formatted for display, that are free of known copyright restrictions,
•	membership of an exclusive Internet group where any relevant issues can be discussed and questions answered,
•	advice, support and training by the author - by email, by post or if necessary by telephone.

REGISTRATION continued
3

Registration involves sending to the author the name and address of the church, and the name and address of a contact person, through whom any enquiries should be made.  This should include an email address that will be used for distribution of news, update files and fresh songs and texts.

4

“Sing And Read” may be evaluated FREE of charge.  The standard version may also be registered FREE of charge!!

Any church that decides to use the dual monitor version must contribute towards the costs of its development and maintenance.  Registration details for this deluxe version must be accompanied by a cheque or money order payable to "Hallatrow Ltd" for the sum of UK£85 or US$149 or Can$199, or the equivalent in any currency acceptable to UK banks.  See Note 12 below.

	***NOTES***
1

NB NB NB	THE SPACE BAR
The most useful and commonly used method of movement about a song is "Next Part" which automatically goes to the next page of text, or from a verse to the next chorus, if one exists, or from a chorus to the next verse.  This is achieved by simply pressing the space bar.

So once you have displayed the start of a song, ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS PRESS THE SPACE BAR until you have finished singing it.  At the end of the song, this will take you back to the start.  This is really easy!!

2

At any point in a song, you can jump to any verse by pressing its number, or to the next chorus by pressing C.

The deluxe dual monitor version has extra screen space available and permits a display of the first lines of all the verses and of the chorus of the current song, and of all the songs and texts in the current planned sequences.  All of these may be displayed instantly by double clicking on these first lines.  Please contact me (see below) for details of how to get your copy.

3

The font of ALL the songs may be changed in style or size by the in-built utility called ‘Reformat’.  This can also temporarily change the font for just your current sequence of songs.

The ‘Edit’ utility may be used to change the font of any part of any one song (or text).  This utility also enables any song or text to be printed in any available font.

NOTES continued

4

In order for the program to automatically jump about the text of songs, on request, EVERY verse (including the first) MUST have its number at the start of the verse, on a separate line, without brackets, dots or spaces.  This even applies to songs with only one verse!  Similarly any chorus needs to be preceded by the one word chorus, and any bridge (a link between parts of a song) by * (an asterisk).  If you enter songs with verse numbers that have dots or brackets around them, these extras will be removed by the ‘New Songs’ utility.

5

In order to satisfy legal copyright requirements, every song must have the author and copyright holder included in the text.  When creating a new song file in TXT format, this should be placed after the song text, with a blank line between the final song words and the copyright text.  The first word of this text MUST be “copyright”, with or without a capital C.  It cannot be preceded by the copyright symbol, since this is not available in the basic TXT format, which is used for new songs.

When you type a song into the system using the “Enter Song” utility, the system will automatically add a default copyright text at the end.  This should be amended when appropriate.

6

For the movement about song texts to work properly, they all need a blank of several lines at the end, after the relevant copyright details.  These blank lines will be inserted by the ‘New Songs’ utility, which converts every blank line in the original file into a blank page.  Similarly, there should be a blank space after each section of a song, and this is added by the ‘New Songs’ utility, and by the ‘Enter a Song or Text’ utility.

7

The gray background to the Wait screen may be replaced by any picture that you care to save as a bitmap (.BMP file) e.g. C:\WINDOWS\CLOUDS.BMP, or a picture of your church. Please note that such files should fill your screen, since they will be presented in the size in which they are stored, in the top left hand corner.  This could look rather odd if they only fill a part of the screen!  In particular, you will need to take care if you are preparing a picture on a SVGA system and projecting on a VGA one, or vice versa.

8

When viewed in SVGA, some of the standard version “Sing And Read” displays may appear in the centre of the screen.  This is because they are designed for projection in VGA or better.  All current projection equipment can handle VGA, but some older models cannot handle SVGA.

NOTES continued

9

Song words may be loaded into “Sing And Read” in either of 2 ways:
-	using its ‘New Songs’ utility
-	using its ‘Enter Song’ utility

Both these ways include automatic formatting to make the new song match those already there.

Before using the ‘New Songs’ utility, song word files MUST be prepared in TXT format, using almost any word processor.  They may be placed in any directory or folder on the PC’s hard drive, or on floppy disk.

Using the ‘Enter Song’ utility, songs may be entered directly into “Sing And Read” in a simple format, as described below, and may be edited and printed in any available font size.  I have used this quick entry utility several times during a meeting while the song was being sung!  For a short old chorus, I can usually get the words on the wall for the fourth or fifth time it is sung.

Once a song has been entered, you can then change the font using the 'Reformat' utility, but this will affect all the songs.  If you wish specific songs to have specific formats, then this utility should NOT be used.

PLEASE note that it is very important to resist the temptation to type a song directly into the format required for display, and to add this file to the Songs folder.  “Sing And Read” will convert standard simple TXT files for you, and will add all the little features needed.

10

For the link to the OnLine Bible to work most efficiently, you need a recent version complete with the special amendment added by its author in mid 1997 to improve the compatibility of our packages.

“Sing And Read” now detects which edition of the OnLine Bible you are using, and adjusts its link accordingly.

11

To display subsequent Bible passages, after displaying an initial passage, you can press the appropriate OnLine Bible key (Ctrl F1, or F2 for very old versions), or you can just click on the “Sing And Read” ‘Bible’ button.

NOTES continued

12

It is possible to have an even more flexible version of Sing And Read, with even quicker movement between songs, verses and texts.  A dual monitor version is available for use with Windows 98, ME, 2000 or XP, so that all the operator information and buttons appear on one monitor, and everything being displayed appears on another monitor.  This permits introduction of a new control panel, which remains visible on the “control monitor” most of the time.  This gives immediate access to every feature in Sing And Read, and allows space for a display of the first lines of each verse and chorus in the current song, so that you can jump directly to them without needing to know their number.

Since this new version has required a lot of further work and innovation, I am charging for it and am not making it available on the web.  Please contact me (see below) for details. 

13	FAULTS ??

As you use “Sing And Read”, you may find problems or faults, perhaps by using it in ways that I have not thought of!  Please tell me about them, and feel free to send any comments to the address below.  Then I can make improvements and provide a service that will be really useful!

	***COMING NEXT***  ...  some of the current suggestions:
1

A better Help facility, in the style now associated with the latest Microsoft products.  So far, users seem to have found “Sing And Read” to be so simple that Help has not been a vital issue, and the basic Help facility that is already there has been sufficient.

2

A better link to the OnLine Bible.

3

A choice of languages for the buttons, instructions and notes.

??? What else do you want ???
Please note that deluxe features will usually only be added to the Dual Monitor version, which has the extra screen space for them.

	***TRAINING***

I am interested in visiting any interested church, to provide a demonstration of this program.  I could provide a training session for any operators.  Where appropriate, I should need travelling expenses, and perhaps a training fee.  I am an independent computer contractor/consultant in the UK near Bristol and Bath and do this sort of thing as part of my usual work.

Would you be interested in a visit?

	***GETTING THE "ONLINE BIBLE"***

Please visit the web site:-
www.onlinebible.org (Europe) or www.onlinebible.net (N America)
where you will find a freely available copy of the software, with a free copy of the King James translation of the Bible.  You will also find details of how to buy the CD that contains over 60 translations of the Bible (in English and many other languages), various maps, and many, many reading aids.

In my opinion, the price of this CD is very reasonable compared with anything else on the market, since it seems to be made available as a service to the Church.

The author and publisher of the OnLine Bible is Larry Pierce.  When I visited him at his Canadian home, he amended his package to enable better integration with mine.  I hope that we shall be able to cooperate further as both packages continue to develop.

	***THE AUTHOR***

This program is the fruit of years of waiting, at not having the tools available to make possible a variety of ideas.  Since the tools have been published, I have worked on this in my spare time for about 10 years.  It has led me into learning Visual Basic and getting into Microsoft Office, and taken me on a demonstration / evaluation trip to Canada and USA.  I hope that many will find it a real help, as a simple professional aid to worship which does not distract from the aim of the service.

In our church, our music leader and minister were looking forward to it for many months!  In December 1997 we introduced it, and at the same time introduced a video projector and a close-up video camera.  We switch between cameras and the computer as appropriate.  Everyone was delighted!  Positive responses were received from all age groups.  Fresh interest was shown by some folk who wanted to be trained to use the computer systems.  People discarded their song sheets in favour of watching the screen.  Most older folk prefer reading from a big screen, rather than from small print, especially if they need to use reading glasses.  Extra finance has been offered to help pay for the projector.  People like it and now take it for granted!

For a few years, we "broadcast" most services and meetings over Microsoft NetMeeting, in sound and video!  This attracted interest around the world, from church groups and from browsers, some of whom would never go into a church!  In late 2002 we switched to “netcasting”.  This is not to meet folk who are just browsing, but requires folk to deliberately tune into the church web site:  www.KeynshamElim.com, where they can join in the live meetings, while they are happening, or look at any of the archives.  The archives include some chances to see “Sing And Read” in action.  A couple of excerpts have been made available from the “Sing And Read” web site, at www.singandread.com.

For all comments, suggestions, bug reports and the like, please contact me at:
peter at melted dot com

or write to the "snailmail" postal address of:

30 West View Road, Keynsham, Bristol  BS31 2UA  England    UK

Thank you for your co-operation and support.
Peter Morgan

***Formalities and qualifications***

Peter Morgan (BA Hons), Jenny Morgan (Cert Ed) and ‘Jazz’ Morgan are the director, company secretary and webmaster of the family IT company "Hallatrow Ltd" which is registered in the UK and operates from the address above.  We use the trading names of “Software For Worship”, “Jazz PCs” and “Data Rescue Online”.  See www.melted.com and www.jazzpcs.co.uk.

Peter and Jenny have been formally trained in practical theology to assist with leadership in our local church.

Another family member ‘George’ was employed as the Website Editor for the London based Christian radio station “Premier”, which also broadcasts over the Internet.  She has now married, moved back from London, and has worked on the team that maintains the web site for our local county council.

For more details of the author’s professional background, please see www.melted.com/cv.

	***ANGLICAN LITURGIES"***

PS  You may be pleased to know that the Church Of England have now published their entire service books (liturgies) on their web site.

THIS IS A MAJOR STEP FORWARD FOR ANY CHURCH USING DISPLAYED WORDS AS PART OF THEIR WORSHIP.

THIS FEATURE OF SING AND READ HAS BEEN LITTLE USED SO FAR, BUT NOW THE WAY HAS BEEN OPENED!

You can go get the files, move them into the Sing And Read "Texts" folder, and away you go!  The fonts are rather small, in comparison to the songs, but you can easily edit the files however you wish, using any word processing system.  Just be sure to resave your edited versions as RTF files, and store them in the "Texts" folder.

Please feel free to make this new feature known to any liturgical churches you know.

Of course, many churches use parts of these liturgies in their own forms of service, and these files are an excellent source for these texts, in the file format required for Sing And Read.

The link to get the files is
www.cofe.anglican.org/commonworship/resources/indexrtf.html