OpenLP: Introduction

What is OpenLP?

OpenLP is an application for displaying the items needed for a church service or other event using a projector. It was developed and is actively maintained by a group of volunteers and is offered at no charge to churches.

The OpenLP library

At the heart of OpenLP is a library of resources, from which you can select items to make a service plan.

The library is divided into 6 sections:

• Songs, comprising the text of the song, the sequence of verses, chorus and so on, the author and composer, the topic of the song and the source from which it came.
• Bibles, from which readings can be added to the service plan. Our library uses the 2011 UK English version of the New International Version.
• Presentations, which are slides in Powerpoint, PDF, Impress or other formats. They can include embedded sound or video files.
• Images, which are single images in the usual formats including JPEG, PNG and others.
• Media, which in this context means sound or video files, again in a wide range of formats including mp3 and mp4.
• Custom slides, which are sets of one or more screens created within OpenLP that might be used for liturgy or announcements.

Creating and using a service plan

You create a service plan by choosing items from the library and arranging them in the order you want.

The person using the plan during a service will then not need to be concerned with the library, but might have to use it if an unexpected item is requested or a last-minute change needs to be made.

OpenLP tutorial

• Introduction
• Creating a service plan:
  • The OpenLP desktop
  • Creating a new service plan
  • Adding songs to the plan
  • Adding a new song to the library
  • Adding Bible readings to the plan
  • Adding slide presentations to the plan
  • Adding images to the plan
  • Adding sound or video items to the plan
  • Adding custom slides to the plan for announcements or liturgy
  • Making changes to the service plan
  • Extracting song words from a service plan
• Running a service plan:
  • Preparing the desktop
  • Presenting the plan
  • Dealing with surprise requests
• Other matters:
  • Installing OpenLP on your computer

External documentation

• The OpenLP user manual

Updated 24.01.2019