[v6 General Discussion] Impression of EasyWorship 6
4 CommentsSorted by Oldest First
Thank you for your honesty. It is our goal to continually improve the software to meet our customer's needs.
We would like to hear specific feedback so we can pinpoint the sticking points.
Please give us a list of things that are no longer easy in your opinion.
We would like to hear specific feedback so we can pinpoint the sticking points.
Please give us a list of things that are no longer easy in your opinion.
We have been using Easy Worship for several years, and upgraded to version 6 a few weeks ago and it has worked well with Power Point slides. I spent a full day to recreate our Pastor's Power Point Slides to a Easy Worship Presentation with feeds from our new PZT video camera. I looked at the training video's then dug in. The Result was good in the end, but there were many issues that were time consuming or not "easy".
1. Cut and Paste did not work with images. i had to copy the images from PowerPoint then save them to a folder on my desktop as a .pdf file then import them into Easy Worship, then find them in Easy Worship Image Files and move them to a "collections file' then insert them in my new slide (not easy) . In Power Point it would have been copy and paste (easy)
2. The words were set up as successive points with new ones added for each slide. I could not duplicate a slide and add the new point nor could I copy and paste on slide. I had to copy and paste in the preview section on the left and then add the new text in the slide window. The whole idea of requiring the words to be in the format of a "Theme" to be able to copy and paste was very clumsy and the alignment of text seemed to change for strange reasons. (Not easy)
3. Inserting Bible Verses worked well until I had to split a long verse into two slides. Again without cut and paste, it was not easy.
4. Images other than background were locked for aspect ratio. In some cases I needed to distort them to fit the space properly. Could not find a way to do it.
1. Cut and Paste did not work with images. i had to copy the images from PowerPoint then save them to a folder on my desktop as a .pdf file then import them into Easy Worship, then find them in Easy Worship Image Files and move them to a "collections file' then insert them in my new slide (not easy) . In Power Point it would have been copy and paste (easy)
2. The words were set up as successive points with new ones added for each slide. I could not duplicate a slide and add the new point nor could I copy and paste on slide. I had to copy and paste in the preview section on the left and then add the new text in the slide window. The whole idea of requiring the words to be in the format of a "Theme" to be able to copy and paste was very clumsy and the alignment of text seemed to change for strange reasons. (Not easy)
3. Inserting Bible Verses worked well until I had to split a long verse into two slides. Again without cut and paste, it was not easy.
4. Images other than background were locked for aspect ratio. In some cases I needed to distort them to fit the space properly. Could not find a way to do it.
Since this is the most recent topic on issues with EW 6, I'll add my few pennies (not cents - I'm in the UK ).
Firstly, working in software myself, I can completely understand the nature of the pressure to release a product before all the bugs are ironed out.
However, the following are observations I've had after trying to prepare my first service using EW 6. In most cases, they're not bugs, but rather stuff that's been removed which really takes away from the user experience. Is it really that much to ask for a new version to at least do everything its predecessor did?
- Powerpoints are named after the file's 'Title', rather than the filename, as it was in v. 2009. There was nothing wrong with the old way of doing this - we name our ppt files logically.
- The 'undo' function (or Ctrl + z) is missing from the song editor. This is a basic need for any text editor.
- The tab button no longer does anything. I used to use it to move focus to the 'Schedule' panel ready for the next item, to run a service using only keys. I can't do that any more. Why did you remove that? Edit: discovered 'Page Down' can do this. Would've been nice if 'tab' worked as well though
- It appears that when not focused on the EW window, powerpoints don't progress automatically. Granted, this was a problem in v. 2009 as well. We display a 'welcome' ppt for some time before the service; a period that often needs last minute things to be done which involve minimising EW. Can this be changed?
- v. 2009 allowed you to edit a song, and have it take effect in the local database and the current schedule. Needless to say, this is gone in EW6.
Lastly, and this one really got me - why does the 'Inspector' (weird name) have no Ok/Cancel options? If I change something and realise I've screwed up and need to change it back... too late. I would personally never, ever build a form that submits information before the user has pressed 'submit'.
I'm running my first service using this in just under 12 hours. This could be interesting...
Firstly, working in software myself, I can completely understand the nature of the pressure to release a product before all the bugs are ironed out.
However, the following are observations I've had after trying to prepare my first service using EW 6. In most cases, they're not bugs, but rather stuff that's been removed which really takes away from the user experience. Is it really that much to ask for a new version to at least do everything its predecessor did?
- Powerpoints are named after the file's 'Title', rather than the filename, as it was in v. 2009. There was nothing wrong with the old way of doing this - we name our ppt files logically.
- The 'undo' function (or Ctrl + z) is missing from the song editor. This is a basic need for any text editor.
- The tab button no longer does anything. I used to use it to move focus to the 'Schedule' panel ready for the next item, to run a service using only keys. I can't do that any more. Why did you remove that? Edit: discovered 'Page Down' can do this. Would've been nice if 'tab' worked as well though
- It appears that when not focused on the EW window, powerpoints don't progress automatically. Granted, this was a problem in v. 2009 as well. We display a 'welcome' ppt for some time before the service; a period that often needs last minute things to be done which involve minimising EW. Can this be changed?
- v. 2009 allowed you to edit a song, and have it take effect in the local database and the current schedule. Needless to say, this is gone in EW6.
Lastly, and this one really got me - why does the 'Inspector' (weird name) have no Ok/Cancel options? If I change something and realise I've screwed up and need to change it back... too late. I would personally never, ever build a form that submits information before the user has pressed 'submit'.
I'm running my first service using this in just under 12 hours. This could be interesting...
First of all thanks for the feedback. I can answer some of your comments. Others we are aware of and are doing our best continue to make the software easier.
Are you asking to be able to copy an image from PowerPoint into EasyWorship directly?
EasyWorship doesn't support .pdf documents are you saving as png images?
You shouldn't have to create a collection, you can if you want but it's not required.
Click on inspector, then go to Element and uncheck constrain proportions. You can also hold down shift and resize the image or video.
To tell you the truth, I've been working for EW for over ten years and have never heard of using tab. The software automatically selects the next item in the schedule for you. The documented keys for moving around in the schedule for 2009 and 6 are left and right arrow keys. I guess we just missed this one.
Inspector is not a new concept or name. It's the same concept brought forth in Apple's keynote software and works pretty much the same. It also functions much like the format function in PowerPoint. If you have used either of those apps, you know that their window has no ok or cancel on it. Right now you can click reset styles or revert to theme to undo changes, or change the setting you changed back.
EasyWorship 6 has its own presentations which are listed by title name because it has no file name, it's a database entry. EasyWorship uses the title you entered into your PowerPoint presentation instead of the file name mainly for that reason.
As a work around, you can change the title of your PowerPoint presentation to "PowerPoint Presentation" or "Slide 1" and EW will use the file name instead.
Cut and Paste did not work with images. i had to copy the images from PowerPoint then save them to a folder on my desktop as a .pdf file then import them into Easy Worship, then find them in Easy Worship Image Files and move them to a "collections file' then insert them in my new slide (not easy) . In Power Point it would have been copy and paste (easy)
Are you asking to be able to copy an image from PowerPoint into EasyWorship directly?
EasyWorship doesn't support .pdf documents are you saving as png images?
You shouldn't have to create a collection, you can if you want but it's not required.
Images other than background were locked for aspect ratio. In some cases I needed to distort them to fit the space properly. Could not find a way to do it.
Click on inspector, then go to Element and uncheck constrain proportions. You can also hold down shift and resize the image or video.
The tab button no longer does anything. I used to use it to move focus to the 'Schedule' panel ready for the next item, to run a service using only keys. I can't do that any more. Why did you remove that? Edit: discovered 'Page Down' can do this. Would've been nice if 'tab' worked as well though
To tell you the truth, I've been working for EW for over ten years and have never heard of using tab. The software automatically selects the next item in the schedule for you. The documented keys for moving around in the schedule for 2009 and 6 are left and right arrow keys. I guess we just missed this one.
Lastly, and this one really got me - why does the 'Inspector' (weird name) have no Ok/Cancel options? If I change something and realise I've screwed up and need to change it back... too late. I would personally never, ever build a form that submits information before the user has pressed 'submit'.
Inspector is not a new concept or name. It's the same concept brought forth in Apple's keynote software and works pretty much the same. It also functions much like the format function in PowerPoint. If you have used either of those apps, you know that their window has no ok or cancel on it. Right now you can click reset styles or revert to theme to undo changes, or change the setting you changed back.
- Powerpoints are named after the file's 'Title', rather than the filename, as it was in v. 2009. There was nothing wrong with the old way of doing this - we name our ppt files logically.
EasyWorship 6 has its own presentations which are listed by title name because it has no file name, it's a database entry. EasyWorship uses the title you entered into your PowerPoint presentation instead of the file name mainly for that reason.
As a work around, you can change the title of your PowerPoint presentation to "PowerPoint Presentation" or "Slide 1" and EW will use the file name instead.
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