OpenSong, as already mentioned, has a Mac version available (for OS X), but it also works for Linux and Windows, making a truly cross platform solution. The lack of PPT integration ended up being a big shortcoming for our volunteers when we were trying it. Now that we?ve gone primarily to IMAG, the lack of video support isn?t as big a deal.

For what it?s worth-the text over images looks as good or better than any other WS we tried, except perhaps EW.

Next-Presentation Manager

I?d love to know what you guys think of it. We?re looking around again, as our setup rapidly evolves. We?re wanting to run three screens (our MoM/Pastor are pushing this, believe it or not). Currently, we?re thinking of using the left screen for Spanish translations (we also do live audio translations from english to spanish, or vice versa when the speaker is speaking in spanish), and the right screen for english, with the middle screen being IMAG.

Presentation manager can handle driving two different screens with two different but optionally linked databases at the same time. It can also do this on a single screen, which others can do as well.

For us, that?s an important feature due both to lack of volunteers and money for additional pcs, and even space to put the second WS operator.

I think it?s the ability to link screens one and two together, while still displaying something different on each one. You can still drive backgrounds behind the text et al.

They were still in beta when I first checked it out, but everything looked fairly tight at that time.

Not having a Mac, and not looking to go that way, I?d be curious to see how PM compares with the feature set in PP3.

I like what I see with PP3, and they’re making good strides. Love to hear what other users think – any good user groups/forums out there for PP3?

We wanted more features than PowerPoint and Keynote (I personally think Keynote’s layout is the strongest of any of the programs, though it’s weak on universal text style changes).

Our new computer is an iMac, so we decided against MediaShout 3 (in BootCamp) when the MediaShout for Mac was dropped. We wanted an integrated environment and simplicity (ie – we didn’t want to dual boot), and Parallels wasn’t able to handle MediaShout yet.

ProPresenter came out just as we made our decision. There were several features not yet available (Bibles for example) that we wanted, so we decided against it. But I think it has major promise and may emerge as the best of class on OS X.

We chose LiveWorship and have been extremely happy. It has some non-intuitive elements (for example, the only way to access the text editor is through a rt. click menu), but overall, it very easy to learn and work with.

Has tons of features, including a live video feed. Our team are mostly Windows folks at their jobs and homes, but have taken to the drag and drop interface quickly. There are a couple of bible versions they are still working at securing rights to use. But excellent out of the box in our experience.

You’re right, we don’t discriminate. We honestly think that’s in the eye of the beholder. That’s why in the body of the article we called it a “buyer’s guide.” “Review” is shorter – fits a title better.

Bryan,

Thanks for suggesting that. We’ve got Opensong and a few others listed in our software section, which you can get to by the link at the bottom of the article.

Beth and others,

We agree that the type editing capabilities of these programs are limited. This is why we recommend Photoshop, ultimately, for anyone interested in truly designed images for screens in worship.

Keep those comments coming!

It works great for us, and again, it’s free.

Beyond that, though, it would be nice to find a review somewhere that actually flushes out discriminators between products and tells new potential users those discriminators, rather than just the basics of what each product does.

Important features of these products should include what is available to create tailored nice looking displays that go way beyond just a song with a purchased background file showing through. Some products out there can’t do anything fancy while others excel, but they all do the basics.

One can’t expect a person to download trials of these products and figure out all the intricate capabalities (or gotcha’s) of multiple products – the user who downloads trial versions is only going to discover the basics. That is the market where comparative reviews focusing on differentiators would be useful to.