8/20/2006 5:54:20 PM

This morning our music ministry team asked me a question I couldn't immediately answer.  They wondered if it was possible to project lead sheets from SongSelect Advanced instead of just the lyrics.  I told them that I wasn't aware that it was possible to do, but that I would research the issue and report back.  I didn't find much information by searching the forums so I decided to open this discussion thread.

The lead sheets from SongSelect contain both text and graphics so they can't be combined in the song module, however I wonder if they can be used to create a slide show for each song we want to display.

Has anyone tried to do this? or even wanted to?

TIA - John

8/21/2006 7:13:35 AM

This challenged me to look into it but I couldn't figure out how to download it as a displayable file.

But even if we could download it as a displayable file, how would we get rid of the white background, and how would we break it up into reasonably-sized viewable pieces?

8/21/2006 7:23:47 AM

There is no way of doing it, that I know of.

You'd have to just fire up your browser and drag it over into screen two. And counting on Internet response during a live service would make me nervous.

The only way would be to scan them in as JPEGs (probably 2 per page) and show them that way.

We provide a handful of paper copies of the lead sheets to those who want them, They are available in a special rack in the back, next to the pastor's sermon notes and large print bulletings.

8/22/2006 8:17:45 PM

Open the leadsheet in a PDF reader, set it so that it shows as much as you want on a screen, hold the Alt key and tap the Print Scrn key, open your preferred image editor, paste as a new image, and then crop it to just the leadsheet. I would then set the color to 8 or 16 bit. Then I would use the color swap tool to change the black to yellow, the white to black, and the the yellow to white. Save that image to songtitle and page #. Then you could create a Slide Show to show it in whatever order you want.

8/23/2006 7:08:01 AM

How did you download it as a file, let alone as a .pdf file?

8/23/2006 11:19:25 AM

I discovered this method independantly and experimented with it a bit.  I used the free CutePDF Writer available at http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp to 'print' the lead sheets to a PDF file.  I then opened the file in Adobe Reader 7.0, and cut and pasted sections of the lead sheet into Paint Shop Pro.  After cropping, each section was saved as a jpeg file.  Finally in SongShow Plus the sections were reassembled into a slide show with appropriate songtitle, copyright, etc.

After discussing the process with the musicians, we agreed it was too complex and difficult to obtain consistent results in the cut and paste operation.  The final decision was to create a custom printed booklet of lead sheets and make copies available at each table.  In our celebration service, we meet in the Family Life Center sitting at round tables in a family oriented service.

Thanks to all who replied,
John

8/23/2006 6:32:53 PM

It's been a while since I downloaded a leadsheet, so it may be different now. When I last downloaded one, it came as a pwd protected PDF. The pwd was the pwd I used to log onto ccli.

8/24/2006 6:04:18 AM

No. It comes down in some special program (Song RAIN or something lke that) now, not a PDF, iirc. But it does let you change the key before you print it. And it will pick out the melody in midi for you.