Text-To-Screen Software: Recommendations?

[moosicman]

The title says it all. If you used it/have used it, what say y'all?

[[Director] Joseph B]

I use Media Shout - been using it for years and I'm very happy with the PC Version.
I have since switched to a MAC (personally) and still use it at church on a PC.
I found that I was better served putting windows on my MAC as I wasn't feeling the MAC version.
Best advice - download the trial versions and see which feels best for you.

[JoshGuerette]

ProPresenter, 100%. I haven't used a better all-around presentation tool that has the features and ease of use.

[wogster]

Originally Posted by moosicman

The title says it all. If you used it/have used it, what say y'all?

Lots of folks will recommend the commercial ones, of course not all of us have a ∞ in the amount column of the church budget for media. I use OpenLP, nice, simple interface, most of the commercial features, the price FREE. Also runs on most popular operating systems like Windows, Mac and the Linux based ones.

[dmot]

I'll second Wogster on OpenLP. I used MediaShout for years until a hard drive crash. I didn't have time to install Windows, do all the updates, then install MS so I dumped Linux (ubuntu) on it and then installed OpenLP as a temporary fix. That's been over 7 months ago and I have no plans to go back. I only wish it had a built in audio player but I've worked around it. It is very stable for video for me. It does not do video backgrounds though and I don't care for the transitions.

I liked MS just fine and I think if I were to buy a commercial product right now I would go with Propresenter. But I like OpenLP for several reasons. It is simple, stable, and free. I think we need to be careful in how we spend money but I really like supporting a product that is available to a lot of people who couldn't afford anything else even if they wanted to. I also don't have a problem with the lack of video background. In our situation those were cool for about 2 weeks and then nobody noticed anymore. My kids, who are late teens & early 20s, just shrug their shoulders and yawn at that stuff. You can still make a great visual impact with OpenLP without the gimmicks.

[moosicman]

Let me redirect - I do not mean media presentation software but public text-to-screen for congregation polls, contests, and such......

I may need to start a new thread.

[[Admin] osborn4]

You could drag notepad over to the projection screen, jack up the font and type.

I have used the SongShow Plus instant screen and instant message (they've renamed those now).