ProPresenter

Opmerkingen: As a church, we need to enable the congregation to follow along with the songs we sing and the sermon that is preached. This allows us to display what we need, in a way that is both engaging AND distraction-free. The software is basic enough that my new volunteers can jump right in, but with enough advanced features that I can do more complicated slides. It also has many more features that we can use as we grow and need them without switching platforms.

Pluspunten: Most importantly: it is a stable product that outputs w/o any issue. Next is that it is easy to train new volunteers on the basic operations of the software. Both of these are important to us.

Minpunten: I haven't yet got the ability to sync files to work smoothly using Google Drive; if I can ever get it to the point where I can trust it, it will allow me to remotely (from home) create and edit files when I have a few minutes to spare.

Opmerkingen: Up to this point, updates have been few and far between. One suggestion I made to Renewed Vision (the makers of ProPresenter) was integrated into a feature of an eventual update. Tech support has gotten way better as the years have gone by. They are quite helpful and patient.

Pluspunten: Volunteers can operate it with a minimal amount of training. The setup is largely intuitive. There are also hundreds of hours of videos, tutorials, etc. to get you not only up and running, but using advanced functions as well.

Minpunten: Initial cost can be a challenge. And for a person using one output (main), it is overkill. There are other less costly products (Proclaim, for example) that do similar things for those in need of one output and no other whistles and bells.

Opmerkingen: Overall, ProPresenter has helped to advance my organization to the next level of being technologically efficient and professional. We depend on it for everything that happens in-house regarding services, and it has done an amazing job of assisting us and our representation to the public.

Pluspunten: Where do I begin?? This is an absolutely fantastic software. As someone who helps facilitate not only the Communications department at my organization (religious institution) but also the media and our weekly services (inputting videos, presentations, music, miscellaneous), ProPresenter has proven to be a life-saver and keeps everything in one place (you don't have to click through a bunch of prompts to get to what you need). What I like MOST about this software is the ability to see all the services on on screen; for example, in the lower left corner of the software, all our services are listed: Sunday morning, Tuesday prayer, Wednesday ministry night, Thursday rehearsal, and any Friday or Saturday special services. You can easily click on the service and all your files will show up next to the service -- media, music... whatever. And ProPresenter automatically saves all that data and stores your files, backgrounds, etc so you aren't having to start from scratch every time! I could go on and on about how big a fan I am of this program!

Minpunten: I don't have anything particularly negative to say about ProPresenter, but if there was one thing I would request better effort on, it would be the ease of creating slides *through* the actual program... it takes quite a while to create the slide, edit the text, font, colors, positioning, etc, and then present it. I've learned to just have everything ready through Keynote (using a Mac) or even Powerpoint in certain situations.

Opmerkingen: Our Church has been using ProPresenter since 2014 and overall it's been the best solution that meets most of our needs. However, it's not perfect and has given us quite a few headaches over the years. Hopefully in the future ProPresenter will be given it's own PC development department that will focus on Industry Standards that are common in the PC environment instead of trying to Port over from Mac.

Pluspunten: ProPresenter is pretty great overall. It has so many abilities to allow our church to create custom presentations on the fly as will as prepare in advance. Love how easy it is to import songs, backgrounds, and bible references.

Minpunten: The PC version feels like a cheap port from the Mac version. It has many glitches when trying to export playlists. It also doesn't allow me to duplicate playlists easily. If I wanted to create a duplicate playlist to use as a template for another service, I have to export it then re-import it instead of just copy and paste like most standard PC software allows. When I do export a playlist, sometimes it never exports and if it does then items are missing or removed from the both the exported playlist and the original playlist.

Opmerkingen: Overall, we are happy with the abilities we have with this software.

Pluspunten: Ease of use, simple GUI. Inclusion of simple graphics architecture for slide design.
Like the abilities for web, youtube, live vid feed, background vids, etc.

Minpunten: Some buggy issues - if you use a line break (aka, hit return to force text onto next line), then typography leading controls (vertical spacing between rows of text) no longer work - and in some cases, the vertical spacing will be inconsistent within a single slide. Library/Shared Folders/Cloud/Pro sync creates multiple duplicate files... it's a nightmare....I have iterations of the original creation, then an iteration with - "*filename*-Media Laptop Pro"... When fonts cycle in and out for Adobe Suite monthly subscription - this can wreak havoc on text layout in slides that have been saved in the library. Developers should really address a font library that is static and part of the core of the program - and/or provide some sort of icon in GUI that delineates a font that is static from those that may rotate out of availability (aka, TypeKit, Adobe fonts, etc) so there is awareness when designing scripture, lyric or announcement text layouts. Developers also should be aware - when there is a DVD that is played through program with a reactive, embedded menu, there exists the possibility of stopping and closing the window, which renders the program unresponsive (presumably because it is seeking input from DVD control overlay) - and a close and restart must occur to return to service slides.