ProPresenter 4 has been released and it is packed full of new features!
The most advanced presentation software for the church has only gotten better with over 100 new features. Of the 100 new features there are 5 that really stand out to me.
Whether they are significant improvements or new features all together, they create a whole new experience. Here’s what I’ve seen:
1. Custom Slide Layout
The new custom slide layout feature allows the user to create a slide with text, video, live video, shapes, and more, all active within one slide.
For example, the slide could have a live video feed along with scripture or other text right next to it. Along with simple layout functions, new custom features include shadows, custom shapes, corner radius, and many more.
This allows for custom styles, spacing, margins, and alignment.
The slide layout not only affects individual slides, but also playlists and songs. With the new presentation views, you can view the entire playlist of song slides on one continuous page.
Other presentation views include single songs or a long list of slides.
2. Props
The next feature is a brand new feature altogether and will be very useful for most churches.
This feature will create a new foreground layer that overlays one slide, a few slides, or a whole presentation.
The layer can include a logo, a border, or a selection of text; you can even include a live feed in the props layer.
Props can be cleared or presented individually and will enhance the presentation by providing another layer of creativity and sophistication.
3. Timeline & Automation
This is a feature that previously existed in ProPresenter 3, although it has been drastically improved and redesigned.
The timeline feature in ProPresenter 4 allows the user to synchronize slides to a sound track for customized and automated playback.
The most obvious improvement to this feature is the new and improved interface. The slide durations can be set manually for each slide or a standard time for all of them.
You can also create cues in the timeline. If you are not using the timeline for a song or you don’t want to synchronize it with an audio track, you can create a blank timeline with whatever length you need. Another addition to this feature is that you cant offset all of the slides at once to any specific time.
4. Multiple Libraries
This is probably my favorite new feature in ProPresenter 4. It allows for multiple libraries to exist so that the youth ministry can adjust songs without affecting the main service and vice versa.
These separate libraries will come in handy for churches with more than one environment that uses ProPresenter or the same room.
What makes this feature even greater is that there is now a library synchronization tool. With this tool, you can sync your entire organization’s ProPresenter libraries through a network or a local disk.
You can choose to upload changes made, download changes, or sync both at once through the preference menu or a toolbar icon. ProPresenter will even show you what files are different and prompt you to choose which to sync.
5. Stage Display
This feature is completely new and will be very convenient for most churches. This stage display feature allows ProPresenter to display another video output to a monitor in front of the stage.
This display can be used to communicate things to the speaker, worship leader, or host. The display is very customizable with options for the current slide, custom text, timers, clocks and alerts. All of these things can be arranged to the way that you want to display them.
Overall, this release of ProPresenter will change the way your church production works and how well it flows. Another main feature of ProPresenter 4 that you should be interested in is the Windows version that will be released soon. Check it out at RenewedVision.
What do you think of the release? Is your church using it yet?
brianfalexander says
I have always been a propresenter fan and can’t wait to get my hands on this release of propresenter this summer. I love the props layer and being able to customize each slide.
Travis Fish says
Yeah, it rocks. You’ll love it!
kylan says
I recently found another presentation tool called Prezi (www.prezi.com). It’s intriguing because it really changes the presentation paradigm, even though it doesn’t have as many features as ProPresenter.
matthewskeith says
Yep! We’re loving it so far. We’ve taken advantage of the Custom Slide Layout and the Stage Display features for sure. The band LOVES the “next slide” feature of stage display for the cases of forgotten lyrics. So far, so good. It does seem to be a little less “snappy” at times and there seem to be some small bugs as it relates to creating new presentations and editing slides at times, but not enough for us to stop using it. Overall, we give it a thumbs up.
Tony Parker says
Nice break out of ProPresenter 4. This helps me when explaining the differences from the prior version. We use ProPresenter at our Church as well. The nicest feature is the custom backgrounds properties where you can set the image hue, contrast and speed. Allows you to sync up different backgrounds to keep the same color scheme.
I did a short tutorial on this. Hope is blesses other Church media guys and gals.
http://goo.gl/C3hS9
Tony
TrisTara says
Would there be any where to get the songs that have the words place in the time line already?