Using Presenter

Presenter turns the chord charts already stored in Songlib into lyric slides, leaving out the chords so the audience sees only the words. There is no separate presentation to prepare.

Presenter works within a library, which contains the songs and sets shared by a team. A set is the list of songs planned for a service or event. Presenter normally starts with a set, but it can also display any other song in the library. It runs anywhere you can open a web browser, with nothing to install; make sure you have a plan for a dependable internet connection.

Choose how you want to display the lyrics

Presenter and controller on two screens

Connect a computer to a projector or television and extend the desktop. Presenter fills the audience screen while its controller stays on the computer screen. This works well when somebody is operating the lyrics from the back of the room.

Presenter on one screen

Run Presenter full screen on a computer, tablet, or television web view. Control it on that device, or leave it following Live Sync while somebody uses a phone, tablet, or another computer to choose songs and slides.

Show the complete song

Open a shared set link and hide the chords and section headings. This puts the whole song on screen rather than making separate slides, which can suit a small group or a large display.

Set up the whole-song view

Join the team library

You need access to the library that contains the team’s songs and sets. If you are not already a member:

  1. Ask the library administrator to send you an invitation.
  2. Open the invitation link from your email.
  3. Log in, or create an account, then finish accepting the invitation.
  4. Use Songlib’s library selector to choose the library named in the invitation.
  5. Check that you can see the team’s songs and sets.
Only seeing Personal Library? Switch libraries, reopen the invitation, or ask the administrator to check your access before continuing.

Start Presenter

Push the opening song

A Songlib library has one live set, with a current song and slide. Start by choosing exactly which song you want Presenter to show first:

  1. Open Sets in the correct library.
  2. Open the set for the service and check that it contains the expected songs.
  3. Open the song you want to display first. This does not have to be the first song in the set.
  4. Select Push Live from that song’s chord chart view.

Push Live makes that set, song, and its opening slide current throughout the library. A library can only have one live set at a time, so use separate libraries if two groups need to run different sets at once.

Open the slideshow

Select Presenter from Songlib’s main navigation, then select Live sync slideshow. The current Presenter opens in a new tab and loads the song and slide that are currently live.

Presenter remembers whether this browser last left the screen blank. If the new tab is black, press B to show the lyrics.

The Presenter button at the top of a set opens an older, set-focused version with fewer features. The Live sync slideshow is the current version.

Using two screens

The new Presenter tab is the window intended for the audience screen.

  1. In the computer’s display settings, choose Extend, not Mirror or Duplicate.
  2. If Presenter opened as a tab, drag the tab away from the browser to make a separate window.
  3. Move the black Presenter window to the projector or television.
  4. Move the pointer over Presenter, or click once, to reveal the hamburger menu button in the bottom-left corner.
  5. Select the hamburger menu, then select Show controller.... If it opens on the audience screen, move it back to the computer screen.
  6. Put the Presenter window into the browser’s full-screen mode so the tabs and address bar are hidden. This is often F11 on Windows or Control–Command–F on macOS.

If the controller does not appear, allow pop-ups for Songlib and try again. Presenter and its controller must remain open on the same computer.

Using one screen

Put Presenter into the browser’s full-screen mode on the display device so the tabs and address bar are hidden. You can move the pointer or click to reveal its bottom-left hamburger menu and use the controls directly, or turn Respond to Pushes on and control it from another device through Live Sync. An unattended television or tablet can simply stay open and follow the person who is pushing.

Use the Presenter controller

The controller window changes the Presenter window immediately. It shows the set, the current song, the lyric slides, and the Presenter settings without putting those controls on the audience screen. If you are not using a separate controller, the bottom-left menu in Presenter provides the same song and display settings.

Choose a song

Select any song in the Setlist panel. The songs do not have to be used in order. Select All songs to search the rest of the library.

Choose a slide

Select a lyric block, use Prev slide or Next slide, or press an arrow key. The number keys 1–9 jump straight to a slide.

Blank the screen

Select Blank screen or press B during announcements, while finding another song, or any time you do not want lyrics showing.

Change the font size

Use the Font size minus and plus buttons in Presenter’s menu or the controller. Check the longest slide after changing it. If the lyrics are split into the wrong slides, update the headings and blank lines in the song using the chord chart formatting guide.

If a song is not in the set

  1. Blank the screen.
  2. Open All songs and search for the title.
  3. Select the song and its opening slide.
  4. Select Blank screen again when the lyrics are ready.

Selecting the song here does not permanently add it to the set. When Live Sync is on, somebody can also find the song in the library and push it from another device.

Live Sync

Live Sync shares the library’s current set, song, and slide between devices. It can let a musician control an unattended display, or let other people’s chord charts follow the Presenter operator. If somebody is already operating the lyrics and nobody else needs to follow, you can leave it off.

Presenter has two Live Sync settings:

  • Respond to Pushes lets another Songlib device change the set, song, or slide in Presenter.
  • Push everything I do sends Presenter’s choices to other devices that are following the library.

Leave both settings off when Presenter is being operated on its own. To control Presenter from another device, turn Respond to Pushes on and leave Push everything I do off. To make Presenter lead other devices, do the opposite.

Choose one person to push at a time. If several devices push different songs or slides, the most recent push wins and the screen may jump around.

Control Presenter from a phone, tablet, or another computer

  1. Turn Respond to Pushes on in Presenter.
  2. Leave Push everything I do off in Presenter.
  3. Open the live set in the same library on the other device.
  4. Push a song, then click or tap a verse to push that slide. The verses do not look like buttons, but they can be selected: a grey bar appears beside the verse while the network request is in progress, then turns green when that verse is live.
  5. Check that the display follows before the set begins.

The other device controls the display through Live Sync; it does not open Presenter’s controller window. A shared set link can also take part when it was created with Live Sync access.

You can test Live Sync by yourself. Log in to the same Songlib account on two devices, open Presenter on one and the live set on the other, then try changing songs and tapping verses. This is an easy way to experiment with the two Live Sync settings before using them during a set.

Show the whole song from a set link

A set link has two useful advantages: it can be opened without a Songlib account, and it can show the entire song at once so nobody needs to change slides as the song progresses.

  1. Open Sets in the correct library, then open the set you want to share.
  2. Select More, then Create link to share....
  3. Choose the link’s Live Sync access. Use Follow Only when the display should follow another operator, or Allow Push when somebody using the link should also be able to control the live song and slide.
  4. Choose whether the link should start with Live Sync running, set how long it remains valid, then select Create link.
  5. Open the generated link on the display device.
  6. Open a song, select Prefs, then turn off Show chords and Show section headings.
  7. Songlib automatically sizes the whole song to the available space. If the text is smaller than you want, turn on Allow large fonts in Prefs.
  8. Choose songs on that device, or turn on Live Sync so it follows somebody else.

If you cannot see Create link to share..., ask the library administrator to create the link for you.

Before the set starts

  • The correct library and set are open, and the intended opening song has been pushed live.
  • The display shows the Presenter window.
  • Presenter is in the browser’s full-screen mode and blank.
  • The controller or remote device works.
  • Sleep, screensavers, and notifications are disabled.
  • Live Sync is set for the person who is leading.
  • The first song and its longest slide have been checked.
  • Everyone knows who is changing the lyrics.

Troubleshooting

Check that you are in the team library rather than Personal Library. Open a set containing at least one song, open the song you want to display, select Push Live, and refresh Presenter.

Turn Respond to Pushes off and continue locally. Find out which device was pushing before turning it back on.

Check that Respond to Pushes is on, the other device is actually pushing, and both devices use the same library. Refresh Presenter if the internet connection was interrupted.

Accept only if the team intends to change sets. Declining keeps the current set and stops Presenter from responding to further pushes.

Allow pop-ups for Songlib, close the old controller, and select Show controller... again. If Presenter was closed or refreshed, reopen the controller from it.

On a two-screen computer, choose an extended desktop, move the black Presenter window to the audience display, and put that window into the browser’s full-screen mode. Maximising the window is not enough: browser full-screen mode hides the tabs and address bar.

Correct the lyrics, headings, or blank lines in the saved song, then load the song again in Presenter. See the chord chart formatting guide for the exact format.
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