Splitting slides using Insert button

stmarysbillingshurst

When using the "Insert" button to split a verse or chorus section across multiple slides, the formatting remains after Open LP is closed and re-opened but does not show in the .XML file and so does not copy across to other computers, nor if the song is re-inserted.Is there a way around this? Thanks

phill

Hi, Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and ask this question.

Unfortunately this is a known bug, you can track it at https://bugs.launchpad.net/openlp/+bug/876211 Hopefully it will be fixed before the next release.

The only work arround would be to copy and replace the whole OpenLP song database, but this could cause issues if other people are using different versions of OpenLP, and could put you at risk of corrupting your database. You would also run in to problems if you have several people wanting to add or edit a song at the same time.

Phill

wogster

If it's a song, then another option is to use split, this essentially is [---] on a separate line in the text, if there is not enough room for all of the text, it will split it there, rather then where it runs out of room.  This could work just as well, and does transfer across computers.

Tomlikesfree

This does work BUT it doesn't solve the problem satisfactorily for me and here is why. There are a lot of songs I want to split in a specific location every time because of the voicing of the song just fits better that way. That won't happen if there is enough room for the entire verse on the slide. The obvious solution to this is to make the area in the theme smaller so that it will always be forced to use the split. However, there are a few times when I do want an extra line to appear on the slide and that would not be possible with that solution.For example, Let's say I have a verse that has 4 long lines that can all be divided in half to make 8 lines. The first four lines fit well on the one slide and the 2nd four lines fit well together on the second slide. I can get OLP to do that using your method and adjusting the theme so that it will always force the split. But maybe on that same song there is a repeated line on the ending plus I use a final line at the end of the song to let people know that it is the end of the song. (I use 5 underscore dashes to make a short line at the end.) That means that my last slide could have 6 lines of text plus one more with the short ending line for a total of 7. I don't really want to split this slide because I think it is a little distracting to have one last line at the end of a song but that is what would happen if I used the split.Just saying that I will be happy when the bug is resolved.

Ian Goldby

If the theme had space for seven lines, then the verses with the splits would be displayed four and four, while still allowing up to seven lines in other cases. I agree that a fix to the bug would be idea, but would this solution do in the interim?

Tomlikesfree

Yes, I could do that to get it to work on a one-off situation (the example I gave is just one scenario) but, like you said, the bug fix would make things a lot easier and flexible. But this is a transfer bug so for right now I just put everything together on the same machine.  It would be nice though to put presentations together in my office and just tranfer it to the projection equipment and not worry about it.

stmarysbillingshurst

Thanks for this.For now I'm happy with transferring the entire database each time I send an update - to be honest this means I can keep a master database on one computer and push the whole thing out each time, making sure we all have a standard database.Looking forward to the day when this bug is fixed though!Peter

Mickeyj4j

I am wanting to know how to change the area locations so that i get 4 lines per slide instead of the usual. i don't wan't to change the font size. 

any ideas on this please. 

we are now a year after the last post here and a few versions later and still no fix. the verse split insert should override the default lines and split the verse there. i am surprised this is not fixed.

Mickeyj4j

vrs split still does not work properly even in the latest 2.0.3 i have to use seperate vrs chorus splits. which is not ideas at all and is confusing. a vrs split should split where it is. not where the theme thinks it should be.

phill

Hi Mickey,

If you are still trying to get 4 lines per slide with out adjusting the font size you need to set the size of the "Main Area" in themes. This needs to be done for each theme an will take some trial an error. See: http://manual.openlp.org/themes.html#output-area-locations for more information.

When you say "vrs split still does not work properly" are you talking about the "[---]" split? This is an optional split, and tells OpenLP to split it there if the lyrics are too long for the silde. The other way of createing a forced split is by creating two verses with the same name.

carl

Mickey, you should be able to insert the same verse multiple times. This will force it to split over several slides regardless of the screen or font size. Several versions ago, this caused a problem if you cloned or exported a song but according to the bug report mentioned by Phill in his first reply right at the top of this thread this has been fixed. (I haven't tested exporting and reimporting so maybe there is still an issue.) The following example should put verse 1 on two separate slides: ---[Verse:1]--- Line 1... Line 2... ---[Verse:1]--- Line 3... Line 4... ---[Verse:2]--- And so on... Is that what you're trying to do?

Anastazzo

Hi, I am totally new in using OpenLP as I am just testing possible switch from OpenSong. The simple split song verse command is crucial to me for various reasons but I wonder how I can get the "[---]" command working? I edited the song, inserted those 5 digits on a separate line, saved, but nothing happened. The verse would not show on 2 separate slides. Am I missing something or is it not possible? The Verse1 - Verse1 solution is not acceptable. I can´t imagine rewriting hundreds of songs. Also: could the song import process from OpenSong recognise the "||" command used in OpenSong (which does the splitting) and rewrite it to anything that works in OLP? Similarly, it would be nice if import translated also "|" which forces to break a paragraph.[Besides that - partly as an OpenSong user - I am missing also: 1. the ability to choose only some verses from a song to be set to display only on a given service.2. grouping of the songs into songbooks and displaying them so in the "Songs" tab.3. ability to add formatting tags to bible texts rather than to songs.]Besides that: thanks for a great piece of software!

raoul

[---] is an OPTIONAL split. It instructs OpenLP to split the slide at that location should the verse be too large to fit on a single slide. You can split a verse across two slides manually by inserting two verses named "V1" and then both of those verses will appear when you add "V1" into the verse order.

Anastazzo

That´s what I thought, but the [---] command seems not to be working. As I said in my first post, I´ve entered it while editing the song but it does not split the text into two separate slides when displaying. You can´t see any difference in the preview window, either. Is there any setting that enables/disables this function? Or is it a bug?As I said earlier, I am NOT interested in the V1 - V1 solution as for now.

Tomlikesfree

For clarity - Anastazzo are you understanding that Raul is saying that [---] is an optional split NOT meaning that it is an option to V1-V1 but meaning that it uses the option ONLY if the verse is too big for the verse area on the slide? 

If you are trying to limit the number of lines on a slide you could try adjusting the text area in the theme editor, making it small enough to allow more than 4 lines, for example. Then if you had a verse with 5 lines it would be too big to fit on one slide. You should then be able to use [---] to split it anywhere you wanted, say after 3 lines. In other words. OLP first looks at if the verse will fit on one slide. If it will, then [---] is not an option. If the verse will not fit on one slide then [---] becomes an option. Since you are not seeing it work I am guessing that the verse you are experimenting will fit on the slide so [---] is not going to work.

Anastazzo

Thank you for a clear explanation, Tomlikesfree! That makes sense! Although I wonder why the [---] function works ONLY if the text exceeds the allowed number of lines. I would strongly suggest to make it available anywhere and anytime the editor wishes to do so. There are plenty of reasons for this from my experience of managing hundreds to thousands of songs with so many specific demands. I wonder what are the benefits of the conditioning, but will look into it.Again, thank you very much for explaining!

gushie

It is an intentional design decision. Some people use the same song with different themes, theme A may have room for 8 lines, theme B only room for 4 lines due to the background image.

They don't want to have the same song twice in the database, so they can suggest the best place to perform the slide break for theme B using [---], however keep a long verse intact for theme A.

To force a slide break, we made it so you can just specify the same verse tag more than once, as per Raoul's original reply, so your scenario is equally possible.

Tomlikesfree

Anastazzo, I am curious why you don't like the ---[Verse:1]--- function. It does exactly what you want it to do. You can insert it with one click or you could type it. Is it just because you are used to using [---]?

Anastazzo

@ Tomlikesfree: No, I´m not biased against that V1-V1 function as such. But imagine hundreds to thousands of songs in my database and maybe majority of them formatted in OpenSong with the simple || command, many times it is used multiple times in a song (some of them have several verses). To transform this would mean way too big amount of work. Maybe some kind of script could do the job, but for that I´m not good enough to make it. Moreover, there are not only songs but also other types of texts (Psalm chants, confessions, parts of liturgy etc.) where the demand for certain freedom in displaying is very needed. That´t why I am voicing so strongly in favour of the [---] command. @gushie: that makes sense, thank you for explaining. I´ve played around a bit trying to get along but the outcomes were not satisfactory. If possible I dare to suggest two options somewhere in the settings:1. option to use the break command "absolutely",  i. e. always splitting the text into two slides whenever it appears, no matter the space allowed by the theme2. option: using the break command "relatively", i. e. splitting only if the text exceedes the space allowed by theme.That would make me (and others as well, i think) completely happy :)Would that make sense?