One of the strengths of SongShow Plus is its Display Properties mechanism. It provides flexibility with its cascading design letting you override groups of properties while inheriting from base properties. However, that flexibility is also a feature that often stymies some users, particularly those who are giving SongShow Plus a kick-of-the-tires, so to speak.
Because of this, the September 2009 Edition of SongShow Plus introduces a Basic Global Display Properties window which, by default, is the window you will get when you go to set the global display properties. This window is very similar to the basic settings window (a feature introduced in the October 2007 Edition) you get when adding a song or scripture item to a program. Here's a screen shot of the first page:
On this page, you can select a background image, video, solid color. A "none" option is also available for those using the transparent background feature. You can also import an image or video file from within this window as well. You also have easy access to basic image/video adjustments for contrast, brightness, color level, and hue.
On the next page you are given basic options for specifying song text color and appearance.
As you can see, there is font selection, style for lyrics and title info, color, then soft-shadow or now shadow. No option is given for size since the typical size options are to shrink/grow/ensure-consistent anyway making an actual text size selection irrelevant.
The next page provides you with basic options for specifying song text layout.
Here you can specify the location for lyrics position and title information as well as alignment options. You can also specify verse-by-verse, line-by-line, etc as well as lyrics/title slide options. Unlike the advanced display properties, the basic window lumps the title, author, copyright, and reference fields into a single rectangle area called "info". This makes it more convenient to place that information grouped together.
Similar pages are also available for scripture text appearance and layout.
You will also notice that there is a Use Advanced Display Properties button at the bottom panel. Clicking this will take you to the display properties window you have used before.
Then finally, this window now has a new button, Use Basic Display Properties, which will take you back to the window I just described. When you open the display properties window again, you'll get the same one that you last closed.
The addition of the Basic Global Display Properties window is another ease-of-use enhancement for SongShow Plus.
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