Songs are at the heart of most church services, and a well-organized library makes every Sunday smoother. Church Presenter keeps all your lyrics in one place, lets you search by title, author, or song number in seconds, and sends verses to the screen with a single click. This guide covers everything from the initial setup through ongoing library management.

Step 1: Set your Songs storage directory

Before Church Presenter can load any songs, it needs to know where they live on your computer.

  1. Open Settings (⚙ in the toolbar).
  2. Go to the System tab.
  3. Click Browse… next to Songs Storage Directory and select the folder where your song files are stored — or create a new folder called Songs somewhere easy to find, like your Documents folder.
  4. Click OK. The app scans that folder and loads every song file it finds.

From this point on, any song file you drop into that folder will appear in the library automatically the next time the app loads it.

Step 2: Import songs from existing files

Church Presenter’s native song format is .song. If your songs are already in this format, just copy the files into the Songs Storage Directory from Step 1 and the app loads them automatically.

If you’re coming from another program, use one of these paths:

Migrating from SongPresenter (.sps files)

SongPresenter songbooks can be converted directly inside Church Presenter without any extra tools:

  1. Copy your .sps file into the Songs Storage Directory.
  2. Open Settings → System tab.
  3. Church Presenter detects the file and shows a Convert button next to it.
  4. Click Convert. The app converts the songbook into individual .song files in a new subfolder named after the songbook.

After conversion, the original .sps file can be removed from the folder.

Migrating from SongBeamer and other formats (.sng files)

SongBeamer .sng files and several other formats are handled by the standalone ChurchPresenter Converter. Open it from Help → Converter, select your files, choose an output folder, and click Convert. Copy the resulting .song files into your Songs Storage Directory.

Step 3: Create a song from scratch

Don’t have any files to import? No problem — you can build your library one song at a time directly inside Church Presenter.

  1. Go to the Songs tab F7.
  2. Click the New Song button (the + icon in the toolbar).
  3. A song editor opens. Fill in the Title, and optionally the Author, Song Number, and Songbook.
  4. Type or paste the lyrics into the editor. Mark each section with a header on its own line — [Verse 1], [Verse 2] for verses and {Chorus} for the chorus — and leave a blank line between sections.
  5. Click Save. The song is saved to your Songs Storage Directory as a ChurchPresenter file.

Structuring lyrics for presentation

Church Presenter splits lyrics into slides based on section headers, not blank lines. A header is any line wrapped in brackets or braces: square brackets [ ] mark a verse (or any other non-chorus section, such as a bridge or intro), and curly braces { } mark the chorus. Each header starts a new slide; the blank lines simply keep sections readable in the editor. The text inside the brackets is just a label for you — the operator — so name them however you like.

A typical song layout looks like this:

[Verse 1]
Verse 1 line one
Verse 1 line two
Verse 1 line three

{Chorus}
Chorus line one
Chorus line two

[Verse 2]
Verse 2 line one
Verse 2 line two

You only need to write the chorus once — Church Presenter automatically repeats it after each verse.

Keep each section short enough to read comfortably from a distance — two to four lines is usually right.

Dual language songs

If your congregation sings in two languages, the song editor has a Secondary Title field and a Secondary Lyrics section alongside the primary ones. Enter the translation there, structuring it the same way — using the same [Verse 1] / {Chorus} headers, matching the primary lyrics section by section.

Church Presenter stores both languages together in a single .song file: a [Primary] block and a [Secondary] block, each beginning with its own title: line followed by the section headers. The whole bilingual song lives in one file:

[Primary]
title: Song title

[Verse 1]
Verse 1 line one
Verse 1 line two

{Chorus}
Chorus line one
Chorus line two

[Secondary]
title: Translated title

[Verse 1]
Translated verse 1 line one
Translated verse 1 line two

{Chorus}
Translated chorus line one
Translated chorus line two

Church Presenter lines the two blocks up section by section — verse 1 with verse 1, chorus with chorus — so each slide can show both languages at once. Keep the same number of sections in the same order in both blocks, or they won’t pair up.

When both are filled in, you can control how they appear on screen from Settings → Songs:

  • Language — show Both languages together, Primary only, or Secondary only. This is set independently for the fullscreen and lower-third outputs.
  • Bilingual layout — when showing both, choose Left / Right (side by side) or Top / Bottom (stacked).

Because the language is set separately for each output, different screens can show different languages at the same time — for example, the main projector (fullscreen) showing both while the lower-third stream overlay shows just the primary. (A stage monitor, if you use one, always shows the primary language.)

Step 4: Edit an existing song

To edit any song in your library:

  1. Find the song in the Songs tab list.
  2. Right-click it and choose Edit Song, or select it and click the Edit button (pencil icon) in the toolbar.
  3. Make your changes in the editor — you can update the title, lyrics, author, song number, or songbook.
  4. Click Save. The updated file is saved to the same location.

Edits take effect immediately — the next time you select that song in a service, it will show the updated lyrics.

Step 5: Organize songs with songbooks

Songbooks are the main way to group songs in Church Presenter. Every song can belong to a songbook, and each song in a book can have a number. This mirrors how printed hymnals and chorus books are typically organized.

To assign a songbook and number when creating or editing a song:

  1. Open the song editor.
  2. Enter the Songbook name (e.g. “Hymnal 2020” or “Praise Songs”).
  3. Enter the Song Number if the book uses one.
  4. Save.

You can have as many songbooks as you need — all song files live in the same Songs Storage Directory, and Church Presenter displays and searches across all of them at once. Each songbook simply appears as a separate grouping within that shared library.

Once songs are assigned to songbooks, you can filter the Songs tab to show only one book at a time — useful when your church uses multiple collections and you want to narrow down quickly.

To filter by songbook:

Use the Songbook dropdown at the top of the Songs tab to select a book. The list immediately narrows to just that collection.

Step 6: Work with the song list

Favorites

Mark songs you use frequently by clicking the star button in the Favorites column. Your favorites then appear in a separate, collapsible Favorites panel for quick access (and you can sort the list by the Favorites column to group them). You can also right-click any song and choose Add to favorites or Remove from favorites from the context menu.

Adding to the schedule

Click the Add to Schedule button on any song row to queue it without leaving the list. The same option is available in the right-click context menu — useful when you want to add several songs in quick succession.

Right-click context menu

Right-clicking a song gives you quick access to the most common actions: Add to Schedule, Add to / Remove from Favorites, Edit Song, and more — without needing to select the song first.

Customize columns

Click the Filter columns button (the sliders icon at the right end of the column header row) to show or hide individual columns:

  • Number — the song number within its songbook
  • Title — always visible, cannot be hidden
  • Songbook — which collection the song belongs to (only shown when more than one songbook is loaded)
  • Tune — the tune name
  • Plays — how many times the song has been sent live
  • Author and Composer
  • Favorites and Add to Schedule — action buttons

You can also right-click any column header to toggle columns from there.

To change the column order, drag a column header left or right into the position you want. To resize a column, drag the divider between two column headers.

Step 7: Search for songs during a service

The Songs tab has a single search box at the top that matches both the song title and the song number. Type any part of a title, or a song number, and the list filters in real time.

Next to it, a match-type selector controls how strictly your text is matched:

  • Contains (default) — shows any song whose number or title contains what you typed.
  • Starts with — matches only from the start of the title or number.
  • Exact match — matches the full title or number exactly.

If your list shows all songbooks and you type “42”, you’ll see every song numbered 42 across all collections — or switch the songbook filter first to narrow it.

Tip: Under Contains, “42” also matches 420, 1421, and any title containing “42”. To jump to exactly song 42, switch the match type to Exact match and type the number.

Tip: For Sunday morning speed, ask your worship leader for the song list the day before and add all songs to the schedule in advance. That way, on the day you’re working the schedule rather than searching.

Step 8: Send a song to the screen

Once you’ve found the song:

  1. Click it to select it — the lyrics preview appears on the right.
  2. Click the slide you want to show first in the preview panel.
  3. Click the Go Live button or double-click the slide to send it to the projection screen.
  4. Use the arrow keys or click the next slide in the preview to advance through the song.

To add the song to the schedule instead of going live immediately, click Add to Schedule or press F2.

Keyboard shortcuts for the Songs tab

KeyAction
F7Switch to Songs tab
Double-clickSend slide live
F2Add song to Schedule
F1Open keyboard shortcuts reference
↑ / ↓Move between songs in list
← / →Move between slides of a song

Song title slide

Church Presenter can show a dedicated cover slide before the first lyrics slide — displaying just the song title and number so the congregation knows what’s coming before the words appear.

To enable it, open Settings → Songs and check the Enabled box under Song Title Slide. Once on, every song you send live will automatically begin with a title card. Send it live the same way you would any other slide; the first lyrics slide follows when you advance.

The title slide uses the same title font, color, and alignment settings as the rest of the song (configured in the Title section of the Songs tab). No separate styling needed.

Formatting songs for projection

All visual settings for how songs appear on screen live in Settings → Songs. The tab is split into two main areas — left for number/title/transition, right for lyrics.

Song number and title display

Both the song number and title can be shown on None, First page only, or Every page. Set these independently for fullscreen and lower-third screens.

For each, you can control:

  • Font size — separate values for fullscreen and lower third
  • Font type — choose any font installed on your system
  • Color and style — color picker plus bold, italic, underline, and drop shadow
  • Vertical position — above or below the lyrics
  • Horizontal alignment — left, center, or right

If the number and title share the same position, a Number before title checkbox appears — tick it to show them on the same line in that order.

Lyrics formatting

Under Lyrics on the right side of the tab:

  • Word wrap — when checked, long lines wrap to fit the screen instead of being cut off.
  • Vertical alignment — positions the lyric block at the top, middle, or bottom of the screen.
  • Display mode — choose between One verse (shows the whole section at once) or One line (advances one line at a time). Set separately for fullscreen and lower third.
  • Language — if a song has both a primary and secondary language, choose to show Both, Primary only, or Secondary only. The bilingual layout (left/right or top/bottom split) is set at the bottom of the left column.
  • Font size — set a fixed size, or tick Auto-fit to let the app scale the text to fill the available space automatically.
  • Font type, alignment, color, and style — same controls as for the title, set independently for fullscreen and lower third.

Text margins

At the bottom of the left column, a visual margin editor lets you set padding (in pixels) on all four sides of the screen. Useful for keeping text away from the edges of a projector image or avoiding letterboxing.

Slide transitions

Also in the left column under Transition:

  • Duration — a slider from 100 ms to 2000 ms controls how long the animation takes.
  • Fade in / Fade out / Crossfade — enable any combination. Crossfade blends the outgoing slide into the incoming one; fade in/out fade against a solid background.

CCLI usage report

If your church holds a CCLI license, Church Presenter tracks every song and Bible verse sent live and generates a ready-to-submit usage report.

Open Edit → Statistics to see the report. It has three tabs:

  • Songs — lists every unique song played in the selected period with total play counts and a Top Songs chart.
  • Bible — same breakdown for Bible verses, grouped by book.
  • Activity — a timeline of all presentations over the period.

Use the date preset buttons (Last 30 Days, Last 90 Days, This Year, Last Year, All Time) or set a custom date range. Click Export CSV to download the data in a format ready for CCLI’s online reporting tool.

Play counts are tracked automatically every time a song goes live — no manual logging needed. The Plays column in the song list shows the all-time total for each song at a glance.

Tips for keeping your library in good shape

Keep one folder, one library. Everything in your Songs Storage Directory is your library. Don’t scatter files across multiple folders — you’ll end up with duplicates and version confusion.

Use consistent songbook names. “Hymnal”, “hymnal”, and “Hymnal ” (trailing space) are three different songbooks in the app. Pick a naming convention and stick to it.

Number your songs if your church uses a hymnal. Song numbers let anyone in the congregation call out a number and you can jump straight to it.

Back up the Songs folder. The simplest approach is to set your Songs Storage Directory inside a Google Drive or Dropbox folder — changes sync automatically and you get a full version history with no manual effort.

Update lyrics on a weekday, not Sunday. If a song has wrong lyrics, fix it before the service — not during it. The editor autosaves, but you don’t want to be in the middle of editing when worship starts.

Once your library is built, the next step is putting songs into a service order. See How to Build and Run a Sunday Service Schedule for a walkthrough of the Schedule panel.