Church songbooks: your own sets of songs

A church songbook is a set of songs you put together yourself: for the youth group, the men's group, Christmas or a retreat. One song can be in several songbooks at once, and you decide the order. In DEMO CHURCH EN you'll find examples such as “Youth meetings”, “Men's group” and “Christmas”.

How they differ from shared songbooks

The same page shows two kinds of songbook, and they work differently.

• Library holds the shared songbooks from Songs: songbooks, new songs and moving from another program. We keep them up to date, they have their own numbering, and you bring them into your church with Add to church.
• Church songbooks are yours. Only your church sees them, you choose what goes in, and no song is copied. A song in your songbook is the same song as in your library, so a correction in one place shows up everywhere.

A church songbook is a list, not a service plan. It doesn't go on screen by itself. For a service, build a plan: Service plans and serving rosters.

Create a songbook

1. Go to Music → Songs, Songbooks tab. Church songbooks is at the top, above Library.
2. Click the New songbook tile.
3. Type a Name. Description (optional) is for a short note, e.g. “Friday youth meetings and retreats”.
4. Click Save. The new songbook opens right away.

The cover is created by itself from the name and a colour. You can't upload your own.

Add songs

There are two ways. Both work only with songs that are already in your library, including songs from shared songbooks you've added.

From the songbook page:

1. In the Search for a song to add… field, type part of a title or an author.
2. Click a song on the list of suggestions. It joins the end of the songbook.
3. The field shows up to 8 suggestions and skips songs that are already in the songbook. If you don't see a song, type more of its title.

From the song page:

1. Open a song. Below its title you'll see In songbooks: with the ones it already belongs to.
2. Click Add to songbook.
3. Tick the songbooks this song should be in. Untick one to take the song out.
4. To create a songbook on the spot, type its name in Or create a new one (name).
5. Click Save.

The second way is handy when you're working through the library song by song.

Set the order

On the songbook page, the numbers on the left show the order. Use the Move up and Move down arrows next to a song. Each click saves at once, so there's no save button. You can't drag songs here.

These numbers show the position in your list only. They aren't songbook numbers, so you won't find a song by typing them in the search box above the song list.

Change or delete

• Edit name and description on the songbook page changes the name and description.
• The X next to a song (Remove from this songbook) takes it off the list. The song stays in your library.
• Delete songbook removes the whole songbook after you confirm. Its songs stay in your library.

Who sees what

• Anyone who can see songs and songbooks sees church songbooks and can open them. This includes Musicians and Viewers. If your church has none yet, they won't see the section at all.
• Creating and changing songbooks takes Songs: Edit (Leader, Administrator, Owner). That's different from shared songbooks, where only the Owner and the Administrator can use Add to church.

In the apps

Desktop app on Mac (0.9.62). Songs has a Church songbooks section, and each songbook has its own tab with numbered songs. On a song, use Add to songbook. A collection from an import can become a songbook with Turn into a songbook. Songbooks open without internet, but changing one needs a connection.

Desktop app on Windows and Linux. These versions don't have the section yet. A playlist saved there and a church songbook are the same list, so playlists from the desktop app appear here as church songbooks, and church songbooks appear there as playlists above the song list.

iPhone, iPad and Android. Church songbooks aren't in the store versions yet. Your songs are there as usual, because a songbook doesn't change them. For a retreat without internet, put the songs in a plan: the app keeps songs and plans on the device.

Worth knowing

• A song removed from your library no longer shows in the songbook.
• One songbook holds up to 5,000 songs.
• Two people can work on the same songbook at once. Their additions don't overwrite each other.

What's next

• Songs: songbooks, new songs and moving from another program
• The app for musicians: iPhone, iPad and Android