History of The Paperless Hymnal

Q - How did The Paperless Hymnal come into being?

A - In 1999, Roger Price became the minister at the Hyde Park Church of Christ in Austin, TX. Roger wanted to project slides during his sermons and with the help of several individuals, funding for the projector, screen and PC were obtained. The elders suggested to the music minister, James Tackett, that the words to the songs also be projected. James preferred that music also be projected, but such a program was not available at the time. Out of necessity, he started making his own slides for the songs being sung during their services. Making slides by scanning the songs from hymnals was ruled out because of lack of clarity and proper slide transition limitations. New artwork produced in Finale was the solution. It was much more time consuming, but the results were professional, consistant and adaptable. As others saw what Hyde Park was doing, a potental market was found for a full product. The first two volumes were published looking much like what you would see in a hymnal. Starting with Volume Three, the slides were changed to show only one stanza with much larger print. The first two volumes were reformated to show the new larger print. The phrase "paperless hymnal" was first used in a discription of the product given by Joe Ed Furr, director of the Singing School at ACU. The name stuck and is now the name of the company.

Introduction to The Paperless Hymnal

Q – Why is there a Paperless Hymnal?

A – Many churches are now using presentation software to project the lyrics to songs. The Paperless Hymnal projects both the lyrics and the music to songs, allowing singers to sing their parts and helping them learn new songs quicker. This influences the beautiful harmony we have always associated with our singing.

Q – Does everyone like The Paperless Hymnal?

A – No. Some people will always prefer having a book in their hands. Some will not like the change. Some churches have too much effort invested in their “lyrics only” methodology to consider allowing their members ready access to the music. It's interesting to note that it isn't just the techies who like The Paperless Hymnal. Many of the older generation have expressed their appreciation for it's advantages. They no longer have to hold a heavy song book and they can read it better.

Q - Does The Paperless Hymnal have any aids to help song and worship leaders?

A - Yes. We publish an Excel worksheet with topical, song and scripture indexes. This worksheet in expanded form is available by clicking here. The worksheet is incomplete and always in the process of being updated, but you are welcome to download it at any time and use it. Also, let us know what you think of the file and offer suggestions.

File information

Q – What is The Paperless Hymnal?

A – TPH is a set of PowerPoint files. Each file is a song in PowerPoint format, ready to use in a presentation.

Q – What is PowerPoint?

A – PowerPoint is software published by Microsoft that allows slides stored on a PC to be shown through a video projector.

Q – Can I use The Paperless Hymnal with other presentation software besides PowerPoint?

A – TPH is only tested with PowerPoint. However, any presentation software that will show PowerPoint formatted slides will be able to use TPH but it is not our intention to test or support these other programs. WE have customers that use EasyWorship and MediaShout and report satisfaction.

Q – Will The Paperless Hymnal work on PC’s and Mac’s?

A – Yes.

Using The Paperless Hymnal

Q – How do I use The Paperless Hymnal?

A – Once TPH has been loaded on your computer, songs can be copied into the presentation being put together for a song service.

Q – Must our church get a CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing International) license to use The Paperless Hymnal?

A – No. TPH is like any other hymnal you would buy for your church. The copyrights have already been paid by the publisher. Much of the cost of TPH goes to paying these copyright fees. If your church already has a CCLI license, your CCLI number should NOT appear on the slides used with TPH.

Q – Can we use The Paperless Hymnal with other “lyrics only” song slides?

A – Yes. TPH slides and “lyrics only” PowerPoint formatted slides can be mixed. Let us know which songs you are using and we will consider publishing those songs in future volumes.

Volumes

Q - Why are there several volumes to The Paperless Hymnal?

A - Volumes are published as the artwork and copyright permissions for about a hundred songs become available. This allows churches to make a smaller up front investment and add to that investment as volumes are published. This also allows the publisher a chance to include new and popular songs in a timely fashion. The Paperless Hymnal will always be an unfinished work.

Q – How often will The Paperless Hymnal publish a new volume?

A – It is our plan to publish a new volume of 100 songs every year. We now have seven volumes with some 890 songs available.

Q – How are the songs chosen for The Paperless Hymnal.

A – We try to publish the most popular songs in use by churches today. We have chosen the time-tested arrangements of songs and are not trying to republish any one particular hymnal.

Equipment and Software

Q - What equipment is necessary to use The Paperless Hymnal?

A - At a minunim, you will need a PC (or Mac), a projector and a screen. The PC should be running Windows 95 or later. It should have enough memory (usually 128MBytes with Windows 2000 or later is good) and a good enough video card with at least 32MBytes of onboard memory, be able to output 1024X768 and to switch screens within one second of hitting the ENTER key. It takes about 238Mbytes of disk space to store the first five volumes of The Paperless Hymnal and about 1MByte of disk space to hold each presentation. It is reported that our files work fine with Microsoft Vista.

For best results, the projector should be able to resolve 1024X768, be set to 1024X768 and the PC video should be set to 1024X768.

Q – Can we show The Paperless Hymnal on our present projection system?

A – That depends. If you have a good bright projector and a large screen, it most likely will work.

Q – How large should our screen be to use The Paperless Hymnal?

A – A good physical check is to take a your regular book hymnal, go to the back of the auditorium, open it up to a song and hold the hymnal up in front of you as if the song was being projected at the front of the auditorium. Pick out points at the front of the auditorium that correspond to the left and right edges of the song. Measure the distance between these two points at the front of the auditorium to find the horizontal dimensions for a properly sized screen.

Q – Can our church get professional help in choosing a projection system for our building?

A – Four J, one of our resellers, is in the business of helping churches with their video and audio needs. They can work with you in your present building or from the planning stages for a future building.

Q – Does Microsoft PowerPoint come with The Paperless Hymnal?

A – No. PowerPoint must be purchased separately.

Q – What operating systems and PowerPoint versions is The Paperless Hymnal tested on?

A – TPH is tested on Windows 9X, 2K and XP and on Power Point 2002.

Q – How can I keep up with new offerings from The Paperless Hymnal?

A – If you are not a registered user, you can check this web site from time to time. This is our tool to let the world know about what is going on with TPH. Registered users of TPH get emails from us, notifying them of new offerings, as well as updated files that may have corrections.

Purchasing The Paperless Hymnal

Q – How can we “test drive” The Paperless Hymnal before we comment to a purhase?

A – This web site has over sixty songs that can be downloaded and are free for you to use without any further permission from us. Just copy these songs into your presentation and give it a try.

Q – How can we purchase The Paperless Hymnal?

A – You can order from this web site or from any of our resellers. We accept checks or can bill your church but only our resellers can accept credit cards at this time.

Q – Will The Paperless Hymnal consider customizing songs for our church?

A – Run it by us and we will consider it, but there is no guarantee that we will have the time or resources to do custom work. Such work would be done on a per hour basis and such custom work would remain the property of TPH and would possibly be used in future volumes of TPH.

Q - How is The Paperless Hymnal shipped?

A - We ship The Paperless Hymnal USPS Priority Mail unless asked to do so otherwise. Shipping is charged to the buyer if not sent Priority Mail.

User Support

Q – Does The Paperless Hymnal provide support to its customers?

A - Yes. We are only a phone call away at 512-785-9303 or you may Email us at support@paperlesshymnal.com.

Q – How may I stay apprised of new products from The Paperless Hymnal?

A - All registered users receive a monthly newsletter by Email updating them on progress of new volumes.

Q - What is I find a mistake in one of the songs?

A - Please let us know by going to our Correction Form. Fill it out and we will make the correction, post it on our web site and let all our registered uses know that the corrections is available by way of the monthly newsletter.

Q - I don't get the monthly newsletter. What do I have to do to get it?

A - All you have to do is register. You will need to know the serial number from your last Paperless Hymnal CD. Using our registeration form is easy and painless. Afterward you will receive monthly updates and corrections.

Q - I am registered but do not get the monthly newsletter.

A - 1)We might have failed to place you in the distribution list. 2)Have you changed your email address? In either case, please fill out our registeration form again. 3)You might have your email set up to not accept any "spam emails" from any source. Our monthly email may look like spam to your email program. To correct this, place "James@paperlesshymnal.com" in the contact list of your email program.