The patch to upgrade Lutheran Service Builder to version 1.8.4 has just been released through the automatic update service. All users of Lutheran Service Builder who start Builder while connected to the Internet should receive a prompt to download and install the update.

It is a very small (~540 KB) patch to 1.8.3 with a handful of changes and bug fixes. If you encounter any difficulty while downloading or installing the update, please contact Support by leaving a comment to this post, sending e-mail to lsbsupport@cph.org, or calling 800-346-6120, and a technician will be happy to assist you in upgrading your Builder installation.

This update is recommended for all users of Lutheran Service Builder and can easily be downloaded by users with dial-up Internet connections.

A CD of this update is NOT available if you are running version 1.7.15 or later of Lutheran Service Builder.

Changes from 1.8.3 to 1.8.4 include the following:

• Builder has been further optimized to reduce its memory footprint.

• Reported bugs:
  • When a modified order of service is saved as a new custom Liturgy, the new custom liturgy is automatically selected as the base outline for the service instead of the originating liturgy.
  • When a user creates a custom service from an empty outline, that custom service can now be saved successfully as a custom liturgy.
  • Quotation marks and other escape characters will no longer create issues with renaming elements.
  • Moving through the Outline step will no longer reset the Scripture readings to the default assigned readings for the day.
  • Selecting a service for an Occasion that suggests a default order of service will no longer replace a user’s choice of outline for that service.
  • Pressing the Delete key on the keyboard in the list of Locations in the Preferences dialogue will now properly present a confirmation challenge.
  • The selection of service times is now saved and displayed as anticipated in the Outline step.
  • The Copyright step no longer evaluates permissions for elements in an option group that remain unselected and therefore aren’t actually included in the service.
  • If a hymn is selected in more than one instance in the Content step (e.g., as Opening and Closing Hymn “bookends”), the two hymns can now have different stanza selections.
  • On occasion, users would copy hymns to the clipboard and pieces of the image would be lost due to a strange GDI+ error. This has now been fixed.
  • The preferences check boxes in the Reading tab of the Content step are no longer cut off by the display.
  • User-created slide templates will no longer always be called “New Slide Template”.
  • Users with screen resolutions other than 96dpi should now see more accurate slide previews in the PowerPoint step.
  • A crash will no longer occur when creating a new office for a Copyright Holder without supplying the office’s name.
  • When a user imports an .lsb or an .lsbd file, such as with the LetUsPray archive, Builder will refresh and show the content immediately in either My Worship Resources or the Edit Content Task.
  • Stanza choices would not be saved if they were the only changes made to a selected hymn; they’ll now save properly.
  • Stanza selections will no longer be unpredictable if one hymn is assigned to two service elements and each has different selected stanzas.
  • A bug that caused default static elements to not be selected in the Content step has been fixed.
  • Stanza selections will no longer be unpredictable if a single hymn is assigned to two different service elements and each has different selected stanzas.
  • A bug where static elements couldn’t be selected in the Content step has been fixed.
  • The reporting service will no longer crash if a user enters a single quote as part of their description of the problem.
  • The citations for the Introit, Gradual, and Verse will no longer disappear when a user creates a custom Order of Service.
• The dialogue box in the Outline step for naming a new Liturgies created using the empty outline as a base no longer provides a default suggestion.
• The Service list in the Calendar step now shows the suggested liturgies of unplanned services for Occasions for which a suggested liturgy has been provided.
• Psalm-specific options will show up for any Psalm reading. (Pointing for the entire Psalter is not yet available, however.)
• lsb.exe, backup.exe, and update.exe are all now run at the administrative level by default to solve certain problems that occurred in Windows Vista. This will cause User Account Control to constantly interrupt people on some systems; we apologize to Vista users for this issue and would like to take this moment to encourage them by mentioning that Builder 2 is being tested in a restrictive Vista environment to ensure smooth operation.
• When users encounter a program-halting bug, they used to be able to submit that error text to us. We noticed that some of you were asking for a contact regarding this bug, but there was no place to drop contact information and the errors were reviewed only infrequently. The error dialogue has been redesigned to provide users with the option of specifically requesting a support contact and contact information.
• User-created hymns now have access to specifying refrains.
• Users can now change the names of stanzas when creating hymns.
• Users can override the global preferences for “Show chant lines” and “Show verse numbers” for individual elements in a Service (i.e., the Introit can be pointed while the Psalm is not).
• The “replace liturgy warning” dialogue no longer shows up when the user is clicking Undo after changing a liturgy.
• The wording of “Renew Annual Subscriptions” has been changed to “Verify Annual Subscriptions” to prevent confusion wherever it appears.
• If not all stanzas of a hymn are being sun, the selected stanza numbers are now listed with the hymn number in bulletins and presentations.
• Builder now tries to renew subscriptions automatically and without prompting before alerting the user with a pop-up dialogue.
• In the Content step, the order of service now displays hymn numbers along with hymn titles.
• Page numbers are now printed or displayed for rites whenever those rites appear in the Pew Edition.
• If a user has selected an element in the Outline step, it will remain selected in the Content step and vice versa.
• A few changes have been made to the Builder executables to inform Vista UAC that Builder should be run as an administrator. This should clear up a handful of Vista-specific problems; please report any undesirable behavior to lsbsupport@cph.org if you are using Vista.
• Pressing the Return key on your keyboard while entering descriptive text in the Error Reporter will now insert a line break, instead of sending the report.
• Builder will now report a failed activation if it’s unable to determine its installation type (Congregational or Home), instead of returning a success message and confusing you when it tells you almost immediately that it’s actually not activated.
• Users may now silence the subscription verification dialogues if they are electing not to renew their subscriptions.

• PowerPoint-Specific Fixes
  • Users can now clear a background image they don’t like instead of being forced to select a new one.
  • The << and >> buttons are now repeating controls and can now be held to scroll through the presentation in sequence.
  • Users can now add the line “ConcatenateImages=False” to the lsb.ini file to split apart the text and music images in a system of music in PowerPoint and bulletin output. This is a manual change only available through editing this file and not present in the Preferences dialogue. Users should only use this if they are absolutely sure they want this type of output.
  • Font sizes in PowerPoint output and font sizes in Builder’s preview are now equivalent (i.e. 48 point is 48 point is 48 point). Builder will scale its preview to match in order to be more accurate.
  • PowerPoint 2007-created presentations no longer always have a black background.
  • The compatibility warning dialogue presented if Builder determines that your installed version of PowerPoint is 2007 has been removed.
  • When clicking OK in the PowerPoint Slide Style dialogue, the change made are now saved and applied in the PowerPoint step.