Normally, we don’t make news posts regarding beta downloads for Lutheran Service Builder, but 2.1.21 is the recipient of a few new features and changes, and we thought we should bring those to your attention. A series of patches bringing users who are participating in the beta program to version 2.1.21 has been released this afternoon to the automatic update server.

Only those users who have opted in to receive beta updates will receive these changes. We hoped to release them to all users, but Bob (our programmer) is out-of-town beginning tomorrow until the 20th, so we unfortunately will not be able to make any quick changes to solve small problems that might occur with the new functionality or the patches in general.

Instead, we are releasing them to beta users so we can gather some additional opinions regarding the usefulness of the changes and to determine any problems that may arise as a result. As a reminder, beta versions of Lutheran Service Builder may contain bugs. We appreciate your participation in the beta testing program.

First, the list of changes from version 2.1.17:

Changes

• The method for selecting your Service Format has been redesigned to be more flexible and obvious. (2.1.18)
• Slides can now be captionless. (2.1.18)
• Added a Subcaption choice to Service Format selection so it can be controlled more independently. (2.1.18)
• A flash message is now displayed when forcing the Stanza Editor because no stanzas have been entered for a hymn in My Worship Resources. (2.1.19)
• A confirmation dialog is now displayed when you attempt to delete stanzas belonging to custom hymns in My Worship Resources. (2.1.19)
• Builder now checks for the Updater using a system variable installation path rather than a pre-defined one. (2.1.19)
• The “Chant” label has been moved to a more logical location in the Presentation Task Toolbar. (2.1.19)
• Graphics exported to RTF, DOC, and DOCX files are now 1bpp and have white backgrounds rather than being 32bpp and having transparent backgrounds. This should mean much smaller file sizes, better printing efficiency, and higher-quality output—especially when printing to PDF. (2.1.20)
• Added a default Service Format for “hymn list”. (2.1.21)

Bug Fixes

• Resolved a stack overflow exception caused when saving database states or backing up a user database. (2.1.19)
• Resolved unhandled exceptions when initiating multiple concurrent searches. (2.1.19)
• Resolved a null reference exception caused when showing a custom hymn. (2.1.19)
• Resolved a crash that was sometimes caused when changing tasks in the interface. (2.1.19)
• Resolved an exception that was preventing some users from printing hymn usage reports. (2.1.19)
• Resolved an issue introduced in 2.1.18 (testing only) where the “delete” and “rename” buttons would always be disabled. (2.1.19)
• Resolved an issue where resources exported through the Bulletin or Presentation Task would always say “Permission not obtained!” (2.1.19)
• Resolved an argument out of range exception caused when executing ZIP file operations. (2.1.20)
• Resolved an issue where the selected Service Format would override the user’s choices every time the Bulletin or Presentation View was loaded. (2.1.21)
• Resolved an issue introduced in 2.1.18 (testing only) where the chant point toggle wasn’t working properly. (2.1.21)

The reason for announcing these changes to you ahead of time is to prepare youfor a change to the Bulletin and Presentation Views: the new System Format controls. We have redesigned them for greater control and a more obvious implementation.

Previously, you had a whole lot of control over the type size and style within your document. You could control these settings on a global scale, making sure they were set for each document, and the whole thing would fall into line. We also had a system that was in place to help you set options like title, text, and melody across an entire document with one shot. The only problem with this is that it didn’t work very well, and it was a little cumbersome. It wasn’t as powerful as the styles editor, either, because you could save your styles and pull them up again later. You couldn’t do that with your format settings.

We’ve decided to change that.

We were receiving questions like:

• “Why do I have to go through and change everything to text-only after I make a large print bulletin?”
• “Why can’t I just print a list of the page numbers and titles easily, to hand to service participants or organists?”
• “Why can’t I have different title/text/melody settings for bulletins and presentations?”

We believe this latest round of changes will serve to solve these issues for the majority of our users. The Toolbar now looks like this:

As you can see, the styles are on the left, and the format selections now receive their own drop-down menu to the right. You can now have multiple selections saved to this drop-down (we also include a list of system defaults you can’t get rid of, so you always have choices). “Default”, for instance, follows the conventions of the print Lutheran Service Book 100%. The others have different settings. Once you’ve selected a basic format, you can then go into the bulletin preview below and change individual elements as you see fit.

The Style Sheet dialog now looks like this (click for full-size):

And the new Service Format dialog looks like this:

I’m sure you can see some of the obvious improvements in these controls. We’re aiming to give you more complete control over your bulletin before you export it to Word, so you don’t have as much work to perform when you get there.

We are releasing these changes to beta users in an effort to collect additional information and to possibly tweak them before they are released to everyone else. If you have feedback or ideas regarding these changes, please visit the forums and start up a discussion. We (and your fellow users) would very much like to hear what you have to say.