[v6 General Discussion] Problem with Scripture font alignment

This time my issue is with the Scripture theme. The latest problem started because somehow the existing (only) Scripture theme got changed - no idea how I did this! No problem I thought - the basic scripture theme we use is essentially the same as the basic song theme, so I'll export the song theme and reimport into the scripture themes. Would have been nice to drag and drop but of course that didn't work. Neither it seems can you import a song theme into scripture themes - when I try the song theme appears in the song theme area NOT the scripture theme area from wherein I've tried to import it. So it would seem that there's some internal code within the themes that dictates what sort of theme they are?

So - recreate the scripture theme from scratch. A big fight to accomplish something which should be trivial. After an hour I'm still defeated by the scripture reference alignment/indent. Which won't - align that is. Whatever setting I try in the Options pane I get the reference left aligned with or without indent. Nor can I change the size of the reference font. Not to mention that the amount of verse text displayed seemed to change randomly - playing with the text size box in the scripture theme editor affects how much is displayed, but not in any predictable manner.

Why on earth do scripture display options have to be in the Options tab when logically they should be part of the theme area? Makes no sense to me.

I'm so glad I'm retired and can afford to spend the hours which EW6 demands to achieve what should be simple. Do the developers actually use this software I wonder? There's so little to like about EW6 - after using it for a year I still find it bug ridden and counterintuitive and as others have commented the ONLY benefit which I can find over EW2009 is the facility to auto-break scripture verses but even that is a very mixed blessing as the algorithm dictating when to make a break is so clunky it often produces very clunky looking slides.

I really would love to love EW6 but I can't - it's just so frustrating to use!

John,
I'm very sorry for the frustration. Hopefully the information below will help you resolve your issue. I'll do my best to quote each question and post a reply under it.

This time my issue is with the Scripture theme. The latest problem started because somehow the existing (only) Scripture theme got changed - no idea how I did this! No problem I thought - the basic scripture theme we use is essentially the same as the basic song theme, so I'll export the song theme and reimport into the scripture themes. Would have been nice to drag and drop but of course that didn't work. Neither it seems can you import a song theme into scripture themes - when I try the song theme appears in the song theme area NOT the scripture theme area from wherein I've tried to import it. So it would seem that there's some internal code within the themes that dictates what sort of theme they are?

The song, scripture and presentation themes all have different attributes that make them unique. That prevents a song theme from serving as a scripture theme.

So - recreate the scripture theme from scratch. A big fight to accomplish something which should be trivial. After an hour I'm still defeated by the scripture reference alignment/indent. Which won't - align that is. Whatever setting I try in the Options pane I get the reference left aligned with or without indent. Nor can I change the size of the reference font. Not to mention that the amount of verse text displayed seemed to change randomly - playing with the text size box in the scripture theme editor affects how much is displayed, but not in any predictable manner.

When you apply a theme that is not using default setting, the software yields formatting to the theme. However, the indent option is not handled by the theme. It is handled by options. The reference location (Left, Center or Right) is handled by the theme or options. Theme trumps options. If you have the reference centered in the theme, it will be centered and not indented. If you have it Left or Right aligned it will be indented. I did find after changing the indent in options multiple times, the scripture themes preview didn't update instantly. I had to click on the scriptures tab and come back to themes to get it to refresh. (I'll submit this as a bug)

It really should have taken you a couple of minutes at most to create the theme.

1. Right click on a media item and copy it to scripture themes.
2. If you have your settings set in options the way you want them, there is nothing left to do.
3. If you want to make some tweaks, Right click on the new theme you created and edit it.
3. Change the placement and location of the text box along with any other font settings.
4. Click OK.

If you want to use a color or gradient
1. Create a new theme and set the color or gradient in the inspector.
2. Click OK to save it if you have everything else set in options.
3. Otherwise, make your tweaks and click OK.

In either case as long as you have the reference left or right aligned, it will use the indent setting from options.

I recommend using the reset button in options to reset the scripture font settings. Then create a new theme without making any changes to it. Just set a background and leave it at that. Then use the settings in options to setup the look you want to use most of the time.

Why on earth do scripture display options have to be in the Options tab when logically they should be part of the theme area? Makes no sense to me.

This is a concept carried over from 2009. As is the themes function which is brought over from backgrounds, along with a more functional replacement for the background designer.

auto-break scripture verses but even that is a very mixed blessing as the algorithm dictating when to make a break is so clunky it often produces very clunky looking slides.

I hear what you're saying on this. I currently use the break on new verse option as it works best for me. We have submitted a request for the developers to take another look at this to see if it can be improved.
Rodger

Thanks very much for that prompt reply, which has made things a lot clearer.
Can I suggest that the manual be looked at with a view to explaining more fully the relationship between Options and Themes in relation to Scriptures.

I hadn't appreciated that it's possible to set different alignment/font options for the scripture attribution WITHIN the theme editor. Foolishly I'd assumed that the font attributions for the verse body text had to apply also to the scripture attribution and could only be changed within the Inspector and / or Options panel. Again the manual doesn't make this clear. So I have now achieved the look which I want which is to say that the body scripture text is 42 point Arial, left aligned with the reference font 30 point Arial, right aligned (with or without indent!)

I'll switch to the break on verse option as well.

The remaining frustration is with the amount of text being displayed. With these setting and the text box drawn to fill the full extent of the available space I'm only seeing about the top third of the screen being filled with text. Why is this and what can I do about it?

Thanks in advance


John
Rodger



The remaining frustration is with the amount of text being displayed. With these setting and the text box drawn to fill the full extent of the available space I'm only seeing about the top third of the screen being filled with text. Why is this and what can I do about it?

Thanks in advance


John


Hi!

Would you attach a screen grab of this please.
Is the vertical alignment set to top? If so, set it to middle or center. There are also options to normalize text over multiple slides that might affect this.
Hi Terry/Rodger

I've now got this one sorted and text is displaying within the expected portion of the screen....

Thanks for your help - now I'm fighting the presentation editor as per my latest post! Good job I'm retired and can take the time to wrestle with EW. It's sure not intuitive!