Features

Schedules

Plan your order of service in Crater. Add, reorder and edit items, keep saved schedules, and rely on automatic saving.

On this page

The Schedule panel on the left of the console is your order of service: the songs, readings, media and presentations for today, in the order you’ll use them. Build it during the week and run the service from it on Sunday.

Adding items#

Every library tab can add to the schedule:

  • Right-click a song, verse, media item or presentation and choose Add to Schedule.
  • Or highlight it and press Ctrl + T.
  • Or find it with global search (Ctrl + K) and press Shift + Enter. The search stays open so you can add several items in a row.

New items go to the end of the schedule and are loaded into Preview.

A schedule row keeps its own copy of the item, so a schedule can mix songs, a multi-verse reading, a PDF, a video and a sermon deck.

Working with the schedule#

To…Do this
Preview an itemClick the row
Send it liveDouble-click the row, or right-click > Send to Live (this also opens the projection window)
ReorderDrag the grip handle on the left of a row. A line shows where it will land.
Select several rowsCtrl + click to add rows, Shift + click for a range
Remove rowsRight-click > Remove, or select them and press Delete or click the trash button
Clear the selectionEsc

The header shows the schedule’s name, the number of items, and how many are selected.

Right-click menu#

  • Send to Live
  • Edit… changes this schedule item only (see below). For pictures and videos it opens the media editor.
  • Change passage… picks different verses for a scripture item.
  • Rename… changes the name shown in the schedule, without renaming the song or file in your library.
  • Duplicate adds a copy at the end, for example to sing the opening song again at the close.
  • Theme… picks a different theme for just this row, or Use default theme to go back. Rows with their own theme show a palette icon.
  • Remove

Editing an item without changing the library#

Sometimes a song needs a one-off change: an extra chorus, a skipped verse or a note for the band. Right-click the song or scripture row and choose Edit…:

  • Change the title, and add, duplicate, delete or edit slides. The formatting toolbar works here too.
  • Click Save to Schedule (Ctrl + S) to change only this row. The row gets a pencil icon, and later edits to the library song no longer flow into it.
  • Or, for songs, click Save to Library to update the song everywhere.
  • Reset to source throws away the one-off changes and goes back to the library version.

To change a presentation that’s in the schedule, edit it from the Presentations tab.

Saving and loading schedules#

Crater saves your working schedule automatically a few seconds after every change and again when you close it. Next time you open Crater, it’s exactly where you left it.

To keep a schedule for later, give it a name. Everything for named schedules is in the Schedule ▾ button at the top left:

To…Do this
Save the current schedule with a nameSave current as…, or press Ctrl + S
Save changes to the loaded scheduleSave, or Ctrl + S
Save a copy under a new nameSave as new…, or Ctrl + Shift + S
Open a saved scheduleClick it in the list
Rename or delete a saved scheduleHover over it and use its buttons
Start freshNew empty schedule
Stop working on the loaded scheduleClose loaded schedule

The list shows each schedule’s item count and when it last changed, with the loaded one ticked. A dot next to the schedule name in the panel means you’ve made changes since you last saved it by name. The automatic save keeps your working schedule safe, but only Save updates the named copy.

A good habit is to name schedules by date and service, for example Sunday AM - June 5.

Clearing the schedule#

  • The trash button in the panel header clears the whole schedule (after asking) when nothing is selected, or removes just the selected rows.
  • The ⋯ menu has Clear selection, Close loaded schedule and Clear all items.

Clearing the working schedule never changes your saved schedules.