How to start every Sunday's plan from the same template

Time: about 3 minutes · Plan: Free, every plan · You'll need: the Broadcasteer Studio and your songs in the Library

Build the shape of your service once in TODAY'S PLAN: the section headers, the songs you sing most, the reading, the welcome slide. Save it with Save › ▤ Template. Each week, Open › ▤ Template starts a fresh plan from it with every row in place. Swap the songs and the reading, save it under the date, and the template stays exactly as you left it.

Step 1: Start an empty plan and add the headers

The Studio opens with Today's Plan empty, so build the template before you open this week's saved plan. On the Broadcast tab, press + Item on the TODAY'S PLAN bar, then Section Header. Type the name of the first part of your service in Header title (e.g. WORSHIP) and press Add or Enter.

Do the same for each part. Lanternfield Church uses four: WELCOME, WORSHIP, WORD and RESPONSE. A header is a banner row in the plan, so the order of service reads at a glance on Sunday.

Today's Plan with a WELCOME header and Welcome slide.png, and the + Item menu open with WORSHIP typed in the header box beside Add — Each header is one + Item › Section Header.

Step 2: Fill in what stays the same most weeks

Put in the rows you use most Sundays, even the ones that change now and then. Swapping a song later takes a few seconds; rebuilding the whole order every week is the chore this saves.

Songs: type part of the title in Search songs... in the LIBRARY, then press Plan on the song.
The reading: type it in the BIBLE search, like Psa 23. Click the first verse, Shift+click the last, right-click and pick Add Psalms 23:1–6 as one passage. One row holds the whole reading.
A welcome slide: + Item › Image / Video and pick the picture.

Every new row lands at the bottom of the plan. Press ▲ on it (or drag it) until it sits under its header.

Today's Plan built for Lanternfield: WELCOME with Welcome slide.png, WORSHIP with Holy, Holy, Holy and Amazing Grace, WORD with Psalm 23 verses 1 to 6 in the KJV as one passage, RESPONSE with It Is Well with My Soul, the four headers ringed — Four headers, two hymns, a reading, a slide and a closing hymn.

Step 3: Save it as a template

Press Save on the TODAY'S PLAN bar, then ▤ Template. Type a name in Template name... and press Save. Name it after the shape, not the date: Sunday Morning, Communion Sunday, Youth Night.

The line under the box tells you what happens: it saves the plan's rows (9 here) as a reusable template, and the plan you're looking at stays as it is. A green line on top of the plan confirms the template is saved.

The Save panel open on the Template tab with Sunday Morning typed as the name beside Save, and the line saying it saves the current 9 items as a reusable template and leaves today's plan untouched

If Save stays dimmed, Today's Plan has no rows yet.

Step 4: Next Sunday, open the template

Press Open on the TODAY'S PLAN bar, then ▤ Template. Your templates are listed with the most recently saved first, each with how many items it holds. Click Sunday Morning.

An empty Today's Plan with Open showing the Template tab and one template, Sunday Morning, 9 items, ringed

Every row of the template appears in Today's Plan, under a green line saying the plan started from the template and asking you to save it under today's name. This new plan has no name yet, so nothing you change here goes into the template.

A new plan holding every row of the template, under a green line saying it started from the template Sunday Morning and to save it under today's name — A fresh copy, with the headers, hymns, reading and slide already in place.

Opening a template replaces whatever is in Today's Plan, so save anything you're still working on first.

Step 5: Swap the hymn and the reading

Press the red ✕ at the end of the row you're dropping. Here Amazing Grace makes way for Rock of Ages: press Plan on Rock of Ages in the LIBRARY, then ▲ until it sits under Holy, Holy, Holy.

The reading works the same way: ✕ on Psalm 23, add Psalm 100 from the BIBLE as one passage, and ▲ it up under WORD. Everything else, the welcome slide, the headers and the closing hymn, is already where it belongs.

The new plan after the swap: Rock of Ages by Augustus Toplady under Holy, Holy, Holy in WORSHIP, and Psalm 100 verses 1 to 5 in the KJV under WORD, both ringed — Two rows changed, seven came from the template.

Step 6: Save it under the date

Press Save, then Local. Type the date in Plan name..., like Sunday 25 October, and press Save. From here it's an ordinary saved plan: it keeps your changes as you make them, and it's in Open › Local next to last week's.

The Save panel on the Local tab with Sunday 25 October typed as the plan's name beside Save

Running that plan on Sunday, from the computer or from a phone, is its own tutorial (linked below).

Step 7: Change or delete the template

After Sunday's plan is saved, Open › ▤ Template still lists the template with its 9 items. Swapping songs in the dated plan never reaches it.

When the shape itself changes, open the template, make the change, and save it again with Save › ▤ Template under the same name. The Studio asks whether to overwrite the template with that name: OK replaces it, Cancel takes you back to pick another name.

The Template tab after next Sunday's plan was saved: Sunday Morning still lists 9 items, with its delete button ringed at the end of the row — Still 9 items. The ✕ deletes the template, after asking.

There's no rename. Save a copy under the new name, then press ✕ at the end of the old one's row. The Studio asks before it deletes, because a deleted template can't be brought back.

If it doesn't work

Open › ▤ Template says No templates yet. Templates are kept on the computer they were saved on. Build the plan on this computer and save it with Save › ▤ Template.
Save does nothing on the Template tab. It needs a name in the box and at least one row in Today's Plan.
A slide row shows ⚠ and "file missing". The Studio can't find that picture or video any more, usually because the file was moved or deleted. Press ✕ on the row, add the file again with + Item › Image / Video, and save the template again under the same name.
Your saved plan took the template's name. The name box on the Template tab also names the plan that's open, so saving a template while a saved plan is open renames that plan. Open it from Open › Local, then in Save › Local type its own name back in and press Save.
It asks whether to overwrite. A template with that name already exists. OK replaces it with what's in Today's Plan now; Cancel leaves it alone so you can pick another name.

Asked often.

Does opening the template change it?

No. It opens as a new plan with no name, so nothing you change goes back into the template unless you save over it on purpose.

Can I keep more than one template?

Yes. Save each under its own name, like Sunday Morning and Communion Sunday. Open › ▤ Template lists them with the most recently saved first, and how many items each one holds.

Isn't this the same as opening last week's plan?

Close, but a saved plan keeps every change you make to it, so reworking last week's plan for this Sunday rewrites last Sunday. A template opens unnamed and stays as it was.

Will the template be on the church's other computer?

No. A template stays on the computer it was saved on. Build it again on the other computer, or upload it to Google Drive from the Template tab on PRO.

Why does a template open without a name?

Because a saved plan saves every change by itself. If the template opened under its own name, swapping this week's hymn would quietly rewrite the template, so I made it wait for you to name the new plan.

Does a template keep the songs, the readings and the slides, or only the headers?

Everything in the plan, in the same order: headers, songs, Bible readings, pictures and videos, and the ★ star if you set one.

Can I rename a template?

There's no rename. Save it again under the new name with Save › ▤ Template, then delete the old one with the ✕ at the end of its row in Open › ▤ Template.