Understanding project folders, projects, and shows

[b3taman]

Documentation

While FreeShow is obviously very powerful, and there are many instructional videos, I have struggled to find information quickly without having to sit through, say, a 30-minute video only to discover that it doesn't go deep enough, or doesn't actually address what I thought it did.

What I find particularly lacking is documentation on how to set up FreeShow structurally, as described below.

Desired project layout

This is the kind of thing I am looking for structurally:

- 2026 [Folder]
	- 05 [Folder]
		- 03 [Folder]
			- 07h30 [Project]
			- 09h15 [Project]
		- 10 [Folder]
			- 07h30 [Project]
			- 09h15 [Project]
		- 14_Ascension Day [Folder]
			- 09h00 [Project]
			- 19h00 [Project]

I've run into issues, however. I'm probably missing things how it is designed to be done, so would appreciate input.

Verse numbers

I use text editing mode to create multi-slide verses. Sometimes I am given verse numbers only later (it's a real problem with hymns, as it all depends on which publisher's hymn book was used). It would really help if I could enter the verse numbers manually when the order I received them in is incorrect. Currently when I save the text, FreeShow removes my verse numbers, keeping just "[Verse]" and then numbers them in the order in which they appear in the text file. To move them around when each verse has the same heading makes it easy to mess it up terribly.

Show names

We have files with standard names such as "Welcome", "Call to Worship", "Scripture Reading", "Sermon", etc. In the OS they are separated by being a folder per sermon.

When I want to create two projects for different services with the same show names but different content, it appends numbers to the show names. It doesn't help to put them in different categories, so it appears the show names have to be unique across all categories. It is like saying that every file in your file system has to have a unique name, which clearly is not very useful. (Again, I may be misapplying things, but while there is a lot on-line about how to do certain specific things, I've not found much documentation on structure.)

Sorting slides

We had a bit of a disaster with this morning's Ascension Day service owing to this one: By default the OS uses dictionary sort order on file / folder name. My assumption is that when I do a "Select All" on files (e.g. named 1,2,3,4,5), that FreeShow would keep that order when I drag & drop them into a show. In my case it instead became something like 4,1,3,2,5. I didn't check before going live, which caused some consternation. Please could that be implemented if it's not already possible?

I saw the same behaviour when adding a file path for media files. In the OS they are in name order, but within FreeShow there's no discernible order, making it very error-prone to find a file in a long list.

Categories

I have created these categories to facilitate the above.

- Shows
	- Songs: Current
	- Songs: Old program import
	- Songs: New
	- Songs: Old
- Media
	- Place-holders [Single slides as a "heading" when stuff is happening in the service, but there's nothing else being displayed.]
		- Baptism
		- Black
		- Blue (0,32,96)
		- Call to Worship
		- Prayers & Testimonies
		- Welcome
	- Pictures
	- Videos

Is there a better way? Everyone here is very excited at moving away from our previous (and ancient) display program, but these issues are slowing things down. I also don't want to pour a lot of time and energy into a set-up that I have to change later.

[vassbo]

• Desired project layout: You can do it however you would like to but I usually make the root folders be the type of project like "Youth" or "Services", then the year "2026". Then have all the projects inside with the full date in the name. But you'll have to choose whatever works best for you.

• Verse numbers: It will auto label the verse number to save time more often than not, as people just have to keep track if one "Verse" label instead of "Verse 1", "Verse 2" etc. But if you want to "remove" a verse in the middle I would recommend right-clicking and pressing "Disable". That way the order is kept, and you also have all the verses for another time.

• Show names: The names have to be unique, just like in the OS, this is to help users keep things organized as instead of having the same song many times they can more easily see that there are several different versions of that same song. Also it ensures that two shows with the same name but different content can't be added to a project. So if you want one "Welcome" show with different content, either specify the difference in the name, or create multiple layouts within that same show! Or include a date in the title, if the content is different it should have a unique name that explains the difference.

• Sorting slides: FreeShow will use the exact order comming from the OS! In Windows at least it's from left to right, but the first image is the one you drag from, so if you select 1-5 and drag from the first it will be 1-5, but if you start dragging from image 3, the order will be 3,4,5,1,2. That's a OS thing.

• Categories: Here you have to choose whatever works for you. There's no exact answer.

Hope this made sense. The power of FreeShow is that you can make it your own, do what suits you best. It does require a bit of setup and understanding but once it's set up it's super helpful! So I'm glad to have you on board.