Support & Setup Guide

Connect your projector or sanctuary screen to your Mac using an HDMI cable, USB-C to HDMI adapter, or wireless AirPlay to an Apple TV.

ServiceReady automatically detects the external display, places your private operator console on your Mac screen, and outputs clean typography to the sanctuary display without showing your macOS desktop or dock.

Connect your iPad using an official Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter (or Lightning to Digital AV Adapter) with an HDMI cable, or tap Screen Mirroring in Control Centre to connect to an Apple TV. ServiceReady for iPadOS takes over the external video output and displays clean slides to the congregation while keeping operator controls on your iPad screen.

Many older church projectors and TVs apply "overscan" — zooming in 3% to 5% and cropping the perimeter of the picture. ServiceReady includes built-in edge margin compensation:

ServiceReady includes a dedicated Standby / Blackout switch. In the operator console, click the Standby button (or press the blackout keyboard shortcut). The external audience display will immediately fade to pure black while preserving your place in the running order. Click Standby again when you are ready to resume.

Yes. ServiceReady supports standard USB and Bluetooth presentation clickers (such as Logitech R400, Spotlight, or Kensington remotes) that send standard Spacebar, Left/Right Arrow, or Page Up/Page Down keyboard signals.

ServiceReady constantly audits your running order before Sunday morning to ensure you never experience missing slides or offline failures. Here is what each status indicates:

You don't need to be plugged into the church projector to test your service. Open your service and choose Rehearse Service. This opens a preview on your Mac or iPad screen where you can click through every slide, check timing notes, and verify that all readings and notices appear correctly.

ServiceReady renders sermon slides using vector PDF technology, keeping your text crisp at any resolution without font-substitution errors:

To bring PowerPoint slides into ServiceReady:

Note: PDF slides are rendered as high-fidelity still pages. Dynamic slide transitions, animations, and embedded videos from PowerPoint/Keynote do not play inside PDFs. You can add videos directly to ServiceReady as separate media cues.

In ServiceReady, open Settings > Library > Hymnal Catalogue. Toggle on the hymnals used by your church:

• Complete Mission Praise: Books 1–4 (1–1000+)
• Songs of Fellowship: Books 1, 2, and 3
• Living Hymns: 2019 edition (880+ timeless hymns)
• Singing the Faith: Official Methodist hymnbook index
• Voices United: United Church of Canada hymn collection

When enabled, searching in Songs by number (e.g. typing "445") prioritizes your selected hymnbook editions so your operator can follow the minister's announcements seamlessly.

In the Songs section, click "New Song" in the toolbar. Enter the title, author, copyright info, and song words. You can assign custom hymnal collection names or hymn numbers to match your church’s custom songbook or chorus sheets.

ServiceReady provides the catalogue indexes, while you input or paste your congregation's song words under your own CCLI / CVLI congregational licence. Public domain hymns (typically written by authors who passed away more than 70 years ago) do not require a licence. However, projecting modern copyright-protected songs or streaming worship services on YouTube/Facebook requires an appropriate congregational licence from CCLI (Church Copyright Licence) or CVLI. ServiceReady lets you include your church's CCLI licence number on title slides.

ServiceReady Pro is designed specifically for an individual pastor or leader: it uses your personal Apple ID and Apple's private CloudKit database. Any service, hymn, or custom template you create on your Mac at your study desk automatically synchronises to your iPad or sanctuary Mac.

Your data is encrypted and stored in your private iCloud container; ServiceReady developers have zero access to your church information or credentials.

When activating Pro or installing on a new Mac, iCloud may need to initialize its local container:

On the ServiceReady Free tier, you can actively edit up to 3 active services at any time (sorted by date, most recent first).

When you have more than 3 active services, any older services beyond the 3 most recent remain safely preserved in your library in Read-Only mode. You can still open, inspect, rehearse, and present them on screen anytime. If you want to edit older services or keep an unlimited active library of past and upcoming services, you can upgrade to ServiceReady Pro (available as monthly, yearly, or lifetime access in Settings > Upgrade to Pro).

While ServiceReady is intentionally a single-leader app today, multi-user team support is in active development on our roadmap for the upcoming ServiceReady Church plan. It will allow up to 5 church team members (pastors, worship leaders, musicians, and volunteer operators) to collaborate on services, share central church song libraries, and hand off presentations without sharing personal Apple IDs.

Even when using iCloud, keeping a local backup is good practice:

The exported archive contains all your services, custom songs, church branding settings, and imported media assets.

Open Settings > Library > Backup and Restore and click "Restore Library". Select your previously exported backup file.

Safety Protection: ServiceReady automatically creates an internal "Safety Backup" of your current device's data before restoring, ensuring you can undo the restore anytime if needed.

Open ServiceReady on your Mac or iPad, go to Settings > General, and click "Restore Purchases". Ensure you are signed in to the App Store with the same Apple ID used to purchase the subscription or Lifetime licence.