Guide · Scripture on screen

How to display Bible verses on a projector during service

The hard part of projecting scripture is not the projector. It is keeping up with a preacher who says “turn with me to Acts twenty” and is already reading by the time you have found the book.

What makes a verse readable on the wall

One verse at a time. A whole paragraph shrinks the text until the back rows cannot read it. Show a verse, then the next.
Always show the reference. Put “John 3:16” under the text so latecomers and note-takers can follow.
Light text on a dark ground. It reads better in a bright hall and keeps the projector from washing out.
Size it for the room, not the laptop. Text that looks huge on your screen is small at the back of a full church. Be ready to push it bigger mid-service.

Getting there before the preacher does

In Psalter, type the reference in the Bible tab the way it is spoken or written in the notes:

jn 3:16 — a single verse
jn 3:16-18 or Acts 20:17,28 — a range, or verses picked out
1 cor 13 — the whole chapter

The passage loads as a list, one verse per slide. Press → as the reading moves on, and ← if the preacher goes back to re-read a line. If you remember the words but not the reference, search for them: all 31,102 verses of the King James Version are searchable by the words in them.

When the sermon has its own references

Upload the preacher’s outline as a Word document or PDF before service. Every scripture reference in it becomes a button in the sermon view — double-click it and that verse is on the wall. No typing at all while the sermon is running.

During prayer

Press B to black the screen. Press it again and the same verse comes back, exactly where you left it.

A note on translations