Sharing published plans

Introduction to plan pages

While module Users can access and manage plans within the Planning module, at some point, you will want to share your plans with others, including those people who may have been assigned to certain plan items. In many contexts, there's an inherently collaborative process to creating Plans, meaning that they are often subject to further change as they evolve over time and as the Plan date nears. With this in mind, each published plan has a read-only Plan Page URL giving an up-to-date view of the latest plan, which can be shared with everyone who needs to know what's happening (even if they don't have access to ChurchSuite). Plan pages can be viewed in any browser on any device without requiring any special authentication.

Published plan pages can be shared or made accessible:

• By email using a Send plan workflow that includes all the plan's people in the recipient list
• By email to those outside your church - such as a visiting speaker - by sharing the plan page URL in your message to them
• In rota reminder emails - on a rota-by-rota basis, you can optionally "Include plans", which will append a published plan page link to the rota's reminder. This method requires the rota and plan to be linked to the same service. See the related support article: Sending rota reminders
• In My ChurchSuite - plan page links are accessible from a rota view's Date actions and the All Rotas page in My Rotas. See our related support article: All rotas page in My ChurchSuite
• By sharing the plan page URL on any other preferred communications channels, e.g. WhatsApp groups, Messenger, SMS. You can even print a plan page should you need to share a paper copy

Like viewing plans in the Planning module, a Plan Page contains full details of the running order of your plan items, including the names of any people assigned to each plan item, and access to any files linked to the plan - e.g. chord charts, announcement slides, a sermon PowerPoint. Essentially, your visuals and worship teams will have everything they need in one place!

Publishing a plan

Plan Pages can't be shared until they have been Published. From a Draft plan "View" page, click Publish. Note also the option to Preview plan page.

You can Publish multiple selected plans using the bulk actions in the Plans section of the module. Draft plans are styled as italicised in the list.

Previewing the plan page

Once published, you can access the plan page - click Go to plan page.

The Plan Page opens to view in a new browser tab on your device, showing full details on the main plan page - the plan name, date, start time and items.

Clicking on a plan item expands the item, defaulting to the details section for items with no linked files or to the first linked file for items with files. We'll look at these sections in more detail below, with Songs having their own dedicated section further down this article.

Top tip! Dark theme

As well as your standard Light theme, plan pages are also available in a Dark theme. By default, the plan will be displayed in the theme your device is set to. For example, if your device is set to Dark Mode, you’ll see plan pages in Dark theme.

Should you wish to change the theme of the plan page to be different to that of your device, you can do so by selecting the desired Theme from the Settings menu.

In the overall plan view, the settings option allows you to select which details of the plan you see - both in this full page view and in the sidebar when viewing items.

When selecting your various settings options, your preferences are stored in your browser, so that they are remembered the next time you visit a plan page. If you only want to see a certain category of notes, then you can deselect the others; or perhaps you don't need to see the item type, so you deselect that - any time you visit a plan page in your browser in the future, you'll now only see the options you've selected previously.

Double-clicking on a plan item expands the item, with the plan in a sidebar to the left. The sidebar can be hidden or revealed using the sidebar button, allowing you to customise how you view plan items.

Clicking the X collapses the item details and returns to the main plan page.

For items with no linked files, the item Details view is opened, showing start time, duration, any linked people, comments and notes, if applicable.

The People section detailing the names of those linked to this item, and their status, if they're linked based on a rota. Hovering over or tapping on the person's avatar shows relevant information related to that person.

For items with linked files, clicking the plan item shows the first linked file. Compatible files can be viewed in this section and any file can be downloaded.

Finally in this section, the navigation arrows at the bottom of the plan allow you to navigate to the previous or next plan item, without closing the current item. The type and name of the next items are helpfully displayed, allowing you to see what's coming next when viewing your current item's details or files.

Viewing songs on the plan page

Plan pages have music stand functionality built into them, allowing your worship team members to view lyrics/chord charts directly from the plan pages, without needing to navigate away from the plan itself.

In your plan, click on a song item to view the lyrics/chords, just like you would to see the details of a plan item. Songs with chord charts and linked files will show the first chord chart as a default, while songs with just linked files will show the first linked file. Should you wish to change which file you’re viewing, perhaps to view a PDF rather than the chord chart, you can simply select the file you'd like to view.

If you’re viewing a song, you can use the action menu to make changes to your view of the chord chart. For example, you can choose if you just want to see lyrics or chords, select if you want to view chords as letters or numbers and the size of chords, lyrics and section titles can be adjusted to make the view work for you.

For chord charts added in ChurchSuite’s chord chart editor or for other compatible chord chart files, such as ChordPro and OnSong files (.onsong, .chordpro & .chopro), you can use the transpose tool to change the key of the chord chart you’re viewing.

You can interact with songs in the same way you would a plan item, selecting to view the details of the song, checking for any relevant notes, or you can use the navigation button at the bottom of the page to move to the the next song/item. If you’re viewing songs in your plan from a small-screen device, such as a tablet, you may find it helpful to collapse the side menu so that you can maximise space available to view your chord charts.

Sharing plan pages with others

In this section, we'll explore some of the ways you might share plan pages. While Planning module users can always access and fully manage plans in ChurchSuite, you'll likely want to share your plans with others who need to know what's happening. See the related support article for further information on Linking people to plans.

Sending a plan by email

Having published a plan, you may want to send the plan to those who have been assigned to items on the plan. From the plan "View", select Send plan from the Communicate action.

You can now customise the plan email that ChurchSuite creates. On the Send plan pop-up, select the Options to be included in the email. Options include plan people, linked files, any library item type question responses for plan items and the plan page link (embedded as a "More information" button in the email body). While the Plan Page embedded into the email only contains the selected options, the actual Plan Page link will contain all the options. Click Proceed to preview the email.

The Send email preview is displayed. Make any further customisation you wish to add. The Recipients list is pre-populated with any plan people specified in the plan. Recipients can be added or removed if desired - only those in your Address Book and Children module can be selected as recipients. Click Preview Email...

...then click Send Email to send the plan.

The sent plan email is logged against each recipient's Communication log on their profile page in the Address Book and Children module.

Including plan page links in rota reminders

When customising the email reminders for a rota you have the option to Include plans. When enabled, links to plans are included in the body of the reminder email that is sent to each rota member. The rota and published plan must both be linked to the same service - this option is not shown if the rota is not linked to a service. Note also that you can enable the Include plans option for a ministry so that all rotas for that ministry that are subsequently produced inherit the include plans setting.

Accessing plan pages through My ChurchSuite

Those serving on rotas linked to a Service with My ChurchSuite access can view the published plan pages from the respective Date action when viewing a rota in My Rotas. Choosing View plan will open the published plan page for that date to view. This action is only shown for rotas linked to a service that has linked plans and only for dates that have published plans for that date and service.

Similarly, if you have enabled the All Rotas page for My Rotas, those with My ChurchSuite My Rotas access can access published Plans for a selected service date.

Sharing the plan page URL through other communication channels

When viewing a plan page - using the Go to plan page action from a plan 'View' page - you can Copy the page URL directly from your browser. You can then Paste the URL into an email, social media channel, SMS or any other communication channels you might use to share the plan page with everyone who needs to know what's happening.

Top Tip - Plan item sharing

When viewing a specific plan item, and sharing that plan page URL with others, the URL includes the plan item you've selected. This means if you were to share a plan page when a particular plan item is open, anyone clicking that link will also see that same plan item opened up. Each plan item has a different URL, making it easier to share exactly the part of the plan you'd like to with others. Returning to the main plan page reverts the URL to that page.

Print plans from a plan page

Should team members prefer a paper copy of the plan, they can use the Print icon to print a copy of the plan.

Selecting the Print icon takes you to a Print dialogue that enables you to customise what information will be shown on the printed version of the plan.

Exporting plans to MediaShout

Organisations using MediaShout as their chosen song-word presentation software can easily export a plan to a MediaShout format file (version 6 format - support for version 7 will follow in the future when it's available for both Mac and Windows). Opening the downloaded file in MediaShout will populate all the plan items, ready for you to Insert lyrics, bible verses, liturgy or text against the appropriate plan items for your service or event. Here's how...

Working from a plan View, select Download MediaShout from the More actions menu.

Follow the on-screen instructions to save the MediaShout SSC file to your desktop. You'll need to transfer, share or send the downloaded file to the device/computer that runs your MediaShout software.

Working within MediaShout, Open the SSC file (or double-click the file to launch MediaShout and open the file). The plan items are listed in the left-hand column, ready for you to Insert lyrics, bible verses, liturgy or other presentation elements as desired.