Follow live in Service Companion

Quick start

1. Open the public Service Companion link. You do not need to sign in.
2. Browse the service in the usual way. Opening the link does not follow the presentation.
3. When the service is running, Follow live appears beside the service title.
4. Turn on Follow live.
5. The current slide stays at the top. Speaker notes and Lyrics appear below it when the church included them.
6. Turn Follow live off to return to the service item and slide you were browsing.

When the service ends, the page leaves live view and returns to that same place.

Deep dive

When Follow live is available

Follow live appears only while the service is running. It is there whether you opened the link before the service started or after.

Before the service starts, and after it ends, the page is the browse view described in View Service Companion. The switch is not shown then.

Turning on Follow live is your choice. The page never switches into live view on its own.

What the live page shows

Live view shows what is on screen, and hides the browse controls:

• The current slide stays at the top of the page.
• Drawings on that slide, and the Laser pointer, appear over the slide the same way they appear on the church screens.
• Speaker notes lists the notes for the item, when the church enabled notes. The notes for the current slide start directly under the slide. Scroll to read a long note; the next slide's notes follow it.
• Lyrics lists the song with its chord names, when the church enabled lyrics. Chord names use a separate color from the lyric words. The section on screen is highlighted.
• The service summary, Service item picker, and Slides / Lyrics tabs stay hidden while you follow.

The page stacks the slide, then Speaker notes, then Lyrics.

A drawing made on another version of the slide stays with that version. It does not appear on the slide the companion is showing.

Your browsing place is kept

The service item, slide, and lyrics section you had open stay put while you follow. Turn Follow live off, or wait until the service ends, and the page returns to that place.

When the live slide is not on the page

If the slide on screen was added or changed after you opened the link, the page keeps the last slide it could show and says This slide changed after the link was opened. Refresh the page to see it. Refresh the page to load the latest service.

Tips

• Leave Follow live off when you want to read ahead or look back through the service.
• Refresh the page if the live slide no longer matches what is on screen.