Home page
The Home page provides access to content, lists, and links for your worship planning.
Sundays and Festivals
The Sundays and Festivals panel shows the lectionary day in the Lectionary Banner, as well as lectionary days during the week after the calendar date you’ve selected. On the right is the lectionary color for the day. Click on the blue date to start a worship plan for that date.
The icons under the day name link to content relevant to that day. Hovering over an icon produces a tool tip that indicates where the icon leads: the book opens Day Texts, the light bulb opens Day Resources, the musical notes open Music material, the Chi-Rho reveals Preaching resources, and the framed picture goes to Visuals content.
To access the Preaching content, a Deluxe subscription and an add-on Preaching subscription are required.
Commemorations
The Commemorations panel lists commemorations that take place from the calendar date you’ve selected through the Saturday following the next Sunday (or just the next Saturday, if the date you’ve selected is already a Sunday). As with the Sundays and Festivals box, click on a blue date to start a worship plan for that date. A description of the commemoration will appear at the bottom of the initial Planner page.
Day Texts
This section of the Home page contains the introduction to the day in the Lectionary Banner, as well as citations and brief descriptions of the readings for that day. Click a citation to see the full passage. The blue circle to the left of the Day Texts title is a toggle that will collapse and expand this section of the page. To the right of the Day Texts title, the “Read in full” link goes to a page with the full set of Day Texts.
Day Resources
By default, this section of the Home page initially appears collapsed. To expand it and reveal a short Overview essay about the day in the Lectionary Banner, click the blue circle to the left of the Day Resources title. To see the full set of Day Resources, including ideas for worship services and commentary on the readings, click the “Read in full” link.
Subscriber News
Here, you’ll read postings from the sundaysandseasons.com team about new content, new features, and other important site announcements.
Worship Plans, Worship Templates, and Custom Texts
Each of the three tabs at the bottom of the Home page includes a set of icons in an Actions row. Each icon becomes active in different circumstances, as detailed below. When an icon is active, it will turn blue and display a tool tip when you hover over it with your cursor.
Worship Plans
Plans that are associated with dates in the future are listed with the earliest date first. Plans for dates in the past are still available; you can find them by using the Planner Calendar.
The plus sign icon is active when no plans are checked. Click it to start a new worship plan. You will go to the view of the Planner Calendar that’s set in the My Account area.
The pencil icon is active when you check one, and only one, plan. Click it to edit the plan. You’ll go to Step Two of the planning process. (Simply clicking a plan name, without checking the box, does the same thing.)
The inbox icon is active when you check one, and only one, plan. Click it to download the plan.
The trash can icon is active when you check one or more plans. Click it to delete the plans. You will be asked to verify that this is really what you want to do.
Worship Templates
Templates are kept in folders. Every new sundaysandseasons.com subscription has one folder to begin with, My Folder.
The pencil icon is active when you check one, and only one, template. Click it to edit the template. You’ll go to the Template Edit Mode of the planning process.
The plus sign icon is active when you check one, and only one, template. Click it to start a new worship plan based on the template. You will go to the Month View of the Planner Calendar, where you can assign a date to the plan.
The trash can icon is active when you check one or more folders and/or templates (checking a folder will check all of the templates in the folder). Click it to delete the checked items. You will be asked to verify that this is really what you want to do.
The folder icon is active when no folders or templates are checked. Click it to create a new folder. After you supply a name, the folder will appear at the bottom of the list of folders.
You can change the position of a template within a folder, or move it to a different folder, by moving your cursor to the vertical, two-headed arrow “handle,” at which point the cursor will change to match this shape. As you click and hold, drag the template through the list. The background will turn yellow at the location where the template will appear when you release the click. (Note that only templates can be moved. The folders that contain them have to stay where they are.)
Custom Texts
Custom texts are kept in folders. Every new sundaysandseasons.com subscription has one folder to begin with, My Folder.
The plus sign icon is active when no folders or texts are checked. Click it to create a new text. Fill in the box that appears, assign the new text to a folder, and click the “Go” button.
The pencil icon is active when you check one, and only one, text. Click it to edit the text. Make the necessary changes in the box that appears and click the “Go” button.
The inbox icon is active when you check one or more folders and/or texts (checking a folder checks all of the texts in that folder). Click it to download the checked texts in one file.
The trash can icon is active when you check one or more folders and/or texts (checking a folder checks all of the texts in that folder). Click it to delete the checked items. If any of the custom texts you’ve checked are being used in templates, or past or future plans, they will be archived instead of deleted, which means that while they’ll be removed from the list on the home page, they’ll still appear in the templates and/or plans to which they’re attached. Before checked texts are deleted or archived, you will be asked to verify that this is really what you want to do. If you want to delete a custom text that is attached to one or more templates and/or plans, you’ll need to remove it from each of these places first.
The folder icon is active when no folders or texts are checked. Click it to create a new folder. After you supply a name, the folder will appear at the bottom of the list of folders.
The A-Z icon (which is hard to see; it’s the last one in the row) is active when no folders and any number (including zero) of texts are checked. Click it to alphabetize the list of texts in each folder. The list of folders won’t be alphabetized.
You can change the position of a text within a folder, or move it to a different folder, by moving your cursor to the vertical, two-headed arrow “handle,” at which point the cursor will change to match this shape. As you click and hold, drag the text through the list. The background will turn yellow at the location where the text will appear when you release the click. (Note that only texts can be moved. The folders that contain them have to stay where they are.)