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About ten minutes, once, on the computer in your booth.

The whole setup in about a minute: signing in, choosing your audio, connecting ProPresenter, and meeting the Control Panel.

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What you need

The computer

A Mac or a Windows PC. It runs on the same computer as ProPresenter, in your booth.Mac: macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later. Any Mac that runs it, Apple chip or Intel: there is one download and it works out which it is on. It will not install on an older macOS, so check before you download: Apple menu → About This Mac, and you want macOS 14 or higher. On an Intel Mac the listening takes more of the computer, so close what you don’t need during a service.Windows: Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The Windows version is new, so if something does not behave the way this guide says, tell us.
ProPresenter, open on that same computer, with its network setting switched on. That setting is off when ProPresenter is installed, so turning it on is a step you have to do. See ProPresenter.
An audio interface, with the lead singer on their own channel.A main mix will not work. The whole band is in it and the singing gets lost underneath. If several people lead together, you can use up to five channels.
None during a service. It works with the wifi off.You need a connection to download it and to sign in the first time. After that it checks your subscription when it opens, and keeps running for a week if it cannot reach us. See Account and billing.
One works. Two is better, the operator’s and the congregation’s, so that the Control Panel never appears in front of the church. See Control Panel.

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Installing

1

Download it

From screenshepherd.live. It is a large file, so start it and leave it running.Everything it needs is inside the app, which is why it is large and why it needs no internet on a Sunday.
2

Install it

Open the file and drag ScreenShepherd into Applications. The usual way you install an app on a Mac.
3

Open ScreenShepherd

On a Mac it opens normally. No warnings, no right-clicking.On Windows it lives in the notification area at the bottom right of the screen (the little arrow next to the clock), and the Start menu.

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Signing in

The first time it opens you get a card titled Sign in: Continue with Google at the top, then Email and Password and two buttons. Signing in is what activates this computer. There is no key to type or copy across.
Press Create an account. Your browser opens at the signup page and the card says Creating your account while it waits.Sign up in the browser: your email, a name for your church, and a card. Nothing is charged for thirty days.Then look back at the computer. It has linked itself, and you do not type anything a second time.
You signed up on your phone or the office computer? That works. Come back to the booth computer and sign in the same way you signed up: the same email and password, or Continue with Google.

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If it will not sign in

The card tells you why. These are the four you are likely to see.

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First-time setup

Once you are signed in, ScreenShepherd asks the two questions only the room can answer, then introduces the bar you will actually use.
1

Who's singing?

Pick the Device your microphones are plugged into, then the Vocal channel your lead singer comes in on. Press Check and sing the line on the screen.Full detail: The microphone.
2

Connect ProPresenter

The steps are on the screen. In ProPresenter, tick Enable Network and copy the number from its Port box. Type that number in here and press Connect.Full detail: ProPresenter.
3

Meet the Control Panel

It introduces the bar one part at a time, then asks you to drag it out of its box and onto your screen. It stays where you put it.Full detail: Control Panel.
You can skip either question with Set this up later, and a computer being set up at home will have to. Both live on the front page of the ScreenShepherd window under Audio input and ProPresenter, whenever you get to the booth.
To change either of them later, use Audio input and ProPresenter on the front page of the window. To go through the whole walkthrough again: account button in the top right → Settings → Run setup again. Useful when the audio interface changes, or when you are showing someone new.

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Allowing the microphone

macOS asks once, the first time ScreenShepherd listens. Say yes. If it was refused, you can put it right: account button → Settings. Under Microphone access, press Open system settings and allow ScreenShepherd.

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Updates

One button. New versions arrive quietly in the background. When one is ready, the front page shows a button: Restart to update to 0.2.13. Press it, and ScreenShepherd closes and opens again as the new version on its own, in well under a minute. There is nothing to download by hand and nothing to reopen. It never updates during a service. If ScreenShepherd is listening, the button says Update after the service and waits, and a download already running stops when a service starts. To check by hand: Settings → About → Check for updates.

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If something goes wrong on first open

It is fetching something it needs, and it says so, ending with “this happens once”. Leave it running.
Press Try again. If it keeps happening, quit the app and open it again. There is a Technical details disclosure underneath for whoever you forward it to.