When using the audio player, my pastor sounds like a chipmunk! What’s going on?

This ‘feature’ is caused by a well-known bug in Adobe flash. In order for the files to play correctly, when they are saved, the sample rate needs to be set at a multiple of 11.025kHz (i.e. 11.025, 22.05 or 44.1).

How do I upload videos to Sermon Manager?

You can’t – but you can upload videos to other sites, then embed them in your sermons. You can use any site that allows you to embed your video in other websites, including YouTube.

What is the difference between the public and private podcast feeds?

In Sermon Manager options, you are able to change the address of the public podcast feed. This is the feed that is shown on your sermons page, and is usually the same as your private feed. However, if you use a service such as FeedBurner, you can use your private feed to send data to feedburner, and change your public feed to your Feedburner address. If you do not use a service like Feedburner, just make sure your public and private feeds are the same.

On the sermons page, what is the difference between subscribing to our podcast, and subscribing to a podcast for this search?

The link called subscribe to our podcast gives a podcast of all sermons that you add to your site through Sermon Manager. But it may be that some people may just want to subscribe to a feed for certain speakers, or for a certain service. If they wish to do this, they should set the search filters and perform their search, then click on the Subscribe to a podcast for this search link. This will give them a podcast according to the filter they selected. You could also copy this link, and display it elsewhere on the site – for example to provide separate feeds for morning and evening services.

Why doesn’t iTunes recognise the podcast links?

iTunes requires its own special links that are slightly different from other podcasting software. If you would like to display these links, you need to edit your template and add the tags [itunes_podcast] and [itunes_podcast_for_search].

Can I change the default sort order of the sermons?

Unfortunately not. Unless the viewer specified otherwise, Sermon Manager always displays the most recent sermons at the top.

Why do I get a page not found error when I click on my podcast feed?

You’ve probably changed the address of your public feed. Try changing it back to the same value as your private feed in Sermon Options.

Can I change the way sermons are displayed?

Yes, definately, although you need to know a little HTML and/or CSS. Sermon Manager has a powerful templating function, so you can exclude certain parts of the output (e.g. if you don’t want the links to other sermons preached on the same day to be displayed). To edit the templates, go to Sermon Manager Options. Here is a reference for all the template tags you need.

You can put individual sermons or lists of sermons on any page of your website. You do this by adding a shortcode into a post or page. A shortcode looks like this: [ sermons id=52].

Please note: Every shortcode listed on this page has an extra space between “[" and "sermons." When using shortcodes on your site, do not add this space!

You can use many different parameters with these shortcodes, and you can combine parameters within one shortcode. For example: [ sermons filter=none preacher=3 series=7]

Shortcodes are incredibly flexible. For example, you may have a page on your site about your pastor. Adding the shortcode [ sermons preacher=1 id=latest] to that page will add full details of the latest sermon he preached. Alternatively, adding [ sermons preacher=1 limit=5] will display a list of his five most recent sermons.

This feature is in development and may not work exactly as expected. Please report all bugs and feature requests using your Help Desk.

Shortcode parameters

Values in italics are descriptive and should be replaced as the description suggests. For example, SermonID means the value should the be the ID of a sermon. Values not in italics are strings that should be entered as is.

If you want to change the output of Sermon Manager, you’ll need to edit the templates (see the option at the bottom of the menu pictured on the right). You’ll need to understand the basics of HTML and CSS, and to know the special template tags. There are two templates, one (called “results page”) is used to produce the search results on the main sermons page. The other template (called sermon page) is used to produce the page for single sermon. Most tags can be used in both templates, but some are specific.

Results page only

• [filters_form] – The search form which allows filtering by preacher, series, date, etc.
• [sermons_count] – The number of sermons which match the current search critera.
• [sermons_loop][/sermons_loop] – These two tags should be placed around the output for one sermon. (That is all of the tags that return data about sermons should come between these two tags.)
• [first_passage] – The main bible passage for this sermon
• [previous_page] – Displays the link to the previous page of search results (if needed)
• [next_page] – Displays the link to the next page of search results (if needed)
• [podcast] – Link to the podcast of all sermons
• [podcast_for_search] – Link to the podcast of sermons that match the current search
• [itunes_podcast] – iTunes (itpc://) link to the podcast of all sermons
• [itunes_podcast_for_search] – iTunes (itpc://) link to the podcast of sermons that match the current search
• [podcasticon] – Displays the icon used for the main podcast
• [podcasticon_for_search] – Displays the icon used for the custom podcast
• [tag_cloud] – Displays a tag cloud

Both results page and sermon page

• [sermon_title] – The title of the sermon
• [preacher_link] – The name of the preacher (hyperlinked to his search results)
• [series_link] – The name of the series (hyperlinked to search results)
• [service_link] – The name of the service (hyperlinked to search results)
• [date] – The date of the sermon
• [files_loop][/files_loop] – These two tags should be placed around the [file] tag if you want to display all the files linked with to sermon. They are not needed if you only want to display the first file.
• [file] – Displays the files and external URLs
• [embed_loop][/embed_loop] – These two tags should be placed around the tag if you want to display all the embedded objects linked to this sermon. They are not needed if you only want to display the first embedded object.
• – Displays an embedded object (e.g. video).

Sermon page only

• [preacher_description] – The description of the preacher.
• [preacher_image] – The photo of the preacher.
• [passages_loop][/passages_loop] – These two tags should be placed around the [passage] tag if you want to display all the passages linked with to sermon.
• [passage] – Displays the reference of the Bible passage with the book name hyperlinked to search results.
• [next_sermon] – Displays a link to the next sermon preached (excluding ones preached on the same day)
• [prev_sermon] – Displays a link to the previous sermon preached
• [sameday_sermon] – Displays a link to other sermons preached on that day
• [tags] – Displays the tags for that sermons
• [esvtext] – Displays the full text of the ESV Bible for all passages linked to that sermon.
• [kjvtext] – Displays the full text of the KJV Bible for all passages linked to that sermon.
• [lbrvtext] – Displays the full text of the Reina Valera Bible (Spanish) for all passages linked to that sermon.

1. Sermons can be searched by topic, preacher, Bible passage or date.
2. Full podcasting capabilities, including custom podcasts for individual users.
3. Sermons uploaded in mp3 format can be played directly on your website using a flash media player.
4. An optional sidebar widget displays sermons on all of your posts or pages.
5. Embed videos from sites such as YouTube or Google Video.
6. Other file types can also be uploaded, including PDF, Powerpoint, Word, text and RTF. Multiple files can be attached to single sermons.
7. The full Bible text of the passage being preached on can be included on each sermon page.
8. Files can be uploaded to your own site through the browser. Alternatively you can link to sermons hosted on other sites.
9. Powerful templating function allows complete customization to complement the look of your site.
10. Simple statistics show how often each sermon has been listened to.