ProPresenter Bibles: Install Translations and Build Scripture Slides

A passage gets added to the sermon at the last minute, and someone in the booth is retyping it into a text box, hoping the wording matches the translation being read. ProPresenter can look that passage up and build formatted slides in seconds. First, though, the Bible tab has to be switched on, a translation installed and your slide options set.

I’ll be upfront: I haven’t used this feature much myself. But a conversation with someone made me realize what a great resource it is when you use it in a specific way. That’s the workflow below, from a missing Bible tab to styled scripture slides sitting in your sermon presentation.

Where’s the Bible Tab?

If there’s no Bible tab next to your Show tab, it’s switched off, not missing. Plenty of organizations that aren’t churches use ProPresenter, so Bibles are part of the House of Worship integrations.

To turn them on:

1. Open ProPresenter Settings → General.
2. At the top, toggle on Show House of Worship Integrations.

The Bible tab appears right away. Toggle the setting off and the tab disappears again. If someone tells you the Bibles feature vanished, check this setting first.

Install at Least One Translation

The first time you click the Bible tab, almost nothing shows up. That’s expected. Nothing appears until at least one translation is installed, so that’s your first job.

1. Click Options in the top right, then Bibles.
2. You’ll see two tabs: Purchased and Free.
3. On Free, download and install whatever you like. These are often public-domain translations.
4. For anything else, click Get Bibles. It opens your Renewed Vision account, the same site you use if you’ve moved to the subscription model, where you can add translations to your cart.

Before buying anything, look in your organization’s products on that site and open Bibles. When I made the video, the church I served had bought several translations over the years. Translations your church already owns can be pulled down onto the computer from there.

Paid translations cost money because a lot of work goes into making each one available in the app. If you want to use the feature with the translation your pastor preaches from, it’s worth paying for. If you’d rather not buy any, that’s fine too. You can still build scripture slides by hand.

Look Up Scripture Three Ways

With a translation installed, type into the search at the top of the Bible tab. If you have more than one translation installed, you can also switch translations there.

• By reference. Type John 3:16 and press Enter. ProPresenter creates a slide for the verse. Click it and it goes to your output, right over the top of whatever is already showing.
• By range. Extend the search to verses 16 through 18 and you get slides for the whole passage.
• By keyword. Remember the words but not the reference? In the video, a search for for God brought up John 3, and so did loved. It’s handy when someone quotes a verse from memory.

Don’t Send Scripture Live From the Bible Tab

Some people look up a verse and click it straight to the screen from the Bible tab. My recommendation is different.

If you’re going to use the Bible tab, copy the slides and paste them into a presentation instead of sending scripture live from the tab.

Once the verses are in a presentation, they behave like any other slides. In the video, Quick Edit showed separate text boxes for the reference and the verse. After pasting, I could also split a slide so the text lined up better.

1. Create a New Presentation. I named mine “Sermon Slides” with the date.
2. Put it in your service playlist.
3. In the Bible tab, select the scripture slides and copy them (Command-C on a Mac).
4. Go to Show, open the new presentation and paste.

Set Your Slide Options

This is where raw verses become readable scripture slides. In the Bible tab, open Options → Slide Options.

Three formatting switches matter most:

• Show verse numbers — separates the passage by showing each verse’s number, which I think is awesome.
• Break on new verse — puts one verse on each slide. I think that’s the best way to present scripture.
• Display translation — shows the translation. I don’t usually put it on every slide, but it’s there if you want it.

Next to those, the reference setting decides how each slide identifies the passage:

Reference setting	What you get
No Reference	No reference on any slide
Passage Last	The reference appears at the very end of the scripture
Passage Each	The full passage reference on every slide
Verse References	Each slide shows exactly which verse is on it

My pick is Break on new verse with Passage Each. Each slide shows one verse, while the reference shows the whole block you’re reading. People see the bigger picture and know exactly where you are, so it’s hard to get lost. Use whatever fits your context.

Build a Scripture Theme With Linked Text

In the video, a single verse came up small in the lower third. A theme fixes that. Under Options → Theme, you pick a theme that every passage runs through before you copy it into your presentation.

Sermon themes are a good starting point. One I tried in the video puts the scripture in the large text area and uses the small box to read the slide label, which holds the reference.

To build your own:

1. From the theme options, click Edit and create a new theme.
2. Grab the text box, make it a bit smaller and move it into place. This is the verse box. Add a fill if you like; I used blue.
3. Duplicate the box and make a smaller version for the reference, with a slightly darker shade.
4. Select the smaller box, go to the Text tab, and set Linked Text to Slide Label. That box now fills itself with the scripture reference.
5. Name things clearly. I called the theme Scripture and the main box Scripture Verse.
6. Go back to Show, then the Bible tab. Select your new theme. In the video, I clicked a different theme first and then back to the new one. Search the passage and check that your slide options are the same.
7. Set Verse to your Scripture Verse box and Reference to the Slide Label box.

Now the verse lands in the main area and the reference in the smaller box. Copy the slides, delete the old ones from your sermon presentation, and paste in the new set. You can still adjust the theme later to fine-tune the look.

If the Theme Editor is new to you, ProPresenter 7 | Themes & Templates Training walks through it from the start.

Troubleshooting Scripture Slides

Check these in order:

• No Bible tab. Turn on Show House of Worship Integrations in Settings → General.
• The Bible tab is empty. No translation is installed yet. Go to Options → Bibles.
• You can’t find your pastor’s translation. Check Free, then Get Bibles. Look under your organization’s products before buying.
• The wrong translation is on screen. Switch translations in the Bible tab before you copy the slides.
• The verse comes up small in the lower third. That’s the theme. Choose a sermon theme or build your own.
• No reference appears. Check that the reference setting isn’t No Reference, and that Reference points at a box whose Linked Text is Slide Label.
• Several verses are crammed on one slide. Turn on Break on new verse.
• A pasted slide needs a tweak. Edit it in the presentation. Once pasted, they’re normal slides.

When the Bible Tab Is the Right Tool

The Bibles feature is at its best when a pastor calls out scripture and expects it on screen quickly. It’s also a quick way to find a passage when all you have is a phrase.

It isn’t the only good workflow. Some teams build scripture by hand from the pastor’s notes, with the full verses written out in the translation being read. My ProPresenter 7 | Best Practices for Sermon Slides video covers that approach, along with why each verse gets its own slide.

Watch the Video

The full walkthrough covers turning on the integrations, installing translations, searching, slide options and building the theme. You can jump to looking up scriptures, building the custom presentation or using a custom slide theme.

The Whole Thing in One Picture

• Turn on Show House of Worship Integrations in Settings → General to reveal the Bible tab.
• Install at least one translation under Options → Bibles. Check the free ones first, and look for translations your organization already owns before buying.
• Search by reference, range or keyword.
• Copy scripture into a real presentation instead of firing it live from the tab.
• Set Break on new verse and Passage Each under Slide Options.
• Build a theme where Linked Text → Slide Label carries the reference, then map Verse and Reference to your boxes.

Keep Going

• Lyrics deserve the same care: ProPresenter song lyric slides.
• Streaming too? See how a dedicated ProPresenter stream output turns scripture into lower thirds for the stream.
• For the big picture of running the software, read the ProPresenter complete training guide for church.

More training is on the YouTube channel: youtube.com/@CrazyAmazingDesigns.