Automated link between Sermon and Series with directory containing exported documents
I do not know how to give an appropriate title for this post to reflect exactly what this script does. It's just so useful I thought to share this one ...
When I create a Series I do the following:
- Create a Sermon Document that have some introduction to the Series.
- Create a Folder to Reflect this Series.
- Copy several different Templates (Word, FL Studio, etc.) to this folder.
- then Export the Series to the Word Template etc.
- then I do voiceovers etc...
- Then I create Sermons for the Series.
- create a folder for each Sermon under the Series Folder.
- copy Sermon related Templates to the Folder
- export the Sermons to these Templates
- do voiceovers from these templates etc...
This process is followed day after day for three years now. I got tired to create folders, copy templates, open folders, search documents for the sermons, etc.
So, I asked myself: What if this can be automated? Would it save valuable time?
- automate series folder creation?
- automate template copying?
- automate sermon folder creation?
- automate sermon template copying?
- automate the opening of the active sermons folder in explorer?
The end result of this question, an automated ahk script to do everything with two keystrokes.
- Ctrl+Alt+M to prepare the Series and Sermon folders and copying.
- Ctrl+Alt+F to open the active Sermon's folder
The script uses its working directory to store everything.
When you run it the first time it will create three folders:
- Data
- Templates
- Templates/Sermon
Store your Introductory templates for the series into the Templates Folder
Store your Sermon Templates into the Templates/Sermon Folder
Create a Layout named with a path structure like "Devotionals/Proverbs" that reflect your Series.
Create a Sermon and give it a Title that should remain static as the folder will be linked to this Title.
Press Ctrl+Alt+M to create workingdirectory/Data/Devotionals/Proverbs/SermonTitle and to do the following:
- Series Templates will be copied to workingdirectory/Data/Devotionals/Proverbs/*.*
- Sermon Templates will be copied to workingdirectory/Data/Devotionals/Proverbs/SermonTitle/*.*
- a desktop.ini file will be created in every folder to add some properties to the folder. The tag property is most useful as it will contain the sermon number to sort sermons in the creation order. The number of existing sermon folders determine this number when the folder is created. In explorer, you'll need to add these columns to the view.
When ever you work in this Layout and the Sermon is the Active Panel you can Press Ctrl+Alt+F to open the Sermons Folder. This will work for any Layout with a path as name and static sermon titles.
If you grasp the concept the possibilities become endless. You'll just need to change the script to reflect other kinds of Panels. I did not create the script generic to do everything, I just need it to do this single task at the moment. Integrate this with a workflow and you'll get up to speed in working on your sermons rather than on creating folders, copying files, etc. I use a compiled version of this script and it starts with windows.
If you have an idea I would love to hear what you think or what you did with this idea.
Enjoy!