[2] It also includes easy and instant switching between slides, customisable backgrounds, a song database, and video support.

[4] The software was first released on 28 February 2004[5] as version 0.1, and contained the bare basics of the application.

[7] On 18 March 2004, the 0.x line of OpenLP officially entered beta status[8] with the release of version 0.5.

With this in mind, Tim Ebenezer decided to drop the 0.x line and rewrite OpenLP from scratch, with a redefined user interface.

After the release of beta 1, Tim became too busy to work on openlp.org, and in early 2006 Raoul took over the project.

[17] In the meantime, Derek Scotney joined the project, helping Raoul work on bugfixes for openlp.org 1.0.

In October 2009 Derek released a new version of openlp.org that he had been working on, one that provided a backing track feature that his church needed.