Music plans for each Mass

Each Mass in Look Ahead has a Music tab beside its ministers, so the plan for a Mass sits with everything else about that Mass — the readings, the celebrant, the servers — rather than in a separate document nobody can find on a Saturday.

Plan the music for a Mass

• 1. Open Liturgy → Look Ahead, click the day, and find the Mass under Masses & intentions.
• 2. Click the Music tab, then Plan the music.
• 3. Set the Music type and the Hymnal used from the dropdowns, or pick Other… and type your own.
• 4. Fill in the parts you are using — a Title on each, a Page # where the book has one, and a Hymn # on the hymns.
• 5. Click Save music.

The parts run in the order of the liturgy: Mass Setting, Prelude, Introit, Opening, Kyrie, Gloria, Gloria (Accomp.), Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, Sequence, Offertory Chant, Offertory Hymn, Sanctus, Mystery of Faith, Lord's Prayer, Agnus Dei, Communion Chant, Communion Hymn, Communion Hymn 2, Post Communion Hymn, Recessional Hymn and Postlude. Leave blank whatever you are not using — only the rows you fill in are kept. Prelude and Postlude are free text, with no page or hymn number, and the Hymn # box appears on the six hymn rows: Opening, Offertory Hymn, both Communion Hymns, Post Communion and Recessional.

Copy from another Mass

Most weekends repeat themselves, so you rarely start from nothing.

• Copy from… offers the day's other Masses first, then the Masses planned most recently.
• Choosing one fills the form in front of you. Nothing is saved until you click Save music, so adjust the two hymns that differ and then save.
• On a Mass with no plan yet, Copy from another Mass… sits right beside Plan the music.

What you see afterwards

• The Music tab wears a small ✓ once a plan exists, so a glance at the day says which Masses are ready.
• The tab shows the plan as a tidy list — type and hymnal, then each part with its number — with an Edit link and the name of whoever recorded it.
• Clear removes the plan for that Mass.

The dropdown lists are yours

The Music type and Hymnal lists are parish settings, not something fixed in the software. Go to Settings → Parish → Mass music presets and put one entry per line under Music types and Hymnals, then Save music presets. Out of the box the types are Contemporary, Traditional and Chanted, with Source & Summit as the hymnal.

The presets only suggest. Whatever the lists say, staff can always type something else on a plan.

Good to know

• A save replaces that Mass's plan outright, so the latest save is the whole truth, and every save is written to the audit trail.
• Music belongs to one Mass, exactly like reading choices — the 8am and the 10:30 keep their own plans.
• The plan is staff-facing. To hand something to the congregation, link a PDF instead: Linking a liturgy guide.