Charts, lyrics and notes

Every song has three documents, shown in the panel beside the player: the Chart (chords and arrangement), the Lyrics, and Notes (anything else: ideas, references, who plays what). Anyone can read them; members edit them right there with the pencil button, and the tick closes the editor again.

The editor

The editor has two views of the same document:

• Rendered is what you see on the song page. Select text for bold, italic and links; the ⋮ beside a block changes it to a heading, a list, a quote or a code block.
• Markdown is the plain text behind it. Headings start with #, lists with -, and a fenced code block (three backticks) keeps spacing exactly as typed, which is the way to lay out a chord grid.

While you edit on the song page, the Rich Text / Markdown switch sits at the top right of the Docs panel. Switching views never loses anything. Undo and Redo work across both, and so do the usual shortcuts.

Saving

Press Save or ⌘S / Ctrl+S. Each save that changes the text makes a new version, and the last ten are kept. If a save would empty a document that has content, the editor asks you to save again to confirm.

Tips for charts

• Put the key and tempo in the first line; the song's settings hold the exact values for the player.
• One section per heading (## Verse) keeps the chart in step with the sections on the timeline.
• Use a code block for grids:

| D     | A     | Bm    | G     |
| D     | A     | G     | G     |

Notation

The Chart tab has two modes, Text and Notation. Text is the chart you write. Notation holds scores exported as MusicXML from Dorico, MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale or any notation program (a compressed .mxl or a plain .musicxml), one tile each with its first page, title, description and page count. Click the page and the score is engraved in a panel of its own, laid out for the panel's width, which you can drag by its header and resize by its corner; Download in the header gives you the file back, and PDF a PDF of the score, rendered when it was uploaded. The tile's ⋯ menu has Open, Download, Download as PDF and, for editors, Edit and Remove; its share button copies a permanent link or starts an email with it. A PDF of a score belongs here too: upload one from this view, or mark a PDF or image in the Attachments panel as Notation from its ⋯ menu, and it shows on both; Not notation sends it back to the Attachments panel alone. Editors upload one or more files with Upload Notation (at the foot of the tab, in the panel's ⋯ menu, or in the Uploads menu), up to 10 MB each and 20 a song (PDFs up to 25 MB). The Chart tab's label counts the uploads, or shows 1 when there is chart text alone, and the Comments row under the stems counts the comments. The engraving engine downloads only on the song pages that use it, the first time a score opens.

From Dorico: File › Export › MusicXML, one flow per file, exporting layouts as separate files if you want the parts as well as the score. Slash regions and some engraving details do not travel in MusicXML; a PDF in the Attachments panel shows the page exactly as Dorico printed it.

Your own notes

Signed in, the Notes tab has a Project / Mine switch at its top right. Project is the note everyone on the project reads and editors write. Mine is your own notepad for the song: a practice list, a reminder, a part you are working out. Nobody else sees it, it is edited and saved the same way, and anyone who can open the song can keep one.

Earlier versions

Every save that changes a chart, the lyrics, the notes or your own note keeps the text it replaced, ten versions at most. History in the panel's ⋯ menu lists them with who saved them and when; View shows one, and Restore makes it the current text again (the text it replaces is kept too). An edited comment's edited badge opens its earlier versions the same way, for its author or an admin to restore.