Texts and Tunes

When you choose a song from a title list, a new window opens. The title of the window is the name of the song. If the song doesn't have an associated tune, the text of the song will fill the entire window. At the bottom of window are two information displays: any keywords associated with a song (See 'Searching') are listed at the left, and the initials of the person who entered the song in the database and the date that it was entered (if available) are listed at the right.

If the song does have a tune, however, the window will be split with the tune displayed at the top of the window and the text in the lower half. Between them is a gray bar which can be dragged up and down to show more tune or text, depending on your preference. The gray bar also contains controls for playing the displayed tune (SEE 'Playing Tunes'). The bar is shown here in its expanded form, invoked by clicking on the arrow at the far left:

At the right of the control bar is a menu button displaying the reference code for the tune being displayed. You can search for other songs with the same tune by pressing the magnifying glass button next to it. If a song has only one tune, the menu will be grayed out. If a song has multiple tunes, you can switch between tunes by choosing them from the menu.

Because the tunes are being converted from a somewhat arcane DOS format, display can sometimes be a little strange. Most songs are fine, but occasionally the words won't line up right, or something else will be off. If you find one that does something really strange, send me a note and I'll take a look at it. The tune display code is under constant revision...

You can print the tune and text by choosing Print... from the File menu. You can also save the tune image as a BMP file by choosing Save -> Tune Picture from the File menu. The resulting file can be edited with most graphics software.

You can save tunes in abc format by choosing Save->Tune as abc. See The abc Home Page for more information about the abc tune format.

Song texts can be copied, or saved by choosing Save -> Song Text from the File menu.