Prepare Lyrics and Chords as Text Pages

Text scores help when you need to edit a lyric or put chords in a singer's key. Unlike a scanned PDF, the text can be edited and laid out for your screen. If your existing PDF does the job, you do not need to rewrite it.

Choose by What You Want to Write

Start with Plain Text for lyrics, Markdown for notes with headings or lists, ChordPro for chords above lyrics, or Fumen for bar-based chord charts without lyrics. Choose a Text Page Format explains the differences and shows examples.

Try a few lines before entering a whole song. Switching formats later does not automatically rewrite the text into the other notation.

Write a Little, Then Read It from Your Playing Position

1. Choose the format in the Text Page Editor and enter a few lines. For ChordPro, start with a short example in the Quick Reference.
2. Check chord placement or bar divisions in Preview, then enter the rest.
3. Save and open the page in the Score Viewer. Read it from your playing position. Choose a broad ChordPro layout with Display Presets, and adjust text or margins in Text Page Settings. Each page explains shared defaults and item-specific settings.
4. Use Transpose only when you need a different key. Check first because ChordPro and Fumen change different things.

If the Display Is Not What You Expected

• Chords are not above the lyrics: check the selected ChordPro format and syntax in the Editor.
• Text is cramped or margins are too large: choose the broad layout in Display Presets, then adjust text and margins rather than changing everything at once.
• Transposition is unavailable or unexpected: check formats and effects in Transpose. This operation cannot transpose the notes in a PDF or image.