User Manual
Text File Handling
When OnSong imports certain files, it may need to be given a hint to the file encoding or format. Text File Handling settings help OnSong know how to handle certain files it encounters.
Acquire Song Number from Title
When a song is imported that has a title that starts with a number followed by a period, OnSong can acquire the number as the song number for proper sorting and searching.
ChordPro Compatibility Processing
ChordPro is a syntax and not a standard file format. Because of this, different vendors have used features of ChordPro in different ways. This option processes ChordPro to make it as future compatible as possible by converting commented section labels into real sections, for instance.
Convert Smart Quotes
This option will attempt to convert incompatible smart quote characters into compatible versions.
Detect Chords In Lyrics
OnSong uses text-based song content to render chord charts on the screen. Both OnSong and ChordPro file formats denote chord in square brackets within lyrics. However, most chord charts are available with chords on a separate line above lyrics. When this option is turned on, OnSong detected chords over lyrics and places the chords with lyrics automatically. Default is on.
Detect Key By
If the key of the song is not explicitly declared in the song's metadata, OnSong will need to find the key in another way to enable transposition. OnSong detects the key using one of the following methods:
- First Chord uses the first chord in the song as a basis for the key. For instance, if the first chord is Am7, then the key of the song is set to Am. Default.
- Last Chord uses the last chord in the song as a basis for the key. For instance, if the last chord in the song is a Bbsus4, the key will be set to Bb.
- Note Counts is a method of determining the key of the song by accumulating all the notes used by the chords in the song and then counting sharps and flats to determine the key. This can be more accurate than the first or last chord in the song, but can still be false if not enough chords are in the song.
- Metadata Only will only use the metadata of the song for the basis of the key. That means that if the key is not declared, transposition will not be available.
Fallback File Extension
OnSong uses the file extension of a file to determine its file format. This is important during the import process so that text conversion can occur to a supported internal format, or so external files like PDF can be viewed correctly.
In most cases files have a file extension. OpenSong files tend to be extension-less but are really XML-formatted files. For this reason, OnSong will automatically append a .xml file extension to files that have no extension. This identifies the file as an OpenSong file and converts it appropriately.
If you have many files that have no extension, and the type of the file is known, enter the file extension in this place.
File Encoding
Text encoding is the process of converting characters in a written language into binary values that can be stored by a computer. OnSong is designed to guess the file encoding of a file, but there are some occasions where the file encoding is not known. The default setting for this is Auto meaning the encoding is guessed. If you know the encoding of the file, select it from one of the options:
- Auto detects the encoding based on the contents of the file. Default.
- ASCII is a basic text encoding that covers most western character sets.
- UTF-8 is a superset of ASCII which contains most characters found through the world, but does not include some characters such as those found in Asian languages. OnSong uses UTF-8 internally and stores larger character sets in a way that makes them retrievable.
- UTF-16 uses 16-bit values for defining the character set allowing for 32,768 possible characters.
- UTF-32 uses 32-bit values for defining the character set allowing for 2 billion possible characters.
- ISO-Latin or better known as its codepage "iOS-8859-1". It is similar to UTF-8 and holds Latin-based characters.
Text File Conversion
When text files are imported, OnSong can automatically translate them in the OnSong file format. This places chords into square brackets automatically. Since OnSong can now automatically handle chords over lyrics in the song viewer, this is set to Text by default. You can still have OnSong convert your songs automatically by choosing OnSong instead.
