Song Editor

WorshipSession includes a basic editor for converting text to HTML. You can type directly into the box, or copy text from another application.

Introduction - how the editor works

WorshipSession works with HTML - in essence it is a mechanism for managing the display of Web pages. Every HTML Item could be stored in a separate file, but for efficiency and tidiness most song Items are appended together into larger files. When a song Item is selected, WorshipSession displays a part of the larger file.

When you type the words of a Song into the editor’s type-in box, the text is appended onto one of the files in the /localsongs folder. The filename is simply the first character of the title, so Show Your power O Lord is stored in /localsongs/S.html, along with any other songs starting with “S”.

The type-in box can only be used for song Items stored in this way. Other Items can be edited using a conventional HTML editor, and added into the WorshipSession index using the separate Add Item (“A2”) utility.

Typing lines and paragraphs

In HTML, there is a marked difference between a new line and a new paragraph. When songs are formatted in HTML, each verse is a single paragraph, and each line within the verse is terminated with a line break tag.

In the type-in box, you generate the line break tag using Shift-Enter. If you press the Enter key alone, a paragraph tag will be generated. Since WorshipSession uses paragraph tags as scroll points, you should not press Enter at the end of every line. The type-in box draws a blue line across the Item to show you where the scroll-points will be.

You can see the blue lines in the song above. AddSong inserts a blue line at the very top of the song. You should delete any extra blue lines within the song, which would affect the scrolling. Note you do not need to add a scroll point at the end of the song.

Applying classes

You can define a verse of your song as a Chorus, which will cause WorshipSession to apply different formatting when the song is displayed. To apply a class, first type the text, then press one of the Define class buttons, which will mark the paragraph with the class shown.

The type-in box uses a different font to show the chorus class, but when the song is actually displayed in WorshipSession the formatting is defined by a stylesheet - usually the file /style/ws_song.css.

“chorus” and “refrain” classes

For songs that have a chorus after every verse, you only need to type the chorus once. WorshipSession contains an optimisation that automatically repeats the chorus after every verse,

so if you type this: {verse}   {chorus} {verse} {verse}

WorshipSession displays this: {verse}   {chorus} {verse}   {chorus} {verse}   {chorus}

In most cases this is exactly what you want, and it also works where the shape of the song is {verse}, {chorus}, {verse}, {chorus}, {bridge}, {chorus}.

Some songs don’t fit this pattern however. Where the song has an irregular shape, you should use the refrain class instead of the chorus class. WorshipSession formats a refrain just like a chorus, but it does not copy the refrain after each verse as it would a chorus. When using the refrain class you need to copy the refrain yourself, wherever you want it to appear. To avoid confusion you should not use both refrain and chorus classes in the same song.

“feature” class

In WorshipSession you can attach a feature to song items. A feature is typically a few words that summarise the message of the song. When the song is displayed the feature is not normally seen, but if the F key is pressed, it is displayed full-screen, replacing the normal song display.

For more details, see the feature section in the User Guide.

Specifying the feature class is just like specifying the chorus or refrain classes. Type the text of the feature, then press the feature button. The type-in box uses a large font to show the feature class, but when the song is actually displayed the formatting is defined by a stylesheet - usually the file ws_song.css.

There is no facility for scolling features, so when you create a new feature you should always preview it in WorshipSession to verify that it fits on the screen. The standard stylesheet specifies a 72pt font, which allows just 6 lines on a 1024*768 screen.

Applying text styles

Apart from the class which is applied to complete paragraphs, you can also apply a style to words and phrases, for example to make some words italic. If you use one of the styles supplied with WorshipSession, italic text is displayed in a different colour, and usually indicates a “ladies echo” section, or similar. To make a phrase italic, select the phrase and press Ctrl-I. The text will be shown in a different colour in the type-in box.

In the same way, you can apply the STRONG or ‘Bold’ tag to a phrase by selecting it and pressing Ctrl-B. WorshipSession’s default style sheets contain no custom style for STRONG, but you could add your own rules into /style/song.css - for example you could put the STRONG text in a headline font.

You can also underline a section of text by selecting it and pressing Ctrl-U.

Copying text from other applications

The type-in box allows you to copy text from the clipboard, or “drag and drop” from another application. This is useful if you prefer to use an application that has a spell-checker, or if you subscribe to a service that gives you access to the lyrics of the latest songs. Select the text in the other application, then copy it onto the clipboard (usually you use Ctrl-C). In the type-in box, use Ctrl-V to paste the text.

Adding Guitar Chords

Adding Guitar chords to a song is quite easy,
but there are some pitfalls to avoid.
For best results, type all the song words first and check your spelling, then add the guitar chords.

You can add chords to songs so that musicians can play them. WorshipSession generally displays the chords on the “Master” screen of a dual-screen set-up, and it can be configured to display chords if you are using a single screen.

When songs are displayed in WorshipSession, chords are displayed above and ‘behind’ the words, but in the type-in box the chords are displayed in-line, so that they can be edited. To define a chord, first type the text of the chord name, then press Alt-C on the keyboard. The Utility expects the chord text to be immediately to the left of the cursor. (To enable chord detection, and key transposition in WorshipSession, always use capital letters A..G for the names of notes. Use ‘b’ for musical flat, and ‘#’ for musical sharp.)

For unusual chord shapes like (D7 to repeat), the Utility may not select the correct number of characters. To avoid this problem, you can select the characters yourself, and press Alt-C.

Note that you can put chords in the middle of words - they will display correctly in WorshipSession. The type-in box shows the chords in-line to facilitate editing, but this makes it very difficult to check the spelling of words. Also if a line has several chords, it may wrap in the type-in box, even though it will be displayed correctly in WorshipSession. This is why it’s important to type all the song words before adding the chords.

Once you have entered a chord, you can select it with a mouse, and drag it to every position where that chord is required. Hold down the Ctrl key to copy text while dragging it, otherwise the chord will simply be moved to the new position.

You can include a space after the chord text - this can make it easier to select with a mouse. The extra space will removed when the song is saved.

It is important to grasp that if you place the cursor at the right edge of a chord and type more text, this text becomes part of the chord, and there’s no way to return it to “normal formatting”. This means that if you place a chord on the end of a line, you can’t add more song words after the chord. You need to delete the chord, add the text, then re-enter the chord. Similarly, if you place the cursor at the left edge of a chord and type text, it becomes a part of the song and can’t easily be made part of the chord. You need to be aware of this when editing chords, for example if you accidentally type Am7 instead of Cm7, you can’t simple delete the A and type C, because the C will be added to the song. Type the C after the A, then delete the A.

When chords are displayed in WorshipSession, they appear behind the song text, and it’s possible for chords to overlap, making them difficult to read. You may need to move the chords slightly to allow space. In this example, the Asus4 chord is very likely to obscure the A chord when it’s displayed.

Where several chords appear together after a line of a song, you need to separate them with spaces. Type the whole sequence of chords in “normal text” leaving sufficient spaces to prevent them “crashing”, then individually convert the chords.

Using the Chord Box

The “A1” and “A3” Utilities include a “Chord Box” to the right of the main display. You can use this if you prefer to add chords using a mouse. Use the b and # buttons to select the appropriate range of chords for the key in which you’re working. (If you enter values in the ‘Key’ box, the right chords should appear automatically.)

To insert a chord from the Chord Box, simply place the cursor at the location in the song, then press the chord button. The chord box only contains the six “basic” chords for each key, but once insterted they can be edited, so you can add 7, sus4 or whatever the chord requires.

Removing chord formatting

It’s possible to get chord formatting completely messed up - for example if you drag a chord into the middle of an existing chord, or you press Alt-C twice in succession. The rule is - if it doesn’t look right in the type-in box, it won’t be right when it’s displayed in WorshipSession. You can return a whole section of text to “plain text” by selecting it and pressing Ctrl-Alt-C. To remove chord formatting, the selection must begin before the start of the chord, and end after the end of the chord.

Using an external HTML editor

Once you have entered a song using the Add Song utility, you can edit the words using Edit Items (“A3”), and you can also edit the HTML directly by opening the file in an external editor. You may want to do this to apply special formatting to part of a song, such as a decorative font or a background photo. Take care when editing song files, because while editing one song you could potentially cause unexpected changes to other songs in the same file.

Note that the Add Song utility allows you to specify a specific stylesheet for each song - this enables you to apply customisations without editing the HTML. The CSS stylesheet file can specify the look of the whole song, for example using a different font colour or adding a background image. You can also define different formatting for specific classes, such as chorus or feature paragraphs.

If the song includes chords, these will not appear in a standard HTML editor, and some editors may even strip them out, although a good editor should preserve them. Take care when editing a song in an external editor - since the chords can’t be seen, you may accidentally damage them.