Hi
I would like to see if anyone else had a good solution to my little scenario.
I work with several bands and I work off chord sheets that I have written out, so therefore have multiple chord sheets.  I would like to scan these and put them on my I-pad or laptop so I could get rid of loads of paperwork and folders.
What I would really like is to be able to have an index page (I could have several index pages depending on which band I am playing with)--- click on a title on the index page, and viola, my chords for that song. Then at the end of that tune, a quick click back to the index, and click on next tune. I could not have these in any particular order as set normally change mid gig.
Any recommendations out there.
kind regards
Dave

Most likely you’ll need EITHER:

MS Word (so that you can create each page for a lyric sheet and then bookmark them)

or

Adobe Pro (NOT “Reader”...but instead the Pro version so you can edit and manipulate .pdf files).

We are in the same situation as you and so I took all or most of our lyric sheets and dumped them into a single .pdf file.  I had a TOC page that was the first page of the document and it had all the song names in two columns and I *WAS* going to hyperlink each of the song names on the first page to their associated page further in the document...UNTIL I stumbled upon simple “bookmarks” within a .pdf.  You simply highlight the title of a particular lyric sheet and create a bookmark for it and then the .pdf contains all your bookmarks in alphabetical order.

I’ve attached our example so you can see what I’m saying.

Finally...I purchased a $20 VGA duplicator (I can dredge up the URL for you if you’re interested) and I took a simple Netbook computer to the gig, had the .pdf loaded in Adobe Reader (you only need Reader if you’re just reading through it and jumping from page to page) and I piped out the VGA video signal to three other monitors (with their stands taken off) which were mounted on heavy duty music stands and when I switched songs on my little netbook, all three monitors showed (in nearly 8.5x11 size!) the lyric sheet for the given song.  YES...paperless nirvana!

If I had had more time, I could have investigated how to use MS Word and create all my Bookmarks and then use Word to dump to a .pdf (and thus NOT need Adobe Pro)...but I just never got that far.

Plus....(and I can get you a copy of this if you want), I use MS Access 2010 to store all of our songs and I can easily create a .pdf of a given song straight from the database.  The database stores other information too (including multiple “sets” for a given “gig") and all that noise.

Hope this helps!

SoundsationSongList_Lyrics_TOC.pdf  (File Size: 406KB - Downloads: 885)

I should point out that a few songs (like Brown Eyed Girl, Moondance, and others) actually spill over to TWO pages, so I typically had Adobe Reader opened on the netbook in TWO-page mode and I also artfully created the .pdf file itself to ALWAYS position a two-pager song with the 1st page on an odd numbered page so that you could always “see” both pages together correctly.  You’ll see what I mean when you open the .pdf. 

And on a typical 20” monitor, the monitor itself is big enough to allllmost show the two pages “life size” (e.g., 8.5 x 11).  Us oldsters have old eyes....we don’t want anything SHRINKING on us.

Anyhoo..enjoy!

Finally (geez...can’t shut up!)...there are keyboard shortcuts to “show” and “hide” various aspects of the Adobe Reader interface so that you can get the most screen real estate possible.  I suggest you learn them and use them if you move forward on this.

F4 - shows/hides Navigation bar which has the Bookmarks tool.
F8 - shows/hides main toolbar.
F9 - shows/hides top most menu.

So...for example, you’d be humming along in Brown Eyed Girl with the lyrics showing full two-page layout with NO other “thingeys” showing and then at the end of the song you’d hit F4 to show the Bookmarks, go zoom down to Moondance, click it (thus moving to Moondance in the .pdf) and then hit F4 to hide.  Now you’re ready to play again.

Ain’t it grand?

well Selbalicious,
thanks for the great reply. I have done some homework since I posted, but the PDF Adobe pro is pretty much what I found (albeit under some disguise as a totally new app.
The bookmark suggestion is a great tip, I will go with that.  I will say that the 20” inch monitor is a bit excessive, I’m hoping to have all this on a 7” tablet. I want to mount this on top of my Mox 8, very discreetly. (I feel the clarity on the new tablets is so good that even an ol timer like me can read the essential bits. Most of my sheets will be handwritten chord blocks. (lyrics not always necessary, if they are they can be small, while the chords are large.)
thanks again
Dave

I know this is an old thread but thought I would throw a couple of ideas in.  Opensong.org is a lead sheet creation program that is free.  I will allow you to set the size of the chords differently from the lyrics for those of us that may have become “visually” challenged.  It is mainly focused on the Worship community but can be used for whatever type music you need.  Once the songs are in, ( I can normally input a song in under 5 minutes if I focus) you can change keys, show both capo and original key if you have a guitar player and print out in hard copy or pdf with the right print drivers.  It has a bunch of other features as well and it is priced at “Free”.  I have OnSong for the Ipad and it handles pdf’s as well.  You can also set up a set list I believe so it is easy to get to the songs you need.

Terry

Hi,

Since you are using I-pad you might consider to use Onsong http://www.onsongapp.com/

For making your own PDF consider CutePDF writer. Instead of printing your own musicsheets you can use CutePDF for making the PDF. It’s freeware.

If you prefer to use Android tablet pls check out Mobile Sheets
from Zubersoft http://www.zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/downloads.html
There is free and a paid version. Switching between pages can be done either by hand of pedal

John