SongEditor

Song Editor

The Song Editor is where you create and edit songs. The header holds the song's details — title, artist, tags, key, measure, tempo, and duration — and the body below is where you write the chords and lyrics.

Where to find the Song Editor

• Creating a new song from your library (“+” / “New Song”). • Selecting an existing song and choosing “Edit”. • Importing a song (text, ChordPro, PDF, or other supported formats) and opening it to refine.

Song Editor Header

Song Title and Artist

The Song Title is how the song appears in the Library under “All Songs”. The Artist groups songs by performer; each artist appears in the Sidebar under Artists.

Tags

Use Tags to categorize songs (genre, theme, event, etc.). Existing tags are suggested as you type.

Original Key

The Original Key should match the key of the chords you entered or imported.

• To change the written key: Tools → Rewrite song into key, then pick a target key. Chords and original key are updated. • To keep the written key but play in another: use transpose in the Song Overview. This changes only the displayed key, not the stored song.

Song Measure

The Measure (time signature) the song is in. Used by

Tab: Song Editor

Writing lyrics and chords

Song is written as text document and uses simple syntax based on chordpro [1] format.

For example, this is the contents of a simple song:

Chorus: In the [C]world full of [G]chords, where [D]melodies un[Em]fold,‎
A [C]digital ha[G]ven for [D]stories untold.‎
With a [C]tap and a [Em]swipe, a [C]music[D]ian’s de[Em]light,‎
Just[C]Chords guiding [D]through the musical [Gsus4]night.[G] ‎
(repeat 2x)

Verse 1: ‎
In the [C]palm of your [G]hand,‎
a song[D]writer’s [Em]dream,‎
…

The lyrics of the song are interspersed with chords written between brackets [ and ]. The chords are placed in front of the syllable they belong to.

Sections of the song are separated by empty line. Sections are typically used to divide verses from the chorus or bridge. Each section can be labeled with a name. You can label your sections by typing a name on the first line of the section (followed with a colon), and then follow it with a new line. After you have labeled sections, you can define song structure.

Comments or musical instructions should be written as text on a line surrounded with parenthesis.

Text Formatting

Symbol	Meaning	Description
*	bold	Use the same character to stop it before line end e.g. Song line with *bold* text
**	italic	Use the same characters to stop it before line end
***	bold & italic	Use the same characters to stop it before line end
_	underline	Use the same characters to stop it before line end
<red>	text color	Use the character "<" to stop the color before the end of the line, e.g., Line contains <red>red text<. Supported color names: blue, brown, cyan, gray, green, magenta, orange, purple, red, white, yellow. You can also use custom hex color codes like <#33F3FF>.
<@yellow>	text highlight color	Use the character "<" to stop the highlight before the end of the line, e.g., Line contains <@yellow>yellow text<. You can also use custom hex color codes like <#@33F3FF>.
<2>	font size (zoom)	A number sets the font size relative to the normal size. 0 (or omitting it) is normal, positive numbers grow the text and negative numbers shrink it — each step is about ±20% (e.g. 1 ≈ 120%, 2 ≈ 144%, -1 ≈ 83%). Use the character "<" to stop it before the end of the line, e.g., Line contains <2>bigger text<.
<red,@yellow,2>	combined formatting	Color, highlight and font size can be combined in a single tag by separating them with commas, e.g., <red,@yellow,2> = red text, yellow highlight, font size 2. Use the character "<" to stop it before the end of the line.

More Text formatting options can be found in the Chord bar under Aa:

ChordPro, Chords Over Lyrics, Chord Beats

This switch, at the top of the Song Editor, chooses how you write and edit your song. All three are just different views of the same song — when you flip the switch, JustChords converts your content automatically, so you never lose your chords or lyrics. Pick whichever style you are most comfortable editing in.

• ChordPro — Chords are written inline, in square brackets, right where they fall in the lyric: [G]Amazing [C]grace, how [G]sweet the sound. This is compact, unambiguous, and the format JustChords stores your song in behind the scenes. Best if you like typing quickly or are pasting from a ChordPro source.

• Chords Over Lyrics — Chords sit on their own line, positioned above the words they belong to — the classic look you see on most lyric-and-chord websites:

G           C        G
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

Best if you are copying charts from the web or prefer to see chords and lyrics on separate lines. (Note: Preview is not available in this mode; switching to Preview temporarily returns you to ChordPro.)

• Chord Beats — A grid-based editor where you place chords on individual beats within each measure, using the song's time signature. Instead of aligning chords to words, you map them to the rhythm — ideal for instrumental sections, jams, or any chart where the timing of chord changes matters more than the lyrics.

Tip: You can switch back and forth freely while working. A song entered as Chords Over Lyrics can be viewed and refined as ChordPro at any time, and vice versa.

Quick Chord Bar

The quick chord bar appears above the keyboard, letting you easily insert chords, tabs diagrams, note symbols, rhythm diagrams, sheet music and images into your chart. If you have set the songs Key, the quick chord bar will populate the bar with the chords in that key. As you add additional chord syntax, these new chords will appear on the bar making it easier to insert repeatedly.

Chord Insert

To insert a chord or empty tab into your song sheet:

• Tap on the screen where you want to place the cursor. The cursor is where your entry will be placed.
• With your cursor positioned, simply tap the desired chord, tab or symbol on the quick chord bar.
• The [chord] symbol inserts the correct format for writing chords in chord-pro syntax allowing you to enter any chord you choose.
• The |tab| symbol enters a blank tabular outline with standard tuning shown.

Quick Chord Bar "+" Button

On the right hand side of the quick chord bar is a "+" icon. Tapping the "+" icon opens a menu offering the option to insert diagrams and images into your song sheet.

ABC Notation

ABC notation is a compact, text-based way to write sheet music using ordinary letters, numbers, and symbols. In JustChords, you can add ABC notation to a song to display real musical staves — notes, rhythms, time signatures, and lyrics — alongside your chords. Each section of the score starts with header fields (such as the tune title, meter, and default note length) followed by the music itself. Notes are written as letters A–G, with octaves, sharps, flats, and note lengths added using simple markers. Bar lines, repeats, and chord symbols can all be included directly in the text. Lyrics are aligned to the melody using dedicated w: lines beneath each staff. JustChords renders your ABC text into a clean musical score that appears in the song's Sheet Music view. Guitar tablature can also be generated automatically from the same notation. Because it is plain text, ABC notation is easy to type, edit, copy, and share. For hands-on samples you can copy into your own songs, see ABC Notation Examples.

Image Insert

Insert a picture into a song from the Song Editor. Open the + (insert) menu in the editor toolbar and choose Image (photo icon), then pick one or more photos.

• Each selected image is copied into the app's own storage, so the song keeps working even if the original photo is later moved or deleted.
• An {image: src=...} directive is inserted at the current cursor position, one per image; the image renders inline at that point in the song.
• You can select multiple images at once — they are inserted in order.
• Images are stored at up to 2000 px wide.

Because the image is just a directive in the song text, you can move it by cutting and pasting the {image: ...} line to another spot in the editor.

Section Break

A section break splits one section into two separate blocks at the point you choose. Place the cursor where you want the split and pick Section break from the editor's + (insert) menu; it inserts a {section_break} directive.

• Everything before the directive stays with the section's original label; the part after the break becomes its own block with no repeated section name.
• You can add several breaks to divide one section into multiple blocks.
• Because it is just a {section_break} line in the song text, you can move or delete it in the editor at any time.

This is useful for splitting a long section (for example, a lengthy verse) so it wraps more neatly across columns or pages without duplicating the section heading.

Chord Beats

Chord Beats lets you set how many beats each chord lasts, so the chart shows the rhythm of the chord changes — not just which chords are played, but for how long. Select Chord Beats from the syntax switch at the top of the editor to enter this mode.

How it works:

• Tap a chord to select it; the selected chord is underlined in orange.
• Use the + and − buttons in the bottom toolbar to add or remove a beat from the selected chord.
• Use Previous (‹) and Next (›) to move the selection from chord to chord.
• Beat counts are shown next to each chord and are grouped according to the song's time signature.

Keyboard shortcuts:

• ⌘ ↑ — add a beat — ⌘ ↓ — remove a beat.
• ⌘ → — next chord — ⌘ ← — previous chord.

Chord Beats edits the same song as the other syntaxes; switching away converts your beat counts back into the stored song automatically. It works best on a song that already has its chords in place — add or edit the chords in ChordPro or Chords Over Lyrics first, then switch to Chord Beats to set their timing.

Lyrics Projection Override

Lyrics Projection Override lets you set exactly what text a section shows in Lyrics Projection — the audience/presentation view — independent of how that section appears in the normal chord chart. Use it when the projected wording should differ from the editor content: to drop chords, expand abbreviated repeats, fix line breaks for the screen, or show a translation.

Insert it from the editor's + menu (under Directives). It adds a block:

{start_of_lyrics_override}
Text to be projected in LyricsView
Second line
{end_of_lyrics_override}

• Replace the placeholder lines with the exact text you want projected for that section.
• Each line in the block becomes a projected line, so you control the line breaks directly.
• The override affects only the Lyrics Projection view — the chords, lyrics, and chart in the editor and Song Overview are unchanged.
• If the block is left empty, the section falls back to its normal lyrics.

Guitar Tabs

Guitar Tabs inserts a blank tablature template you can fill in by typing fret numbers. Open the editor's + (insert) menu and pick an instrument under the Guitar Tabs section; the tab lines are added at the cursor.

• One line is inserted per string, labeled with that string's tuning note (for example e / B / G / D / A / e for a standard guitar, or G / C / E / A for ukulele), each followed by a row of dashes.
• Type fret numbers onto the dashes to write your tab.
• The instruments offered are your available fretted instruments (guitars and ukulele); if the song has a specific instrument set, it is listed first.
• Templates start longer on iPad and shorter on iPhone — extend a line by typing more dashes as needed.

Rhythm diagram

In JustChords, you can create rhythm patterns, such as guitar strumming patterns, or make your own rythm patterns for other instruments using our Action and Modifier characters.

Let’s see how Actions and Modifiers can be used to create a strumming pattern for guitarists.

• – (dash) for take no action on time line = a space
• D inserts a down arrow in time line = a down strum
• U inserts an up arrow in time line = an up strum
• X inserts a ⊗ symbol in time line = a muted strum

You are not limited to these actions. You can use any other uppercase character to represent your own action requirements. The selected character will appear on the time signature time line, where ever you choose to place it.

Modifier characters: These are used to “modify” a chosen action, for example, to accent a strum to indicate a hard or loud strum. One or more Modifiers are placed immediately after an Action character, as needed, and when saved, will appear above the related action symbol or letter in the timing diagram. Available modifiers are:

• > accent or make loud
• < soften or mute
• p or pm palm (for mute strum)
• b for base note or root note
• any other lowercase character including #, +

The selected characters and symbols will appear above their related actions on the time signature time where you chose to place them.

Tab: Details

Manage and view details relating to your song.

Section Audio Track

Audio playback in JustChords lets you attach a backing track or reference recording to any song and control it directly from the song detail screen.

• Select Audio track.
• Choose the source for audio playback, one of:
  • Apple Music track
  • YouTube
  • Spotify (on iPhone/iPad)
  • Local file (for example an mp3 stored in Files)
  • None to clear the currently selected track

After this, a small play quick button appears in the song detail.

Once an audio track is attached, playback is always just one tap away.

Use the play quick button in the song detail to start or stop audio playback. The selected track will play while you view the song, so you can practice or perform along with the original recording or a custom backing track.

Section Metadata

Song metadata such as titles, composer, lyricist, notes etc, allows you to record song details in your song sheet. In addition you can enter:

• a URL to create a link from your Song title to a utube url.
• a Footer that will appear on printed song-sheets.

Section CCLI

Here you can enter music and video copyright details used to serve the 250,000 churches (schools and organisations) who use them in worship.

Tab: Sheet Music

Sheet music allows you to load pdf files and or images. You may add, reposition or delete individual files on your sheet music.

Add sheet music

1. Tap Sheet Music on the menu bar. If you have no sheet music loaded a window appears with an Add File button.
2. Tap ‘Add File’ to open a file browser. Another window opens, allowing you to choose from;

File: Opens a file browser to search for and import pdf files. You can select single or multiple files. You can access this search multiple times. Scanner: Scanner opens your camera app (requires permission), and allows you to capture documents with your camera. Photo library: Opens your Photo gallery and allows you to select and import one or more files.

Reposition or delete sheet music

When the sheet music contains one or more files you have the option to:

• Add pages – tap Add and choose File, Scanner or image.
• Reorder pages (files) by selecting a page then moving it to the left or to the right.
• Delete pages by selecting individual files or choose Delete All.

Tab: Preview

The Preview menu allows you to quickly view song sheet in song view mode without closing the Edit screen.

It offers two views:

• Song sheet view: See how you chords and lyrics look with formatting
• Sheet music view: See how your pdf files will look without closing the edit window.

Tools

Rewrite into key

The rewrite into key menu option allows you to transpose the song’s content.

1. Make sure that song has set correct key (the field near note icon).
2. Click Rewrite into key from menu.
3. Select new song key.
4. Song content is rewritten into the new key.

Note: You can transpose a song into any key without affecting the underlying song content. Use Transpose and Capo for temporary changes of song key. See Song Viewer

Tidy ...

Minor Chords → Xm

When a song uses Dmin or D- as its minor key notation, you can convert it to your preferred format.

Trim Whitespaces

Using Trim Whitespaces will eliminate unnecessary white spaces in the song.

Chords: # → ♯, [b] → [B♭]

This feature replaces all occurrences of # or b with the prettier version.

Chords: is → #, es → ♭

This feature replaces all chord occurrences with "is" to ♯ (Example: Cis major -> C♯m) as well as chords with "es" to ♭ (Example: Ges Minor -> G♭)

Convert …

Convert “Chords over lyrics → ChordPro”

“Chords over lyrics” are other common way to write chord charts. It means writing lyrics on one line and writing chords on the line above the lyrics. Chords are then aligned with lyrics using spaces.

1. Paste song content with “Chords over lyrics”
2. Click Convert ‘Chords over Lyrics’ to ChordPro in menu
3. Song is converted to JustChord notation.

Chord pro directives → attributes

Converts Chordpro’s ‘directives’ to JustChord’s attributes format.

OnSong text formatting → JustChords

Use this menu to covert songs written in OnSong’s text format to JustChord’s format.o

{comment:Verse} → Verse:

Use this menu to convert syntax for verse written as {comment:Verse}, to JustChord’s Verse syntax which is written as Verse:

Preferences

The song editor offers users several options:

• You can adjust the size of the text within the text editor to suit your needs.
• You can enable the Text focus mode which takes away the focus from Chords and makes text easier to find for edit
• You can enable Chord suggestions, which will suggest the appropriate keys in the Quick Chord bar
• You can set the number of chords allowed to show on the quick chord menu bar. From JustChords perspective, the maximum technically allowed is 20. Screenshot shows option with dropdown to limit the number.

Search and Replace

• TODO

Keyboard Shortcuts

CMD + S

Use this shortcuts to save changes to a song.

CMD + 1,2,3,4...

Use shortcut CMD + 1 to insert the 1st suggested Chord from the Quick Chord Bar. Use CMD + 2 for the 2nd and so on.

Related topics

• Getting started with JustChords