Lyrics/Karaoke

How to edit lyrics

Select the staff which contains the notes for the sung part (melody) of the tune.
Click the staff icon (black triangle ) to the left of the staff clef, and in the pop-up menu select "Staff with lyrics". The staff is now ready to receive lyrics.

as many "staves with lyrics" as you like

Open the pop-up menu again. Several additional options are now available:
Select input mode: limited to one bar or not (Option>Limit editing to one bar)

Lyrics text style: changes lyrics font, size and color (applies to the entire text)
Display frames: activates/deactivates the cell frame display.

You are invited to view the "Disabling frame around lyric line." video tutorial ("Windows>Tutorials" menu in the program).
Edit lyrics: opens the integrated text editor to edit the whole lyric associated with this staff (see below: Global text edit)
Erase lyrics: all lyrics related to the staff will be erased.
Compute lyrics bar width: bar widths will be computed to avoid text overlap. Please note that this operation is done automatically when "Auto format lyrics" is selected.
Move lyrics to another staff: you are asked for the target staff, then the whole text of the source staff will be moved. A word and syllable adjustment is made according to the notes on the target staff.
Save lyrics text: saves the whole lyric on disk as a text file. Text format (accented and special characters) depends on your choice in Global Setup: MS/DOS, Windows or Macintosh accented characters.
Load lyrics text: current lyrics are erased and replaced by the content of a text file. This file can be in MS/DOS, Windows or Macintosh format: the format will be recognized automatically.
Auto format lyrics: if this option is selected, bar widths are adjusted to avoid text overlapping while you are typing.

Now click in the lyrics area. The cell you are editing appears in a different color, and a blinking cursor appears. If the background is gray, it means that this cell does not match any played bar. Little orange lines indicate the time position for each word or syllable of your text.
Enter your lyrics using the space or hyphen (dash) characters as separators between each word or syllable.When you type a separator, the cursor automatically jumps to the next time position in the tune. A hyphen splits syllables in the same word. The underline character is used to show that the end of a word is prolonged over several notes.
If you want to enter a space that is not a change of time position (an unbreakable space), type it with the Shift key depressed. It then appears underlined in gray. You can also use the "^" character .
If you want to add an underline at the end of a word, use the underline ("_")
To obtain an unbreakable dash (hyphen), type Shift+Minus (on the numeric Keypad) or the "="character.
To obtain the character "/" type "\"
To obtain the character "[" type "{"
To obtain the character "]" type "}"
If you wish to enter an end of line, type Shift+Enter. A carriage return symbol is displayed, to indicate a line break in the complete text display.

You are invited to view the "Inputing lyrics, splitting syllable, modulating syllable, Karaoke mode." video tutorial ("Windows>Tutorials" menu in the program).

Here is a summary of keys and commands:


Enter or Tab	Jumps to the next time location
Shift Enter	Inserts a new line in the text
Esc	Exits editing mode
Arrows	Move cursor
Shift Spacebar or ^	Unbreakable space
Character '{'	Will display '['
Character '}'	Will display ']'
Character '\'	Will display '/'
Underline ("_")	Inserts an underline (end of word)
Shift dash or =	Unbreakable dash (hyphen)
Shift Right or Left Arrow	Moves to another cell
Backspace	Deletes the previous character or the current selection
Del	Deletes the next character
Command (Ctrl) A	Selects the whole cell
Command (Ctrl) X	Cuts selection
Command (Ctrl) C	Copies selection
Command (Ctrl) V	Pastes selection
Spacebar	Inserts a space character separator
Minus (numeric keypad)	Inserts a hyphen character separator
Mouse Clicks	Changes the cursor location
Mouse Double-click	Selects the word
Click and drag	Selects a part of the cell text
Command+M	Start/Stop music
Command+P	Pause/Resume music