Cheat sheets - Advice on going from paper to digital?

[Silly Moustache]

On Friday, my rather large 4 ring binder fell open .. again.

Maybe it is time to make the change ... but ....

This is where I am:

All my cheat sheets are on MS Word docs.
They are not just copies copied and paste from Ultimate Guitar or whatever, they are my arrangements of self penned and my arranged covers with notes etc.

No Tab, no notation!

I usually select the sheets in order of play for whatever performance I'm going to do, so between numbers - all I need to do is turn the page.


i see others using tablets and they seem to take an inordinate time changing from one song to the next - not great for audience entertainment.

I am very very old and not very IT literate, and need largeish print (14pt min) - one one page.

There are hundreds, of them (!) so converting them to some other format -just ain't gonna happen.

So, is there any way and any suggested (large - at least A4 (14" diag) portrait view tablet ??

Thanks in advance.

[Mandobart]

Print them as .pdf's (Adobe) and email them to yourself as a document in the setlist order you want for a particular gig.

Buy or use your existing large tablet and open the emailed attachment on it. Get one of those ipad/tablet holders that mounts on a mic stand.

[pieterh]

Apple generally manage to open word Documents in the app “Pages” so an iPad of some sort.

I use an iPad but use an app that came with iRig’s Bluetooth page turner. It doesn’t like regular documents so I save new shows and song charts as PDF. The advantage of my setup is that I can change pages mid-song with a gal of my foot (can go back a page too if needed).

You might be able bulk-save your docs as PDFs and hopefully someone more knowledgable will chip in here with an option.

[tbirdman]

The ultimate digital solution is an Ipad Pro with a 13" screen. Key is an aspect ratio with a wide another vertical so when you turn the screen vertically it has a decent horizontal width. Most other digital solutions are a 16:9 screen which is terrible for what you want to do. I have a chromebook but decided to bite the bullet and spring for the iPad Pro.

[SongwriterFan]

Another vote for an iPad Pro, and printing the documents to PDF format.

That's what I do . . . I have no idea how people can use smaller iPads or even iPhones for this task.

[blindboyjimi]

I have an iPad Pro 12” and use OnSong with a Bluetooth AirTurn Duo pedal. It works perfectly. You certainly don’t need the Pro but it does have a faster processor and a much better screen. The regular iPad in 12 inch or perhaps 11 inch is about half the price.

[Silly Moustache]

Thanks - I'm stumped by how I could convert hundreds of word docs into pdf?

[Songbook19]

Hi SM,

I was in the same boat years ago with the 3 ring binder issue and also had all of my songsheets in MS-Word as well. Here's what I've done:

I took all of those individual Word docs and combined them into a single file. I then indexed and hyperlinked everything together so it's easy to quickly move from one song to another. It kept the same format I was familiar seeing and was basically just a conversion from paper to digital. The issue is then how to display it:

- Display them on your PC as a Word document and adjust the zoom level (and/or bolt the text) to fill the screen and make it as visible as possible. I use a 17" laptop and can set things so I can see them from about 5 feet away. Also works if you have others needing to see the lyrics. But the thing is you're not going to have it all fit one page so you're going to want to use a bluetooth pedal-type page turner to emulate your keyboard so you can control what you're seeing and advance things with the tap of your foot. You can either scroll a line at a time, or page down to display the bottom half of the song. There's a bit of a learning curve but it comes quickly.

- Display them on an iPad. I use a regular old 9.7" non-Pro and clip it to my mic stand in landscape format. But iPad and Word do not play nice together so as others have mentioned you'd want to convert from a Word doc to PDF. This is easy to do from within Word by using the "save as" and choose .pdf. All hyperlinks will work in pdf as well. But even with an iPad you'd still want to use a BT page turner.

Take a look at these to see what I'm talking about. It's my songbook and it has over 900 songs. But they're all indexed and hyperlinked so I can switch between songs in a matter of seconds. You could easily do something similar.

(Word file)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...DQ?usp=sharing

(PDF file)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folde...W6?usp=sharing

Just trying to help. Not suggesting this is necessarily the best way to go but based on what you're trying to accomplish it might be an option that would work for you.

I'd be willing to do the hyperlinking for you if you're not comfortable doing so. Send me an email if you're interested.

Al

[email protected]

(Enjoy your videos.)

[birdsong]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Thanks - I'm stumped by how I could convert hundreds of word docs into pdf?

You can re-save any document into a variety of formats. PDF is one of those (it's the 7th option in my version of Word).

Thus, open the document as you have, then instead of the usual "save" function, select "save as" and you will see the usual place to name your file. The default format is your Word format. But notice the down-arrow. Click that - there is a long series of other formats to choose from.

Again, at my end, PDF format is #7 in the list. So select this and you can leave the filename as is. You will have the new extension and off you go.

You may want to change to a new folder at this point. Or wait, re-sort by file type and move them all at once later.

John

[UncleJesse]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Thanks - I'm stumped by how I could convert hundreds of word docs into pdf?

What you're looking for is batch conversion of Doc to PDF:

https://www.adobe.com/documentcloud/...rt-to-pdf.html

[YamahaGuy]

Forget the proprietary IPad with its pricey apps. Any
tablet, preferably 10.1" or larger will do. For $6.99 ONE TIME, vs. $30/yr, purchase Songbook Pro.

If your files and Microsoft Word filename.docx files they will import directly into Songbook Pro. Once your library is in place, you can back it up in case something happens to your tablet or if you get another one.

In Songbook Pro you can create setlists rather easily and change the order, add songs, print off a list of titles, lyrics, share out your setlist with others, etc.

You can also import songs from Ultimate Guitar and save them. From there, it is easy to edit them to your liking.

Sorry to sound so anti-Apple. Just trying to save some people a few bucks.

[Big Band Guitar]

I just today set up Mobile Sheets for my big band guitar charts. Our library was digitized by many different people using PDF, JPG, and Bitmap.

I only convert and import as needed this falls rehearsal list contains 40 tunes.

Adobe converted the files with no issue other than figuring out how to convert and save. Also allowed me to combine PDFs.

Importing into Mobile Sheets was easy.

This is on a Windows 10 laptop.

I am also a senior citizen and was able to figure it out without the help of a 10 year old.

I'm still going to bring along the paper file just in case.

https://www.zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/

[Graylocks]

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

Forget the proprietary IPad with its pricey apps. Any
tablet, preferably 10.1" or larger will do. For $6.99 ONE TIME, vs. $30/yr, purchase Songbook Pro.

If your files and Microsoft Word filename.docx files they will import directly into Songbook Pro. Once your library is in place, you can back it up in case something happens to your tablet or if you get another one.

In Songbook Pro you can create setlists rather easily and change the order, add songs, print off a list of titles, lyrics, share out your setlist with others, etc.

You can also import songs from Ultimate Guitar and save them. From there, it is easy to edit them to your liking.

Sorry to sound so anti-Apple. Just trying to save some people a few bucks.

thanks! i was just about to ask if anyone had a non-apple solution. I am an apple evangelista but i have a friend with a vehement hatred of all things Apple. At our last gig she was having trouble organizing her notebook and someone suggested an ipad. (not me, i knew better.) she went off on an anti-apple diatribe as i gently tried to interject that surely there was some sort of similar android tablet that could do the same thing.

Does Songbook Pro work with a bluetooth pedal page turner device people were talking about?

[tbirdman]

Originally Posted by YamahaGuy

Forget the proprietary IPad with its pricey apps. Any

tablet, preferably 10.1" or larger will do. For $6.99 ONE TIME, vs. $30/yr, purchase Songbook Pro.



If your files and Microsoft Word filename.docx files they will import directly into Songbook Pro. Once your library is in place, you can back it up in case something happens to your tablet or if you get another one.



In Songbook Pro you can create setlists rather easily and change the order, add songs, print off a list of titles, lyrics, share out your setlist with others, etc.



You can also import songs from Ultimate Guitar and save them. From there, it is easy to edit them to your liking.



Sorry to sound so anti-Apple. Just trying to save some people a few bucks.

The issue as I pointed out with other tablets are if you turn them vertical the horizontal width is too small because of the 16:9 screen ratio. Yes Apple is expensive but you get a platform that is very stable. A bigger screen allows you also to use large fonts. I went the cheaper route with a chromebook and it's now on ebay.

[The Bard Rocks]

Originally Posted by Silly Moustache

Thanks - I'm stumped by how I could convert hundreds of word docs into pdf?

I had digital files (14 point font for the words) with notation, over 1000 of them, bought a reconditioned 12" iPad, and went to work. At first it took many steps for each entry, then I learned a quicker way and wished I'd learned it sooner. Then I learned a far faster way. I use Forscore, but other apps will work just as well no doubt. I should mention that almost every one of my songs fits on one page so I never had to worry about turning pages before. Now I don't have to worry about buying or using page turners. And this simplified getting everything entered.

It now takes me seconds to get a song in the iPad, but it's still one at a time. Once in, I can duplicate it, move it to the genres under which each song is filed, add notes, create set lists, + all sorts of things I haven't learned to do (or didn't need or want to bother with).

I wouldn't go back. Now, ALL my music is with me all the time and as long as I can recall the name and what genres I filed it under, I can find anything in seconds, far faster than when I used notebooks. I used to have a lot of organized notebooks with vinyl sheet protectors and seemed to never have the piece I was inspired to play. It is a pain in the neck to file things alphabetically with notebooks and they get heavy pretty quick. Now, it's like the weight of one notebook and the functionality of 10 of them. I can add 100 songs and it doesn't weigh a bit more. Fancy that. Paper doesn't get ripped any longer, wind does not turn the next page when I'm not ready, plus I can read it in the dark.

The cost was $400 and a lot of time (until I learned the shortcuts). I just have to be careful I am not running out of battery (I never turn it off and it goes 2-3 weeks before needing a charge, at the rate I use it). I waited years to do this, until I could get an iPad the size of a sheet of paper - used. Now that I have it, I believe I could have used the next size down and gotten by.