Teeny Tiny Font in Preview Pane

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Permalink Reply by Angela Josephine on November 24, 2009 at 7:07pm

Oh... ok.. I see. So I put in page breaks and that corrects the problem and also choose 2 pages per screen. This doesn't seem very intuitive though.... is there a plan to change that? Unless I am not used to using this kind of software and that is just the way it is?

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Permalink Reply by Power Music Guru on November 24, 2009 at 7:25pm

Hi Angela
Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps more prompts on the chord editor are required? Such as asking if you are happy with the preview and if not, making suggestions?
Maybe it would be better if the system calculated the size of the page as you went along, based on your screen size. It could then prompt you to insert page breaks. It is different from a text editor which has fixed page sizes because you will be using the chord sheet in full screen mode. Hope this makes sense?

When Power Music was originally written it was more like a text editor which displayed the text scrolling off the bottom and used a font size which the user controlled. This meant that you always had to press a key for the next page and this was annoying for most users. That is why it was changed at the beginning of this year to 'fit' the whole chord sheet into one screen and allow you to adjust it as you wanted. But good point about it not being intuitive enough now, so we welcome more feedback on how this could be improved.

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Permalink Reply by Angela Josephine on November 24, 2009 at 7:43pm

I think I get that. I do like that I control where the page breaks go and might not like being prompted. I'll think on this a bit as I use it and let you know.

One other question... does this not print the chord sheets? That is what I was most hoping to do as I write my own music and often have people play with me. I love the simplicity of the program and am so excited to have everything in one place! Now I just need to be able to print it out.

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Cameron on November 24, 2009 at 7:54pm

You can print chord sheets from the main song select screen using the Print or Print Preview buttons on the toolbar. You will be prompted for a font size and the paging will be done based on the font size. I know this is the opposite of what you have discovered in the chord sheet editor, but viewing music on screen is quite different from using paper. You are best to use Print Preview so you can adjust the size until it looks right.
One thing - the page breaks are not removed from the print! I think this has been an oversight though as the print section has not changed since the chord sheet editor was re-written. Something else to add to the list ... (wonder why no-one else has mentioned that?)

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Permalink Reply by Angela Josephine on November 24, 2009 at 8:00pm

Wonderful! Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by Angela Josephine on November 25, 2009 at 1:04am

Hi Brenda,

A few thoughts as I have worked with it a little more. I saw as you noted the word "[page break]" remains in the printed copy. Aside from correcting the error where "[page break]" is physically showing up, is it possible to retain that "page break" concept into the printed page (kind of like Ctrl-Enter or whatever in a word doc). That way, independent of font size, I could at least tell it when to page break on a printout. For example, right now depending on the font size I pick (10 or 12) it does not split optimally - either one seems to be a problem. What I would prefer is that I pick an obvious "break" point in the text (say, after a chorus) and have the print view respect that. While I understand that the edit view and print view are not the same, my experience so far says that roughly my page break in the editor and where I want it on the printed copy coincide.

NOTE: I could in theory still play with the fonts, and understand if I picked something big like 30 pt, I might get 3 pages of lyrics/chords before my actual "page break" is observed.

Or perhaps restated more simply, having the page break in the edit mode "carry through" to the print preview/print and actually cause a page break would allow me more control in the resulting printout. Otherwise a chorus or verse seems to always split across page 1 and 2.

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Permalink Reply by Brenda Cameron on November 25, 2009 at 10:49am

Good points, Angela. We have now changed the print section to have an option to use the embedded page breaks, and also to print the title in bold at the top and the author/copyright details in the footer. The tag is removed from the print.
There is an update due next week because of a major improvement to the pdf import, so watch for an announcement. The update will include these print changes.
Keep giving feedback - there is a discussion on what changes do you want to see so if you have other ideas let us know.

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Permalink Reply by Angela Josephine on November 25, 2009 at 1:48pm

That is great! I'll follow that link and post ideas as I have them. Thanks for having such an open dialogue with your users!

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Permalink Reply by Power Music Guru on December 2, 2009 at 6:53pm

Version 2.0.1.0 - the print function now prompts for you to use page breaks, removes the tag, prints the title at the top of the page and the author/copyright details in the footer.

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Permalink Reply by Power Music Guru on December 2, 2009 at 6:56pm

Version 2.0.1.0 - there is now a prompt in the editor when you save or view full screen if you have more than 35 lines and no page breaks. The value 35 can be changed in Page Turning settings so that you can adjust the prompting yourself.

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Permalink Reply by Angela Josephine on December 8, 2009 at 3:25pm

Thanks! I have been out of town but hope to get the new version installed soon!

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