User Manual

Word Processin' Files

If ye've writ'n yer chord charts or lyrics sheets in programs like Microsoft Word, ye can view those "as-is" in OnSong, matey. Ahoy, these file types cannot be edit'd, format'd, or participate in low light mode. Because o' th' subtleties o' each word processor and th' author o' th' document, there be no way t' handle perfect conversion o' these into a plain-text document, savvy?

Ye can extract th' text o' word processin' files within OnSong usin' th' Song Editor and tappin' on th' Extract Text button in th' Conversion Toolbar that appears before th' on-screen keyboard be reveal'd. OnSong will attempt t' extract th' text from th' file, but ye will need t' review and tweak th' text into a file format that OnSong understands, ye scallywag.

Here be some issues ye may have with th' extract'd file, Arrr!

Chord Spacin'

A common issue with word processin' documents be chord spacin'. This be because most chord charts be writ'n with chords over th' lyrics with spaces us'd t' align th' chords above th' correct words and phrases. When a variable-width font be us'd, many more space characters must be us'd t' align chords above as compar'd t' th' lyrics below. When this be cover'd t' plain text and view'd in a fix'd-width font, ye'll notice chords be push'd out t' th' right o' th' document and no longer align, Blimey!

Use Fix Alignment Spaces found in th' Text Tools Menu found in th' Menubar o' th' Song Editor t' bring those chords back closer t' their position and then manually adjust as needed, matey.

Unrecognized Characters

One issue with any import'd file be how it handles special characters, Avast! In particular, ye may find that quotation marks be replac'd with strange international characters. This happens because Microsoft Word uses international characters as placeholders for these smart quote characters.

T' solve this, we recommend either disablin' smart quotes in th' word processin' application, or t' export th' text from yer word processin' document as a plain text (*.txt) document and then importin' into OnSong. Alternately, ye can copy and paste from th' word processin' application into OnSong Console and tweak th' song in real time, savvy?

OnSong 2026 — Last Updated on January 13, 2020