Plain Text files

SongSheet Pro supports importing and exporting songs in plain text format.

Importing

When importing a plain text file (usually ending in the .txt extension), SongSheet will attempt to automatically recognize what is chords, what is lyrics, etc, based on the following rules:

Song metadata

If a line contains text like the following, it will set the key for the song:

key a
key: a
key of a
key of: a
Key: Aminor
Key A minor
Key of: Fb
Key C major
Key of G
Key = Amin
Key=G

Capo:

Capo 5
Capo -1
Capo 3
Capo: 3
Capo: 9
Capo:5

Tempo:

120bpm
120 BPM
Tempo 120bpm
Tempo 120
Tempo: 120
Tempo:120
Tempo = 120
bpm = 120
bpm=120

Time signature:

4/4
3/4
5/16
7/4

Copyright:

A line that starts with Copyright, (c), or the © symbol, i.e.

Copyright 2023 Some copyright details
(c) 2023 Some copyright details
© 2023 Some copyright details

Stanza names

Any line starting with one of the following followed (optionally) by a number, and optionally by a : is recognised as the name of a stanza:

e.g.

Verse 1
Verse 2:
Intro

are all recognised as stanza names.

or any line with text ending in : such as:

Prechorus:

Chords

It is assumed that chords appear on their own line above a line of lyrics. (Note that a plain text file with lyric lines containing embedded chords in square brackets is parsed using the ChordPro parser).

Chord lines must contain only text that can be recognised as chords e.g. A, Gmin, Asus4, etc

Everything else is assumed to be lyrics.

e.g. the following would be recognised as a line of chords followed by a line of lyrics:

 D                  G         D
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)

Title and artist

Finally, if the first 2 lines are detected as “lyrics” and the third line is blank, OR the 3rd line contains a tag like key or capo, etc, then, line 1 is assumed to be the title of the song, and line 2 the artist name.

Example

e.g. a valid file could be:

This is the Song Title
Artist Name
Key: A
Tempo: 110
4/4
© 2023 Some copyright info

Verse 1:
  A
A line with chord above

Prechorus:
This is the prechorus

Chorus:
And now, the chorus!

Verse 2:
The second verse now