The Lyric Sheet report is for printing the lyrics, and optionally the chords, of the song. Unlike the staff sheet report, it has no equivalent region in the workspace.
This report is a format where the lyrics have priority in determining the layout, rather than the bar structure of the song (as with the other song reports).
This report makes an excellent supplement to the Staff Sheet report, so that lyrics can be shown both in the context of the music, and also in a concise listing of their own.
Special Characters
Lyrics are entered into a song as separate syllables in lyric text events, placed at the correct locations for their timing. On the other hand, in Lyric Sheet reports they are presented concisely as whole words in stanzas.
Several special characters are used in the lyric text to achieve this. Without them, the lyrics would appear as a continuous stream of separate wrapped syllables.
• Hyphens ( - ) indicate syllables which are part of the same word as the following syllable. This allows them to be rejoined into words.
• Underscores ( _ ) indicate syllables which are part of the same word but are explicitly repeated for musical effect. These are converted to hyphens for display.
• Commas ( , ) trigger a new line on the report, appearing at the end of the current line.
• Periods ( . ) trigger a new line on the report, appearing at the end of the current line.
• Question Marks ( ? ) trigger a new line on the report, appearing at the end of the current line.
• Exclamation Marks ( ! ) trigger a new line on the report, appearing at the end of the current line.
• Square Brackets ( [ ) are not displayed, but trigger a new line on the report.
For example, the following events:
| Twin- | kle | twin- | kle, | Lit- | tle | [star |
would be displayed as:
Twinkle twinkle
Little
star
All other characters and punctuation symbols are treated as part of the lyric content and are displayed as entered.
The Lyric Sheet report is designed to wrap the lyric text into stanzas with the minimum of intervention from the user, however full manual control of text wrapping is available if required.
Automatic Lyrics Layout
For ease of use, it is recommended that you:
1. Set the options in the Lyrics Track Setup to:
Section Newlines=Auto
Comma Endlines=Enable
Period Endlines=Enable
Question Endlines=Enable
Exclamation Endlines=Enable
2. Use commas (,) periods (.), question marks (?) or exclamation marks (!) in your lyric text to finish a line and start a new one. You can also use square brackets ([) wherever you do not want any of these characters to be seen.
Manual Lyrics Layout
For full control over line breaks, it is recommended that you:
1. Set the options in the Lyrics Track Setup to:
Section Newlines=Never
Comma Endlines=Disable
Period Endlines=Disable
Question Endlines=Disable
Exclamation Endlines=Disable
2. Use square brackets ([) in your lyric text wherever you want to start a new line. These will be not be displayed in the report.
Lyrics and Chords
You can also have the chords (if any) of the song displayed above or below the lyrics. This produces the familiar shorthand format that is used by many musicians, as a reminder of how to play a song they already know.
Each chord symbol indicates a beat of the music, and beats between chord changes are shown with a slash (or alternate symbol of your choice).
The lyrics still control the layout, but they are also coordinated with the timing of the chord symbols. Long, or rapidly changing, chord symbols may require gaps between lyrics, or prevent the joining of hyphenated syllables.
Printing Options
Lyric Sheets have a variety of options, for including lyrics, chords and section breaks, and for determining how the layout should be produced.
For Lyric Sheet reports, the Printing Options window includes the following pages:
