All I can add to the discussion is the fact that most users will have 16:9 displays so using a rich text word processor editor you have by default an 8 1/2 by 11 edit area. Currently I do jpegs and show them in show notes backgrounds. This allows me to compensate for the display perspective. I would likely switch to a MS Word clone from Libre Office where I can set the document dimensions to match the perspective of the display like I do with my jpegs so I wondered what external editors or formats would be compatible for the new system you propose. Also for those that use a graphics editor like Draw instead of a text editor would that be included as an option? Thanks for your thoughts.
The Cantabile notes file will be plain text so any editor like notepad, notepad++, sublime text, VSCode etc will work. The idea is you save in the text editor and Cantabile will automatically update to show the new content.
The notes files will also be able to pull in other content:
It would work as before except instead of creating a series of notes items in Cantabile that reference each image file, you’d type it out a series of #includes in the notes file. Obviously, the referenced image would need to be in a compatible format (it will support at least png and jpeg).
This was mentioned above… possibly. I’m thinking something like this (see below) which would put text on the left, and an image on the right.
(Working on the parser last night I’m thinking of changing the syntax for directives from #directive to !directive so the # character can be used to denote headings similarly to markdown)
# Let It Be
## Verse 1
!split 50 50
When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
And in my hour of darkness
She is standing right in front of me
Speaking words of wisdom, let it be
!column-break
!include "LetItBe.png"
!endsplit
I like the idea of additional formatting, individual words with coloring or bolding or larger fonts. But I also share Corky’s concern about compatibility. The last thing I want to do is redo all my show notes! So Brad I’m guessing from your reply that you’ll keep the current method functional, and perhaps have an Options setting where you can choose which method to use?
Thanks!
Tom
I understand. To explain a little more, this is how I see this working:
Each song will have an option to use the old or new show notes system.
There will be a command to convert the old show notes to new (but not the other way around).
In practice, your current notes will continue to work exactly as they are, but you can use the conversion process on a song-by-song basis. If the conversion doesn’t work well then you can just close the song without saving (or perhaps I’ll include undo) and you’ll be back to where you were.
How long the old system hangs around for depends on how close I can get the conversion. The ideal would be if the conversion was 100% and then there’d be no need to keep the old system at all, but that seems risky and I’d prefer have a transition period.
TL;DR: I’m fully aware of this concern and I expect the old system to be around for some time yet.
Just a question on the inclusion of image files. Will they have to sized in advance or will resize directives be possible in the text formatting code you are contemplating?
This is outside the scope of show notes directly, and more a matter of making the current marker and/or loop range name available as a variable (which would then let it be used in show notes or anywhere else). I’ve logged it here.
I use shownotes in a simple but crucial way: I write which fader or button does what in a song. Sometimes I put in a note about the song. I won’t need all the extra editing possibilities. Rather, my notes stay the same throughout the song. Currently, I have to work to copy my shownotes to every songstate, which is more work than I need. Could I please have one shownotepage for the whole song instead of per songstate? Currently, when If I advance songstate, my notes are no longer visible, if I don’t make a copy per state. I would not be surprised if it’s already there, and I just don’t know how. Anyway, you asked for whishes, so, this is mine.
Lots of appreciation for all the things you do.
Why? By default, show notes stay the same (and visible) across states. If you hide a note in one state and show it in another then it will appear/disappear as states change.
You can also turn off the “Hidden” state behaviour on a note and it won’t be hidden/shown by state changes:
I would be happy to just have pdf capability with continuous scrolling. I can put text, pictures, staff notation, colors etc. into a pdf with varous existing tools. Just my opinion…
How about if on the state behaviors panel there was a hamburger menu of all the available objects that have state behaviors in it so you could see all the possible choices and click select the one you wanted to edit from there. If possible it could also put the object in focus when you selected from there as well. This way the available items would be easy to see and not hidden until you select the object. This wouldn’t include the objects inside the racks, just the song level objects including any rack song level state behaviors. I think you should still edit the state behaviors for the objects inside the racks as a separate thing. Just putting it out there.
