Adding attachments

Editors can add attachments to tunes. At this moment the database contains 5 types of attachments as described in the help text “Contents of the database”, but more types can be introduced later.

To add an attachment to a tune you must first produce the attachment on your local machine using suited software. The software to be used depends on the platform of your machine (Windows, Apple, Linux, etc.) and your preferences. For instance, working under Windows you may choose to produce music sheets with Finale and text files with MSWord. However, other software can be used. For real music you should start with somehow recording the music.

When ready, you convert the product into a platform-independent format suitable for this database. Sheet music can best be converted into .PDF format (using Fineprint pdfFactory Pro which can be downloaded freely from the internet). Text files can be converted to one of the formats .PDF or .TXT. Midi files (format .MID) can be generated by most music programs. Real music can be converted to .MP3 format.

Now you can add the correctly formatted file to the tune as follows. Click in the database on the title of the tune to make the tune’s main page visible. In this page click “add attachment”. A new form appears to be filled. Oh, sorry, it is still in Dutch! Has to be fixed soon! Let me translate it for you, from above to beneath:
‘Add an attachment for ’;
‘Choose a file ...’; ‘Browse’;
‘Give a name (if empty: use the original name) ...’;
... and the rest is already in English.
In this form you browse to the attachment on your local machine, if wanted choose a suitable name, if wanted add a short note to it and press “add”. Then you come back to the main page of the tune where you might see that the added attachment appeared under “attachments”.

Now you can change the icon of the attachment by clicking on “edit” behind the attachment. This brings you to another form with the title “Edit attachment info for ”. In this form you can change the internal name, the note and the icon. After clicking on the drop down list you can choose from our specific icons: Arr, Lyrics, Melody, Midi, Piano, Tune. Eventually, you can add a new icon.

That’s it!