# Getting started with the GUI

We hope you don’t have to read this chapter too often because we made a lot effort to make it intuitive for you. It gives you a good start to see the power of the ChordPro format with a lot of options to tweak it to your needs.

ChordPro GUI

While ChordPro, the application is a great utility to work with ChordPro, the file standard; its biggest strength is that it can create beautiful songbooks from your collection of ChordPro song files.

# Basic Usage

When you open the ChordPro GUI you have several options to get started.

Are you new to ChordPro and ChordPro song files? Choose Open an example song.

Do you have some songs already? Choose Create a songbook and navigate to the folder with the songs.

And of course you can open existing ChordPro song files, and create new ones.

On the top of the page you can choose between Create and Recent. When you click on Recent you’ll be presented with a list of song files that you recently used.

# Buttons at your service

If you are making a Songbook, creating a new song or editing an existing song; you always have three important buttons at your service:

Buttons

  • The Settings button will open the settings dialog, where you you can change the GUI and preview preferences.
  • The Preview button, will generate and show a preview of your Songbook or your ChordPro song file.
  • The Message button will open the message log with the result of ChordPro creating the preview PDF. It might give you warnings when there are issues found.

These services are also reachable via the application menu:

Edit > Settings… or Ctrl-R (on macOS, the Settings are in the ChordPro menu and the hotkey is Command-R).

Tasks > Default Preview or Ctrl-P (macOS: Command-P).

View > Show Messages

# Settings

ChordPro has many settings available. Not just to adjust the look of your PDF. You can change the look of the application but also enable powerful utilities like transposing and transcode your song.

However, these settings are just start. If you really want to tweak your songs to your needs you have to get your hands dirty and create your own configuration or even dive into the command line for real power.

Read the Settings page for a complete overview.