hi
This is my first post to this list.
I am trying to make an abc tunebook and from this a chord book.
(This is for a local charity-based session group)
I have spent the last 2 weeks (way too many hours!) looking for abc
tools and trying out various options. I am a windows XP user, and
although I have a background in programming that was all on
mainframes - I am not a PC/Linux/C programmer...
I have reched the point in my investigations where where I need to
ask for some advice. I have searched the archives for this list and
just cannot realise the format I had in mind for a chord book, I am
wondering if I am using the wrong tools.
My plan was the following:
1. write/get the abc tunes
2. edit where necessary to include guitar chords.
3. Use Elizbeth Scarlett's ABCTools to create chordcharts (with
title and incipit) for each tune in the tune book, all saved as
different 'tunes' in an abc file (see sp61.abc below).
4. use abcm2ps to create (eventually) a pdf from this 'chordbook'
I have managed to do all this (not a big deal, I know!)... but with
just one little glitch: I wanted to display the output in 2 columns
per page, 6 tunes per column, BUT no matter what I try, I cannot get
this format to work. The first page is ok, but the 2nd column gets
messed up on the second page: it starts BELOW the end of the first
column, on the other (righthand) side of the page... subsequent
columns are similarly disjointed.... it seems to me that abcm2ps
always starts the 2nd col just below where it left off on the
previous page, despite intervening %%multicol end %%newpage and %%
multlicol start and %%multicol new.
In the end I broke down the tunes into groups of 6 (sp6.abc) and
used abcpp in order to #include these abcs in a file (sp6.abp)
containing all the formatting pseudo comments, then running this
file thru abcpp, followed by thru abcm2ps with the format
file 'chords.fmt', all included below if there is any kind soul who
can tell me where I am going wrong. (The problem lies on the second
page of the output ps file).
I have tried:
1. yaps/abc2ps
2. changing the W: fields (used for the chord chart) to %%words
3. every formatting thing I could think of!
4. making sure that the %%multicols were seperated from the W:
fields by a blank line (seemed to help a little!)
Any idea how I could get around this? I am sure I am doing something
stupid, just not sure what it is, lol. (BTW I do have LaTeX loaded
on this puter - my only use of it has been thru 'TeXnicCenter' -
would all this have been easier if I had tried to go down the
abc2mtex route?)
Oh - I am trying to use A4 paper (297x210mm), and have the following
versions: abcpp 1.3.2 , abcm2ps 4.12.6, gsview32 4.5
Thanks for your time!
Jon Ball
%------------------- sp6.abp -----------------------%
% this file aims to arrange 36 tunes (6 tunes 6 times)
% on 3 pages, 2 columns of (the same) 6 tunes per page
%%multicol start
%%leftmargin 1cm
%%rightmargin 11cm
#include sp61.abc
%%multicol new
%%rightmargin 1cm
%%leftmargin 11cm
#include sp61.abc
%%multicol end
%%newpage
%%multicol start
%%leftmargin 1cm
%%rightmargin 11cm
#include sp61.abc
%%multicol new
%%rightmargin 1cm
%%leftmargin 11cm
#include sp61.abc
%%multicol end
%%newpage
%%multicol start
%%leftmargin 1cm
%%rightmargin 11cm
#include SP61.abc
%%multicol new
%%rightmargin 1cm
%%leftmargin 11cm
#include sp61.abc
%%multicol end
%--------------------- end of sp6.abp -----------------%
%--------------------- start of sp61.abp -----------------%
X:1
T:Balleydesmond Polka #1
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:polka
K:G
EA A>B|cd eg||
W: | Am / | / / | G / | / / |
W: | Am / | / / | G / | / / :|
W: | Am / | / / | G / | / / |
W: | Am / | / / | G / | Am / :|
W: | Am
X:2
T:Balleydesmond Polka #2
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:polka
K:G
AB|c2 B2|A2 G>A||
W: |: Am / | / / | G / | / / |
W: | Am / | G / | F / | Am / :|
W: | Am / | G / | Am / | G / |
W: | Am / | G / | F / | Am / :|
W: | Am
X:3
T:Balleydesmond Polka #3
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:polka
K:G
A>B AG|EF GE||
W: | D / | C / | D / | Am / |
W: | D / | C / | Am / | D / :|
W: | D / | Am / | C / | Am / |
W: | C / | Am / | D / | Am / |
W: | C / | Am / | C / | Am / |
W: | C / | / / | Am / | D / |
W: | D
X:4
T:Bill Sullivan's Polka
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:polka
K:A
a2 a>f|ec a>f||
W: | A / | / / | / / | / / |
W: | A / | / / | / / | / / :|
W: | A / | D / | A / | E / |
W: | A / | D / | A / | / / :|
X:5
T:Breeches Full of Stitches
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:polka
K:Amaj
A>B cA|BA ce||
W: | A / | D / | A / | D / |
W: | A / | D / | / / | E / :|
W: | A / | D / | A / | D / |
W: | A / | D / | / / | E / :|
X:6
T:Dennis Murphy's Polka
M:2/4
L:1/8
R:polka
S:Session at Fleadh Ceol in Sligo, 1990
K:Bm
f/g/f/e/ dd/B/|AD FA||
W: | D / | / / | G / | A / |
W: | D / | / / | G / | D / :|
W: | D / | G / | D / | A / |
W: | D / | G / | / / | D / :|
W: | D
%--------------------- end of sp61.abc -----------------%
%--------------------- start of chords.fmt -----------------%
%set A4 page sizes
pageheight 29.7cm
%set font sizes
titlefont Bookman-Demi 22
wordsfont Courier-Bold 18
scale 0.35
%general formatting
withxrefs 1
titleleft 1
printtempo 0
stretchlast 0
%--------------------- end of chords.fmt -----------------%
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