Hi Steve Yes it would be fun to be able to reverse engineer the TAB format :-) I've been thinking about it myself. It is an aspiration, but I havent got any plans to look at that at the moment.
The main thing to understand about the TabHelper XLS format is that it is a simple rotation of the TAB format. This means anything you can say in TAB, you should be able to do in TabHelper. Each column of the "stave" area starts with row 0 and then the rows below that are simply glued onto the end. Any empty cells become spaces. So if you want some text for, say bar lines you can do it as follows (imagine the vertical bar "|" characters are the grid of the spreadsheet - view in monospaced font to get the correct alignment): b|1|2|x|[5}|b|1|2|x| |a|c|a| | |c|d|c| this would then become the following TAB: b 1a 2c xa [5} b 1c 2d xc Which shows the number 5 just over the second bar line. As you can see, you are not limited to having single characters in each cell. Only the "rhythm" element in row 0 of each stave is required. Also I've fixed the issue whereby there was no newline at the end of the TAB sequence. I expect that all versions of TAB require this. Hope this helps - Luke On 25 Aug 2007, at 12:47, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Copies to: [email protected] From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [LUTE] TabHelper 1.0 - online javascript converter Date sent: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 12:47:58 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Hi Luke - Thanks for the quick solution for us mac-heads! It works > as advertised, even on such relatively complex TAB expressions as > > b > 1 \2d\4e > x \3d&[ > 2 a > x \1"]c > x a > x \3d > b > > This will make make creating and editing TAB much easier. Now if > only I could invert the process and load in some of the larger TAB > sources I've already created for editing... (Don't take that as a > feature request, you've already given us more than could be > expected! I'm just expressing how useful this tool is.) > > There are a couple things I noticed after a few minutes playing with it. > > First, I'm running my local copy of TAB (version 4.3.32) and if I use > your converter output directly it complains about the lack of a > trailing newline at the end of the file. Could you add that to the > converted output so I don't have to remember to put it in by hand? > (or, if that is fixed in more recent versions of TAB just say so). > > Second while the more complex decorations like those above worked > just fine, I could not figure out how to explicitly number measures > as in the following TAB source, which puts a number 10 above the bar: > ... > xc da > x d > [10} > b > 1a a > ... > I like to number my bars explicitly. Is this easy to do in your > spreadsheet? > > Having written freeware myself I know that it is quite a burden to > cover everything everyone wants, and I imagine that supporting the > full complexity of TAB makes this quite a challenge. So feel free to > blow off requests like those above. I think we really appreciate the > effort you've already gone through. > > Thanks again > Steve > > On Aug 25, 2007, at 3:30 AM, Luke Orlando Emmet wrote: > > > Dear list > > > > Following feedback from a number of you, I have created a javascript > > online converter for those of you that wish to use the Excel > > spreadsheet format for creating TAB content, but you arent running > > Excel on Windows. You should now be able to use other spreadsheet > > software, such as Excel on a Mac, OpenOffice or Gnumeric etc to > > create tabulature based on a blank template that has the required > > structure. > > > > Using a different spreadsheet software without using TabHelper itself, > > means that the user experience is not as dynamic as the full TabHelper > > software, in terms of formatting hints for bar lines etc, but the > > layout > > on the statically formatted staves should still permit better > > comprehension and playback. > > > > To use the online converter, you paste in the plain text content from > > the spreadsheet (tab separated values) and the converter will create > > the corresponding TAB output. You will then need to use the normal > > Tab-By-Mail service to get the postscript output. > > > > I still need to provide a little more documentation, but it is now > > basically > > working. For further details see > > > > http://www.marmaladefoo.com/docs/software/tabhelper/online-converter > > > > Any feedback welcomed > > > > Best Wishes > > > > - Luke > > > > On 22 Aug 2007, at 2:21, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > Copies to: [email protected] > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: Re: [LUTE] TabHelper 1.0 - a simple GUI front end > > to TAB > > Date sent: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 02:21:23 -0700 > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > >> Hi Luke - TabHelper looks very nice. I wish I had it when I did a > >> bunch of TAB transcriptions last year. But I'm a mac guy. I've got > >> excel and can read the source of your example. I assume you've > >> written a program that takes the .xls file and converts it to TAB > >> format. Is there any chance you'd make a mac version or help > >> someone (like me) do it? > >> > >> steve > >> > >> On Aug 18, 2007, at 12:02 AM, Luke Orlando Emmet wrote: > >> > >>> (Apologies for any multiple postings - original posting to > >>> Renaissance list did not show up after 12 hours.) > >>> > >>> Greetings all, > >>> > >>> Having recently returned to the Lute after a 10 year > >>> absence, I was looking round for some software for > >>> typesetting lute tabulature. Preferably freeware, of > >>> course, as I am only an amateur on a small budget. I > >>> found Wayne Cripps' excellent TAB software for > >>> typesetting lute and guitar tabulatures, and I am sure the > >>> you are all aware of this. > >>> > >>> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute/AboutTab.html > >>> > >>> However, as acknowledged on the TAB website, TAB is > >>> not particularly user friendly for the new user, being based > >>> on plain text and run as a command line application. To > >>> visualise the relationship between the plain text input and > >>> the typeset output you have to do a mental rotation and > >>> reflection. Extra characters can offset the columns so it > >>> can prove difficult to verify what you have put down and > >>> to visualise how it might be interpreted by TAB. > >>> > >>> Anyway, I thought it would be worth while trying to put a > >>> graphical front end to TAB that would allow you to use a > >>> grid based editor (Microsoft Excel!) to create TAB files. > >>> Thus TabHelper was born. > >>> > >>> TabHelper is free software for Microsoft Windows and > >>> includes the following features: > >>> > >>> - provides a simple graphical front end to TAB, using > >>> MS Excel as the editor. (The TAB binary is included > >>> as part of TabHelper installation) > >>> - allows printing directly to PDF if GhostScript is > >>> also installed on the machine (must be installed > >>> separately) > >>> - TAB plain text format can be copied to the clipboard > >>> - includes the manual for TAB written by Leonard Williams > >>> > >>> For further details and to download, visit the TabHelper > >>> web page: > >>> > >>> http://www.marmaladefoo.com/docs/software/tabhelper/introduction > >>> > >>> Any feedback is very welcome, and I hope it will prove > >>> useful to some of you. > >>> > >>> Also if anyone has any suggestions of other lute or guitar > >>> communities that might be interested in using it, please let > >>> me know. > >>> > >>> Best Wishes > >>> > >>> - Luke > >>> > >>> __________________________________________ > >>> > >>> Various gadgets widgets, links and chat > >>> http://www.marmaladefoo.com > >>> __________________________________________ > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> To get on or off this list see list information at > >>> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > >> > >> --- > >> http://homepage.mac.com/stevepur > >> > >> > > > > > > __________________________________________ > > > > Various gadgets widgets, links and chat > > http://www.marmaladefoo.com > > __________________________________________ > > > > > > --- > http://homepage.mac.com/stevepur > > __________________________________________ Various gadgets widgets, links and chat http://www.marmaladefoo.com __________________________________________
