| Zap's abc |
| Contents | ||
|---|---|---|
| Frequently asked questions | ||
| Usage | ||
Main screen
| Menu key
| Rationale
| |
What does the checkmark button do?
The idea is that it will verify that the written abc code is technically correct locally before the actual conversion runs. Currently it usually stumbles after the primary headers, so you will mostly have to rely on the remote error messages for now. I will look into this later on... (Tool: abc4j)
What does the eye button do?
The abc file will be converted to a more conventional musical score and shown as PDF - you may need to install Acrobat Reader, QuickOffice or similar from Market. (Tool: abcm2ps)
What does the sound button do?
The abc file will be converted to midi format and played back to you. The standard Music application normally handles this, but you can use any application that supports midi. (Tool: abc2midi) Note: The ZTE Blade Music application appears not to support midi even though it accepts the file - please find an alternative one. This is likely to apply to most ZTE 2.2 devices.
What does the line of small buttons above the editor do?
These are shortcuts (added on popular request in 0.9.8) for entering basic abc without using the keyboard - should be useful both for beginners and for more experinced users who find the virtual keyboard in their phone/tablet less than helpful. Each button had a double function as their react both to normal clicks and long presses, bringing up suggestions on what to enter. For the letters, long press changes octave, for the others long press shows more advanced alternatives. Suggestions for additions and reorganizations are welcome, however for the really advanced entry (including lyrics) you will need to fall back on the standard keyboard.
Why is there network traffic during conversion?
Conversion is done on a server - both for performance and for more flexible implementation. However, the result is cached on your SD card, so it is only sent if needed. If you pay per sent/received byte you may want to do this only when on a wifi connection.
How does Import work?
The 1.0.0 rewrite adapts to the numerous security improvements in Android strage over time. A common storage is no longer possible so all produces files must now be stored internally. PDF and MIDI files are now instead shared with the selected app explicitly. You can of course just copy/past the ABC code and also share it, but for symmetry I also added the ability to import text files the same way - this is however only really tested with Google Drive, where file content and the ile name are provided separately - other storage sharing apps may or may not fully work.
How can I copy/paste from a web browser?
It appears that many browsers (for instance the builtin one and Dolphin) will NOT preserve the newlines when you copy from a webpage. Opera Mini does the right thing.
What's up with the icon?
You'll figure out what it is if you think about it for a while... ;-)
I want the application translated to my own language
I'll happily send you a text file for translation and include that in a future release.
Usage
Main screen
The idea is that you can do most of your work in the main screen, just write your text and press the buttons along the top. Use the menu key to access less critical functions,
Menu key
Pressing the Menu key will show actions to create a new song (enter a name), save current work (done autmatically when you convert), load other files (from the dedicated se.petersson.abc folder on the SD card), show an About screen, show the Help (what you are reading now), show change history (pops up once automatically after upgrade), fetch demo songs (send me songs and I'll be happy to include them!) and finally a way to send me feedback - by default it will attach your current song.
Rationale
I've played quite a bit with abcm2ps in the past and also made a prof of concept producing MIDI as well as a PDF score out of a handwritten score on Anoto patterned paper
so now that one of my daughters started music collage I decided to try to do something useful with it.
I also have a few other apps the Market, including Prisjakt/PriceSpy (find best prices) and Inventory (keep track of your stuff) - try and see! My stuff on Android Market