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VideoPsalm

 

How to import “text formatted” songs into VideoPsalm

6/20/2013

30 Comments

 
VideoPsalm can import songs from several well known sources, via its import assistant.
This article describes how to get “text formatted” songs into VideoPsalm. The text format is the simplest file format there is. You can create and edit text files with Windows Notepad, or WordPad. My favorite free text editor is Notepad++  but there are many others out there.

Let's say that you have a text file containing songs that you want to import into VideoPsalm.

There are two cases to consider:

1. You only want to import a small number of songs
​(less than 10 or so)

The fastest way is to use VideoPsalm's integrated edit functions:
  • Put VideoPsalm into its “Edit” mode, by clicking the “Pencil” icon located at the right side.
  • Then select the “Edit” tab at the top.
  • In case you want to add your new songs into a new songbook, create a new one by clicking the “New Songbook” button.
  • Select the songbook where you want to add your new songs, by clicking on it.
  • Create a new song by clicking the “New Song” button.
  • In the middle panel, type in the song lyrics.
  • To put lyrics onto a new slide, leave an empty line between two song verses / stanzas.
    You can tag a song verse as a verse, or chorus, pre-chorus, bridge, tag, intro, outro, slide, instrumental or other.
    For example, if you want to tag a song verse as a chorus, type the word “chorus” as the first line of the song verse.
    You can add a number after a tag, for example “Verse 2”.
    You can use abbreviations: v for verse, c for chorus, r for refrain (in french), etc.
Picture
Note  Tags can be useful to identify slides more easily in the “Slides” panel. They don't fulfill any other purpose at the moment.
  • When you are finished, save your work by clicking the “Save” button on the “Edition” tab.
    VideoPsalm will also remind you to save your work when you close it, if you haven't done so before.
​

2. Use the VideoPsalm import assistant,
and import your text file containing your songs

Many songs that you collect here and there are in text format. For example, you collect song lyrics from a web site, youtube, CCLI, etc.
You may have some friend who sent you a file with lots of songs into it, or even a PowerPoint with slides containing songs.
The idea is to use a text editor to put together these songs in text format, and import them all at once via the VideoPsalm text import assistant:

Picture
In the text editor, while editing your songs, the song lyrics must correspond to the format that VideoPsalm is expecting.

Here is a description of the text format that VideoPsalm is expecting (see also the example further down):

Song #. Song Title
Copyright or Written by Author (optional)
Empty line
V#. Lyrics (where # is the verse number. Use “C.” for Chorus, instead of “V.”)
Lyrics
Lyrics
etc..
Empty line
Next verse #. Lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics
etc..
Empty line
etc. (other lyrics)
Empty line
Copyright symbol: © (Alt+0169) (+ optional copyright text on the same line)
At least two empty lines
Next song


For example:

1. Blessed be the name of the Lord
Written by Clinton Utterbach

V1. Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Most High! (Repeat)

C. The Name of the Lord is A strong tower,
The righteous run into it,
And they are saved. (Repeat)

V2. Glory to the name of the Lord,
Glory to the name of the Lord,
Glory to the name of the Lord
Most High! (Repeat)

C. The Name of the Lord is A strong tower,
The righteous run into it,
And they are saved. (Repeat)

© 1988 Polygram Music Publishing Ltd.


2. Above all
Written by ​Lenny LeBlanc & Paul Baloche

V1. Above all powers,
Above all kings,
Above all nature
And all created things;
Above all wisdom
And all the ways of man,
You were here
Before the world began.

C. Crucified, laid behind the stone;
You lived to die,
Rejected and alone;
Like a rose trampled on the ground,
You took the fall and thought of me, 
Above all.

V2. Above all kingdoms,
Above all thrones,
Above all wonders
The world has ever known;
Above all wealth
And treasures of the earth,
There's no way to measure
What You're worth.

C. Crucified, laid behind the stone;
You lived to die,
Rejected and alone;
Like a rose trampled on the ground,
You took the fall and thought of me, 
Above all.

© 1999 Lensongs Publishing/Integrity's Hosanna! Music/Sovereign Music UK


Notes
  • Leave at least two empty lines at the end of each song.
  • Leave only one empty line between song verses.
  • The copyright symbol “©” enables VideoPsalm to identify the copyright text. This line is optional.
  • To obtain a “©” symbol, type Alt+0169.
  • Use “C.” to tag a chorus.
  • In french, use “R.” to tag a chorus (refrain).
  • Song verses don't need to be labelled. If a song verse has no label, VideoPsalm will consider it to be a song verse and increment its number: The first verse will get number 1, the second verse will get number 2, etc.


Careful  Microsoft Windows Notepad saves text files in the ANSI text format by default.
However, VideoPsalm expects the text to be in the Unicode format, because this enables world languages encoding.
There are two solutions to this:
  • When you save your text document, tell Word to save the text in the Unicode, Unicode big endian or UTF-8 format, not ANSI.
    There is an option for this in the “Save under” dialog for this, at the left of the “Save” button.
  • Use Notepad++, which is a full fledged free text editor.

Summary  The text format is the simple file format there is. You can create or edit a text file containing lots of songs with a simple text editor. These songs need to follow a simple syntax so that VideoPsalm can import them properly. You can then import them all at once into your VideoPsalm.

In case of any difficulty, please use the contact form.
30 Comments
Mederos AKA
7/21/2014 09:21:11 pm

Bonjour,

Pour intégrer le refrain (C. dans votre exemple) lors de l'importation d'un recueil personnalisé dans un éditeur (ex : bloc note) , je pense que pour les versions françaises ce sera plutôt bien évidement (R. ou lieu de C.). :) Rien de compliqué mais ça pourra peut être aidé quelqu'un, je l'ai testé et ça marche.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
7/21/2014 09:58:37 pm

Bonjour Mederos, merci pour votre commentaire, vous avez tout à fait raison.

Reply
Rosario Copia link
4/6/2015 09:42:01 pm

Salve
E' possibile importare i cantici da DB-Zionworx ?
Grazie

Reply
VideoPsalm link
4/7/2015 12:35:42 am

Hello Rosario,

Thanks for your suggestion!
Alas at the moment, it is not possible to import songs from ZionWorx.
I added your suggestion to the todo list.
VideoPsalm 1.15 is in preparation, so it will not be before 1.16 that this feature will be available.
In the mean time, could you please send me your ZionWorx DB, so that I can investigate the ZionWorx format?

Please use VideoPsalm contact form, from where we can exchange email securely:
http://videopsalm.weebly.com/contact.html

Reply
hampton bay link
10/30/2015 04:16:19 am

Pour intégrer le refrain (C. dans votre exemple) lors de l'importation d'un recueil personnalisé dans un éditeur (ex : bloc note) , je pense que pour les versions françaises ce sera plutôt bien évidement (R. ou lieu de C.). :)

Reply
VideoPsalm link
11/2/2015 01:14:09 am

Oui, tout à fait : R. en français, C. en anglais.

Reply
herl
5/9/2016 09:54:46 am

Bonjour,
Lorsqu'on importe un fichier texte, est-ce qu'il y a une possibilité d'indiquer une mise en forme, par exemple pour mettre certains mots en italique ou en gras ?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/9/2016 01:21:02 pm

Bonjour Herl,

Hélas il n'est pas possible de spécifier de mise en forme pour l'import au format texte.
J'ai ajouté votre suggestion à la liste de choses à faire.

Reply
Raphael
6/24/2016 04:40:37 pm

I have a folder with over 700 songs in txt format I use in Simple Worship app.
Is there a way to batch import all these songs?
Should I research a way to put them all in one file to import later?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
6/24/2016 11:01:15 pm

Hi Raphael,

There is no batch text import in VideoPsalm 1.16.
The following article describes how to put your song files in one file:
http://www.wikihow.com/Merge-Text-(.Txt)-Files-in-Command-Prompt

VideoPsalm 1.17 (available later in the year), will have a batch text import function.

If you don't mind, send me your text files and I will do the import for you.

Reply
Adam
8/2/2016 05:22:06 pm

Is there any way to import .sbsong files into VideoPsalm? We used to run SongShow Plus, and have added quite a few original songs of our own to it in that format, but would rather not have to retype all of the songs manually. Any suggestions would be welcomed. Thanks!

Reply
VideoPsalm link
8/3/2016 01:20:33 am

Hi Adam,

It will only be possible to import SongShow Plus songs into VideoPsalm in its next version only.
However, if you don't mind, send me your SongShow Plus database at videopsalm's email, and I will send you back a corresponding songbook in VideoPsalm format.

Reply
Andrew Johnson
7/10/2017 12:19:44 am

Does anyone know if you can import songs in text format into an existing songbook. I can create a new songbook and then move each song to the existing songbook but it would be easier if I can just import straight into an existing songbook.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
7/10/2017 02:41:00 pm

Hi Andrew,

The next VideoPsalm version (1.17) will have improved songbook management features, like "Merge two songbooks" and "Split a songbook".
There is no precise release date at the moment though.

If you have many songs to move, feel free to send me your songbooks zipped into a single file and attached to an email, and I will do the merge for you.

Reply
Franck
9/30/2017 06:42:01 am

Bonjour,

Bravo pour cet excellent outil que je découvre. Bon travail !

J'aimerais juste savoir s'il est possible de personnaliser la numérotation des chants avec une lettre. Par exemple, "A1" au lieu de "1".
A défaut, puis-je créer une variable (un tag personnalisé) qui me permettrait ensuite de rechercher le chant souhaité ?

Merci de vos suggestions et keep up the good job comme on dit !!!

Reply
VideoPsalm link
9/30/2017 12:27:14 pm

Bonjour Franck,

La propriété "CCLI" d'un chant, que vous trouvez dans l'onglet "Divers", peut recevoir des chiffres et des lettres.

Pour trouver un chant via son numéro CCLI dans la zone de recherche, positionnez la recherche sur le mode "CCLI".

Pour positionner la recherche sur le mode "CCLI", cliquez sur le bouton "Loupe" de la zone de recherche et sélectionnez "CCLI".

Dans ce mode, il est aussi possible de trouver des chants via des mots dans leur titre ou dans leur paroles.

Est-ce que cela fonctionne pour vous ?

Reply
STEPHEN
1/2/2018 07:02:04 pm

Please,I want to import song lyrics from Easyworship 6 to VideoPsalm.
Anytime I try it, it gives me an error message.

Reply
VideoPsalm link
1/3/2018 02:50:09 pm

Hi Stephen,

There is a bug in VideoPsalm 1.20 that prevents it to complete the import.
Feel free to send me your EasyWorship database and I will send you back the corresponding VideoPsalm songbook.
My email is at gmail.

Reply
Andy
1/20/2018 08:02:58 am

I have over 1,000 songs in RTF format from 'Complete Mission Praise' songbook. Is there a way to get these into this fantastic software?

Reply
VideoPsalm link
1/20/2018 08:17:14 am

Hi Andy,

Please send us your rtf files as a zip email attachment to our gmail email, and we will proceed to the import for you.

You can also use our contact form here:
https://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/contact.html
from where we can safely exchange emails.

Reply
Andy
1/20/2018 10:06:56 am

Wow. Excellent cusotmer service for a free product. God bless you in your ministry.

Richie Cronin
12/11/2018 01:40:45 pm

hi, not sure if its possible but could i get that Mission Praise file? It would really help us to have it.

VideoPsalm link
12/11/2018 02:46:59 pm

Hi Richie,

I answered to the email address that you indicated.

Robert Neilson link
4/25/2019 12:12:26 pm

Hi Andy
We are currently evaluating and wondered if we also could have a copy of the Mission Praise text file. I already have one but it is formatted for SongPro import and will require a lot of editing for Videopsalm import. Thank you for your help.

S
2/23/2019 07:44:03 pm

Je voudrais soumettre un bug. Quand on importe un livre de chants à partir de d'un fichier texte français (de l'application anglaise), le mot "Verse" à l'intérieur d'une phrase est considérer comme délimiteur de veserts (couplets). La logique devrait être: "Verse" (suivi d'un chiffre)? OU (n'est pas suivi de lettres)?

Voici un exemple:

V5. Que sur tes yeux, ô divin Frère!
Mes yeux attachés nuit et jour
Y boivent la douce lumière,
La douce flamme de l’amour.
Mêle ta vie avec ma vie,
Verse tout ton cœur dans mon cœur;
Détruis dans mon âme ravie
Tout désir d’un autre bonheur!

Le couplet ci-dessous se fait séparer en:

Verse 5
Que sur tes yeux, ô divin Frère!
Mes yeux attachés nuit et jour
Y boivent la douce lumière,
La douce flamme de l’amour.
Mêle ta vie avec ma vie,

Verse 6
tout ton cœur dans mon cœur;
Détruis dans mon âme ravie
Tout désir d’un autre bonheur!

Reply
VideoPsalm link
3/31/2019 02:29:50 pm

Merci de signaler ce bug.
Je l'ai ajouté à la liste de choses à corriger.

Reply
Laci
10/14/2019 10:44:50 am

Hi, I had to add some songs to VideoPsalm songbook which have writer and composer to. How shoud I mark the composer in the txt file (I managed to mark the writer with "Writen by").

Reply
VideoPsalm link
10/20/2019 02:48:49 pm

Hi Laci,

In VideoPsalm 1.23, it is not possible to import the author and the composer.
Feel free to send me your songs and I will proceed to the proper import for you.

Reply
Andy
11/6/2020 01:23:44 am

Hi
Is it possible to import a pdf hymnbook where each hymn is on a separate page?

e.g. Hymn No.1 is on pdf page 1
Hymn No.2 is on pdf page 2

etc, etc.

I have paid for the hymnbook in electroinic format from the publisher.

Regards

Reply
VideoPsalm link
11/6/2020 03:40:22 pm

Hi Andy,

It is well possible to import this songbook into VideoPsalm.
However it requires some handwork.
I summarized this task here:

1. Extract the text contained in the PDF file and make a plain text file out of it.
2. With a text editor like NotePad++, format the songs so that VideoPsalm can import them correctly.
3. In VideoPsalm, import the formatted text file.

The article on top describes the text format that VideoPsalm can import.
This handwork is around 30 seconds to 1 minute per song.
For 100 songs you will need around 1 hour of time.

1. Make sure that there are 2 or more empty lines between each song.
2. Put a number in front of the song title (the PDF page number).
3. Move the author line from the bottom to under the title line (in the PDF, the author is at the bottom).
4. Separate each song verse with one empty line.
5. Leave the copyright at the bottom, separated by one empty line from the least song verse.
5. Separate each song with 2 empty lines.

I recommend the free NotePad++ text editor, but any text editor will do.
It is not convenient to use a word processor like MSWord for this task.
Maybe use MSWord at the very end, to check the spelling, etc.

To export the text from the PDF, I used FoxitReader, the free PDF alternative to Adobe PDF Reader.
This app is able to export the whole text from a PDF file, which Adobe PDF reader is totally unable to do.
Note maybe that the resulting text may contain some errors, like missing blanks between certain words.
These errors can be easily found with a word processor.

Do you think that your songbook could be useful to other people?
Please let me know of your progress or difficulties, and whether you want to share the songbook with others once it is ready.
https://myvideopsalm.weebly.com/contributors.html

Reply



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