unrealBook For Musicians!
unrealBook
allows you to access your entire library of music or lyrics
on your iPad with ease. Replace your bulky and heavy
binders with a small and light iPad filled with your music
PDF files. The alphabetized and indexed list makes it easy
to find the song you are looking for. No more asking for a
light for your music stand anymore on dark stages. No more
worrying about a breeze turning a page by accident. Search
for a song easily and quickly. Create bookmarks that allow
you to easily load up a large PDF and go directly to a page
within. Use bookmarks and PDF files together to create set
lists for different gigs. Hot spots allow you place
highlighted areas on the page that allow you to jump from
one page to another when pressed (think To Coda and D.S.
signs). Finally, there is a built in music player so you
can listen to your music while you check out the score!
I created unrealBook because I was tired of lugging around
a different binder for every band I play with. Some of the
bands required 3" binders and I wanted a solution that
would allow me to carry all my music in a portable device.
So far I have over 500 charts in my iPad and it has been
GREAT!!!!!
Loading songs
into unrealBook:
Loading PDF
song files into UnrealBook:
Load your PDF music files into UnrealBook by plugging your
iPad into the USB port of your computer. Launch iTunes and
select the iPad by clicking on it under Devices:
Next, click on the Apps
tab to the right of the DEVICES list in the main
window pane.
Scroll down until you see
File Sharing.
Under unrealBook Documents there is a drop area that you
can copy your PDF files to. Either drag and drop files into
the area or use the Add... button.
unrealBook reads most non-password protected PDF.
UnrealBook Help
Songs
Button:
Load your PDF music files into UnrealBook and press the
Songs button on the top left of the screen. Tap on a file
to display it in the main window. To turn pages, tap on the
right to go to the next page and tap on the left to go to
the previous page. The page number and the total number of
pages is displayed in the top right corner.
You can also search for a song in the list. Simply drag the
song list downwards and a search field will be displayed.
Simply type into the search field and matching song files
will appear.
Dragging on the index to the right of the list will scroll
items that start with the same name to the top of the list.
Music
Button:
UnrealBook also has a built in music player. Simply tap on
the Music button to have your entire music collection
appear. Press on one or more titles and then Done to start
playing. After your music starts playing, the music
controller will appear. The title of the currently playing
song file will be displayed. You can drag on the slider to
move through the song.
Music
Player:
Player
Controls:
Do
Button:
Bookmark
This Page:
There will be times when you have a large document but you
want to refer to songs in that document as individual
songs. Bookmarks allow you to do this. Simply go to the
page in the document that you want to treat as a file and
press the Do button and choose Bookmark This Page. Name
your new Bookmark and it will appear in the list like any
other file. Choose it and your document will be loaded with
the page showing. You can use Bookmarks in set lists like
any other file.
Edit
Set List:
This will bring up a window where you can edit your set
lists (see Creating a Set List below).
Add
Hot Spot:
A Hot Spot allows you to highlight an area of your music
and jump to another page in the document. You would use
this for a D.S. Sign or for a To Coda. Press the Do button
and choose Add Hot Spot. An alert will appear telling you
to click on a spot in the document to place the Hot Spot.
After choosing OK, tap on the page where you want the Hot
Spot to appear. Once the Hot Spot appears on the music, tap
it again to assign a page number to jump to when you tap on
the button again. Note that Hot Spots can only be assigned
in the default zoom.
Once a Hot Spot has been assigned, tap on it to jump to the
specified page.
You can change the page number or delete the button any
time by pressing and holding the button for longer than 2
seconds. A popup will appear allowing you to change the
page number or to delete the button. Buttons are saved per
document. Note that a large document can only have one set
of buttons. This means that since Bookmarks refer to only a
single document, there can be only one set of buttons for a
single PDF document.
The Hot Spot will appear in blue.
Tap once on the Hot Spot to assign a page number.
Editing Hot Spots:
To delete or edit a Hot Spot, press and hold on the Hot
Spot for more than 2 seconds. The Hot Spot parameters will
be displayed. You can delete or assign another page to the
Hot Spot.
Reset Zoom:
A double Tap in the middle of the page will reset the zoom
to default.
Set
List: On/Off
This toggles Set List mode on and off (see Creating a Set
List below).
Using
Set List Mode:
You can group together music files to create a set list. A
set list is an easy way to order and use a subset of all of
your music files. To create a set list, click on the Do
button and turn Set List: to ON.
The set list tool bar will appear on the bottom of the
screen. Click on
Choose A Set List and
choose
New from the popup.
The Set List Editor will appear. The music files in the
left table are the files stored on your iPad. The table on
the right is the set list that you are creating. Choose
file from the table on the left and click Copy selected
song to Set List to add it to the set list.
You can click on the Edit button to delete and re-arrange
the files in the set list.
When you are finished, name the set list and press the Save
button. Your set list has been created.
Using a Set List.
Click on the Do button and turn Set List: to ON. Press the
set list button on the toolbar below and choose a Set List.
Once a Set List has been chosen, the name will appear in
the Set List tool bar at the bottom. The name of the set
list shown is the currently active set list.
Use the previous and next buttons to step through the set
list.
To edit an existing set list, click on the set list button
and choose Edit:
Navigating
through a long document (Go
button):
If you have a document that has lots of pages, you can use
the Go button to help you navigate through your document.
Tap on the Go button and a window will appear. You can type
in the page number directly or use the slider to scroll
through pages.
Optimizing
files for UnrealBook.
When using the Print to PDF option on the Macintosh with
Sibelius, you may find that the music displays less than
optimal. To fix this, use a program called Fix aliased PDF
(found on the internet) or drag the PDF into TextEdit and
search for APPL, then change the false to true.
Open file in TextEdit. Find AAPL
Locate
the false next to AAPL.
Set
to true:
Then
save the file.
A word about the support files that UnrealBook creates:
UnrealBook will create support files as you use it. Here is
a short explanation of what the files do.
.bkm are Bookmark files that UnrealBook creates . They
point to a document and the page within. They have the same
name as the associated file.
Note: in order for Bookmark files to work properly the
document they point to must be in the UnrealBook
folder.
.stl are Setlist files. They are simply a list of songs in
order.
Note: in order for Setlist files to work properly the
document they point to must be in the UnrealBook
folder.
.prs are Hot Spot files. They contain your Hot Spots for
your document. They have the same name as the associated
file.
Note: in order for Setlist files to work properly the
document they point to must be in the UnrealBook
folder.
All of these files can be viewed in TextEdit.
Important
notes:
Bookmarks
reference files by name. If you change
the name of the reference file, the bookmark will be
invalid. If at all possible, do not rename PDF files that
are referenced by bookmarks. If you need to delete a
bookmark, delete the bookmark using iTunes and the File
Sharing window. (Select the file and press delete).
Bookmarks cannot be deleted in unrealBook at this time.
Setlist files reference files by name. If you change the
name or delete a file that the setlist points to, the entry
will be invalid. In order to keep set lists valid, do not
delete files that they reference.
Important
tricks:
unrealBook
can read any sort of PDF files including magazines. Catch
up on some reading on the gig!