How do I compile a songbook of pre-formatted songs?

Question

Level 1

8 points

How do I compile a songbook of pre-formatted songs?

I have a bunch of songs, each formatted as a separate pdf file by ChordPro Buddy (in the app store). I'd like to put them together as a book, one song per page, with page numbers and a table of contents. I can drag the pdf's into a Pages doc, but they overlap rather than sitting on separate pages. And, I don't see how to put their titles in a TOC, since they are not styled text.

Should I make each song be a separate section using section breaks? If I did that, how would I title each section and compile the TOC using those titles? Should I just insert page breaks and, if so, once again how do I populate the TOC?

Thanks, in advance, for any help with this.

Posted on Jul 26, 2018 12:47 PM

Reply

Answer 1

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,470 points

Jul 26, 2018 1:31 PM in response to loonsailor

Pages (you didn't mention what version) can only display single-page PDF as document objects when dropped on the document window. As such, they can be manipulated via the Arrange tab (if Pages v5 - 7.*).

You can create separate sections, with the appropriate paragraph styled text at the top of each section for the song title, and scale the PDF so that this title is visible. When you are ready to generate the Table of Contents, place your insertion beam before the first section's song title, and insert Section. This will separate the ToC from the first PDF page.

The original PDF had the black background in it. I scaled it to allow the Title Text to appear above it.

Reply

Answer 2

Jul 26, 2018 1:13 PM in response to loonsailor

To create a TOC you need to be in a Word Processing document and the text needs to be in the default document area, between the margins.

Set the pdfs to be inline in the text, with their title as a caption under, which you can then index for the TOC.

Reply

Answer 3

loonsailor Author

Level 1

8 points

Jul 26, 2018 1:39 PM in response to VikingOSX

I see that you're right - when I drop a pdf, it only inserts the first page. To insert multi-page pdf's, do I need to split into multiple, single-page pdf's?

Reply

Answer 4

VikingOSX

Level 10

123,470 points

Jul 26, 2018 2:32 PM in response to loonsailor

Yes, to split into single-page PDF.

Reply

Answer 5

Jul 26, 2018 6:54 PM in response to loonsailor

Open the .pdf in Preview App and drag the thumbnails out of the document to somewhere in Finder to get the individual pages.

Reply

How do I compile a songbook of pre-formatted songs?

Similar questions