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I have been making our books on Excel for all three systems and I'm tired of it, plus, we are going to add quite a bit (for us anyway) of new music and want to get some music book software prior to that.

We like the format that has two columns per page and, in the artist listing pages, lists the artist only once and is then followed by their songs.

We do have one friend who uses KJ Pro and he indicates that KJ Pro has several errors, however, we have also heard high praises for KJ Pro.

Any help is appreciated!

Susie

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Karaoke with Full House Entertainment

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Suzie,

I too recently went the way of dual columns...

I have my songbook online in pdf format. check out www.knightshow.com and click on the "songspage" link.

Also, another thread on the "Ask Sammy" has some comments about other people's ways of running their songbooks.

www.karaoke-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=2446

I'm a newbie. Based upon some discussions in the archives of this website, I went with Music Book Deluxe. The pros: it has an up-to-date datebase of CDG's, DVD's, VCD's, and several other formats whereby you can enter the either the OEM code or the title (if you purchased a collection) and it will automatically enter the artist, song titles, etc. I have about 200 discs and it only took me about 30 mintues. It also has some cool features where it will compare a disc or collection of discs you're thinking of buying and give you a report of duplicates. It has a farily sophisticated ratings function where you can give ratings (1-9) to the OEM's and it will list duplicates in accordance with your ratings. You can also override the manufacturer rating for a given song. So, if you feel that a particular rendition of a song is more accurate than other it will list first in your book. It also has an automated renumbering function where you can very easily and quickly renumber all of your discs. This is useful because the OEM numbers are rather long and combersome. I wanted to be able to renumber my discs sequentially so that I could find them more quickly. You are virtually unlimited on renumbering schemes which enables you to divide up your collection in anyway you wish. There are several other great functions which you can read about on their website.

The only major con I have found is that your limited on the printing format (pretty major considering one of the main purposes of the software is to generate a song book). There are 20-30 different pre-set formats to chose from including the 2 column format you desire. However, there is no simple mechanism for altering the size of paper you're printing on; the fields that are included or their order; and adjusting margins is painful. The only way around these problems is to export the book to Excel and print out from there. I had no difficulty in doing this, but it's more time consuming.

Matt, Thanks, I've seen the topic in "Ask Sammie" & have to admit that the responses are to technical for someone as computer illiterate as I!! I have the same problem with the responses for PC hosting preferences....

I checked your link, (had to see more than just the songspage!!!!!), what a GREAT website!! May I use some of your ideas for our page when I get a faster modem?!?

BTW, who is Chip & is Speedbook offered to the public in general?

Adam, Thanks for being so specific with the pros & cons!! I really like the positive aspect of ranking the type of disc!!

As for a con, I can see where it would be time consuming to convert it to Exel as you would have to copy the ENTIRE book for the addition of one new disc & since I type 60+ wpm I could just add it faster to Excel.....



I may end up sticking with Excel and asking a friend of mine who is proficient in Excel if there is a way of doing the dual columns within the program (although then the artist is still listed for each song in the artist listing, hmmmm).

Thank you sooooo much for your fast & informative responses!!!

Susie

_________________
You do it in the shower,
you do it in the car,
Ccome do it with us,
and be a star!!!!

Karaoke with Full House Entertainment

[scroll]Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean...... [/scroll]

Yes, you can use whatever ideas you like. I borrowed a couple from a couple members too! !

Chip can be found at dkusa.com. There's a trial version of Speedbook, but bewarned... the speedbook program itself isn't really built to have a ready database. It does have one, but there are a couple errors in it.

Chip can easlily email you a larger database with complete instructions on how to use it. That's what he did for me. He converted my existing excel spreadsheet to one his database uses... now it's pretty easy to add stuff to it.

It doesn't answer all my needs really, but for $40, I can't really complain... and what a GREAT set of books, huh??

Matt

Susie
I to have music book deluxe and like the updated database.I have had to call those folks a couple of times and must say i was impressed with the response and time they spent on the phone with me.Not that the program had a problem but my own fault.
I love having the database and then i export it to excel for printing.Excel does this pretty automaticly and you can change the color of fonts,size of text or whatever.You can sort by title,artist,disc numer or anyway you want to.I think you will like the program and the latest version has some nice features.I just find that for printing,sorting etc. that excel works well for me.I have about 15000 songs an need to make it easy on myself.I even dropped all my DJ songs from my book in excel and then printed a separate book for DJ music.

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Wayne

Hey Knightshow
Visited your webb site and must say i was impressed.Great design and very professional looking.Whoever designed your page(even if it was you)did an excellent job.Your songbook is also impressive.Sort of intimadates me when i see how you guys operate and me just trying to get in the door.
Hope you dont mind if i use some of your ideas to my own advantage.

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Wayne

thanks Wayne

(Thanks for the nice comments) I did the website myself... but I've tweaked it a lot over the past year and a half... if you check the "updates" link, you can track the progress I did. I honestly wish I'd done that from the beginning of the site! !

KJNEWBIE, Thanks for the additional information you provided on Music Books Deluxe!!! It's nice to know they are willing to back-up their program!

It looks as if we purchase a music book software program, that Music Book Deluxe is at the head of the line!!

Susie

_________________
You do it in the shower,
you do it in the car,
Ccome do it with us,
and be a star!!!!

Karaoke with Full House Entertainment

[scroll]Just because I have a short attention span doesn't mean...... [/scroll]