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Import ASCII

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{File}{Import ASCII} allows the import of ordinary ASCII tab files (such as those often found on the Internet). TablEdit recognizes the lines containing tablature information and processes them regardless of the number of measures they contain. No special preparation of the text should be necessary. The setup phase, however, is essential in order to obtain good results.  
 
The setup consists of specifying:  
 
Time signature  
 
The time signature of the tune, e.g. 4/4, 2/4, 12/8, etc.  
 
Measure width  
 
The zone in which the characters representing notes (significant characters) are to be placed within a measure  
 
Before first measure  
 
The number of non significant characters at the beginning of each line. This is the space between the first character of the line and the first interval of the first measure.  
 
Space between measures  
 
The number of insignificant characters between adjacent measures.  
 
First line  
 
The line of the file from which TablEdit should start recognizing the text.  
 
Last line  
 
The line of the file at which TablEdit should stop recognizing the text.  
 
To Measure  
 
The first measure in which TablEdit should place recognized notes. All following measures will be cleared.  
 
Intelligent Mode  
 
The "Intelligent Mode" option lets you dispense with the need to set parameters 2 to 4. This allows you to import unequal measures without previous adjustment. It does, however, assume that the measures in question are separated by " |" (pipe) characters.  

Note:   By clicking on the "?" button beside a field you recover the width (in characters) of the current selection in the editing box.  

With a correct setup, the command will give good results if:  

all measures are of the same size (except if you're using "Intelligent Mode"). Otherwise, you'll have to edit and modify the file.  
 
only the lines representing strings contain more than eight dashes. Otherwise, TablEdit will interpret them as strings.  

The following example will give excellent results  
As will this one:  
 
TablEdit can also import tablatures in the format invented by Wayne Cripps for transcribing pieces written for Medieval and Renaissance Lute. Many tablatures in this format are available from: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/.  

In order to open such tablatures, simply select {File}{Import ASCII} and select the "Wayne Cripps lute tab" option at the bottom of the "Import" dialog. At the same time, the "Paste from measure" option changes to "Quarter note value" allowing you to specify the manner in which TablEdit should interpret the duration indicators of the file being imported.  

You'll have to set up the blank tablature into which the file is to be imported in advance as concerns tuning (in general, Renaissance lute tuning is the correct one) and time signature.