8:45 Tools

GuitarTapp Help

Welcome to the GuitarTapp help. If what you’re looking
for isn’t here, please contact us at support@845tools.com

Frequently asked questions

Please check if your question is answered below before contacting us!

Answers

Tabs database

Where do GuitarTapp’s tabs come from?
All tabs are from public archives available on the internet. We regularly index what’s available online and link to the tabs from within GuitarTapp. A tab’s source is always mentioned at the bottom of the file.
What songs does GuitarTapp have bass tabs for?
There are currently some 50.000 songs in our database that have bass tabs. The easiest way to find out if bass tabs are available, is to lookup a particular song you want to learn, and see if there is a bass tab listed. If it’s not there today, it’ll become available as soon as someone posts it to a major online tab site and our indexer finds it.
Can I submit tabs to be included into GuitarTapp’s database?
No. All tabs come from public online archives, we do not have or maintain a private archive. It is possible to add your own tabs to GuitarTapp, but you cannot submit them to our database to make them available for others.
I’m looking for a song that GuitarTapp doesn’t have tabs for, can I request it to be added?
No. We don’t create tabs, we find them on the internet and link to them. If they are posted on a major online tab archive, it will be included in GuitarTapp as soon as our indexer finds it.

Favorites

How do I add a song to my favorites?
You can add a song to your favorites from the tab viewer. Once you’ve added a song to your favorites, it will be stored on your device so you can access it again without the need for an internet connection. Depending on your device and firmware version, follow the instructions below.

Android 2.x: press the menu button on your device to open up the menu, tap ‘Save’.

Android 3.x or 4.x: If your device has a hardware menu button, press it to open up the menu and select ‘Save’. If your device does not have a hardware menu button, there will either be a Save icon in the title bar on top (larger screens in landscape orientation), otherwise open the menu by tapping the menu icon in the title bar (top-right) and select ‘Save’.

iOS (iPhone & iPad): Tap the menu button at the right of the title bar and select ‘Save’.

Windows: depending on your screen size, either tap (or click) the ‘Save’ option in the title bar directly, or press the ‘Menu’ button in the title bar and select ‘Save’.
How do I open saved tabs on my PC?
[Caution] GuitarTapp’s favorites database is stored in a file called ‘favorites.dat’; records in that database refer to the files in the SavedTabs directory. DO NOT modify its content or remove the file, because it will corrupt or wipe your favorites. Also, DO NOT remove or rename files in the SavedTabs directory. Deleting or renaming an individual file in your SavedTabs directory will NOT remove the favorite from GuitarTapp, it will break it instead. If you want to delete a favorite, use the app instead.

Android: Connect your device to the PC and browse to the directory /GuitarTapp/SavedTabs on your device.

iOS: Apple doesn’t support easy file access to your device, so you’ll need 3rd party software to access it. You can use a tool called “DiskAid” to access GuitarTapp’s SavedTabs directory and copy files from your device to the PC/Mac and vice versa.

Windows 8/RT: Simply select ‘Edit tab’ from the menu to open it up in an editor. If you are asked which program you want to use to open up the file, make sure you DO NOT select GuitarTapp – Windows will remember your preference and will launch GuitarTapp instead of an editor ever after. NOTE: if you accidentally did pick GuitarTapp once, or assigned GuitarTapp as the default program for a supported file extension in some other way, here’s what you can do to fix it: go into desktop mode, open up Windows Explorer (the filebrowser, not internet explorer), navigate to one of your .txt files, longpress it (or right-click if you have a mouse attached), select “Open with”, select “Choose default program..”, make sure “Use this application for all .txt files” is checked, and select “Notepad”. After this, GuitarTapp will be able to launch an editor again. If the issue appears with any other supported file extension (eg .crd or .tab), repeat the process for that file extension instead of .txt.
Can I share my favorites with friends?
Yes, you can! Use the synchronization feature to do this. See next question!
Can I synchronize my favorites between devices?
Yes! GuitarTapp is able to sync your favorites between all devices that are using the same sync account. GuitarTapp will maintain a copy of your favorites on our server, and manage any changes you make. You’ll also always have an online backup in case you ever lose your favorites!

If you don’t have a sync account yet, create one by tapping the Status item under “Synchronization” in GuitarTapp’s Favorites screen. You will be asked to enter your e-mail address, our server will send you a password that will allow you to login to that account on all your devices. Once you’ve received your password, log into your sync account by tapping the Status item again. It’s important that you first login into your sync account from a device containing the favorites you want keep, it is not possible to merge favorites stored on different devices at first setup.

Once you’ve setup your account, so can login to your sync account on your other device(s) to download your favorites. Any future changes you make, on any device, will be synchronized with all other devices using the same sync account.
Not all my files are synchronized to other devices, why is that?
GuitarTapp only synchronizes your favorites and setlists, not files you’ve added manually to the MyTabs directory. If you want those files to be synchronized as well, you must add song info to those files first. You can do this by tapping the ‘gear’ icon to the right of your file and selecting ”Edit details” from the popup menu. Once files have been assigned band/song info, they are considered as “real” favorites and included in the sync.
What should I use to edit tabs with?
ALWAYS use a plain text editor such as Notepad or TextEdit. NEVER use word processing software such as Microsoft Office, Wordpad or Open Office. Also make sure your editor uses a monospace (fixed-width) font such as Courier New. If you edit tabs with a proportional font, you will find that any spaces you’ve used to align chords above lyrics will be appear “mis-aligned” in GuitarTapp. This is not a bug, it is caused by the fact that spaces in a proportional font are smaller than other characters – GuitarTapp will display your tab with a fixed-width font, where spaces are just as wide as all other characters.

TIP: If you use ChordPro formatting for chords, GuitarTapp will automatically show the chords above the lyrics at the right position. Put the chords in between square brackets like this: [G]This is my [C]song, instead of on seperate lines. See ChordPro questions for more info about this.
How do I backup my favorites?
The easiest and best way to do this is to create a synchronization account in the app. Your favorites will be uploaded to our server and all changes you make will be synchronized. If you ever lose your phone or tablet, or if your favorites become damaged for some reason, you can easily download your favorites again by logging into your sync account.
I’ve lost my favorites, how do I get them back?
Unless you’ve created a sync account, there isn’t much we can do.
How do I delete a favorite?
Tap the ‘gear’ icon next to the favorite and select “Delete” from the popup menu. Never delete a file from the SavedTabs directory manually, because this will not remove the favorite from GuitarTapp’s favorites database.

Adding your own files

How do I get my own tabs into GuitarTapp?
You can add your own songs to GuitarTapp by putting them into GuitarTapp’s “MyTabs” directory, they will show up in GuitarTapp’s Favorites screen under “My Files”. How to put them into that folder depends on your device’s platform.

Android: Connect your device to the PC, and copy them to the /GuitarTapp/MyTabs directory on the device.

iOS: You’ll need to install 3rd party software to be able to access GuitarTapp’s MyTabs directory because it cannot be done through iTunes. If you download and install DiskAid, you’ll be able to copy files from your PC/Mac into the MyTabs directory. See http://www.digidna.net/diskaid for more info about DiskAid. Kindly note that we are not affiliated with DiskAid.

Windows 8/RT: There is no direct need to copy your files to a specific directory. If your file has one of the supported extensions, you can right click them in your file browser (such as Windows Explorer), choose “Open with..” from the context menu and selecting GuitarTapp Pro. NOTE: If you assign GuitarTapp as the default program for that file extension, you won’t be able to launch an editor from within GuitarTapp when using the “Edit tab” button (see How do I open saved tabs on my PC? for more info about this). Another way to open your own files it to open up a file picker from within GuitarTapp: Favorites > My Files > [Use file picker].
My own tab files aren’t displayed correctly, how do I fix this?
There can be two reasons for this.

Do chords appear to be mis-aligned?
Make sure you edited the file with an editor that uses a fixed-width font (such as Courier New). If your editor uses a proportional font, you will find that any spaces you’ve used to align chords above lyrics will be appear “mis-aligned” in GuitarTapp. This is not a bug, it is caused by the fact that spaces in a proportional font are smaller than other characters – GuitarTapp will display your tab with a fixed-width font, where spaces are just as wide as all other characters. [Tip!] Use ChordPro formatting for chords instead of placing them on separate lines; GuitarTapp will automatically display the chords above the lyrics at the right position. Eg: [G]This is [C]my [D]song

Are non-latin characters displayed incorrectly?
Make sure you save your file with UTF-8 encoding. If you use any other encoding, GuitarTapp will not be able to show it correctly.
What font should I use when editing a tab?
Always use a fixed-width font such as Courier New.
What file types can I open in GuitarTapp?
GuitarTapp can read plain text files only. Valid extensions are .txt, .crd, .tab, .pro, .chopro, .chordpro and .gcp. Please do not try to open PDF’s or Word documents, they are not supported and will not be displayed correctly.
Can I open Word documents in GuitarTapp?
NO. If you want nicely formatted sheets, use ChordPro syntax in plain text files instead. See Introducing the new ChordPro viewer in GuitarTapp for more info.

Setlists

How do I create a setlist?
To create a setlist, tap the ‘gear’ icon next to a favorite you’d like to add to the setlist. From the popup menu, tap “Add to setlist”. You will be able to set a name for the new setlist, and specify the number of sets in the following screen.
How do I add songs to a setlist?
You can add songs to a setlist in 2 different ways. The easiest and quickest way is to open up the setlist add use the <Quick add song> item in the desired set – a search panel will be added to the bottom of the setlist allowing you to search the song you’d like to add. As you type into the search field, results will be shown below. Once you select a favorite, it will be added to the setlist.
Can I share a setlist with band members?
Yes, you can. If you use a sync account, you and your band mates will be able to synchronize favorites and setlists with eachother. If you are in different bands, or want to keep your own favorites and setlists separated from those of your band, you can create multiple sync accounts (with different e-mail addresses) and switch between those accounts at any time.
Is there a quick way to jump to a next song in my setlist?
Yes, if you swipe left on the screen using 2 fingers, the next song in the setlist will be loaded. Additionally, if a song on your setlist uses the ChordPro format, you will be able to load the next song by swiping left with just 1 finger once you’ve reached the last page of the current song. If you use a bluetooth footswitch, tapping the (page)down switch will do the same.

Dropbox

What can I do with Dropbox?
Dropbox allows you to store files in the cloud so you can access them anywhere. There is some misunderstanding about the way GuitarTapp uses Dropbox however, and we’d like to clear that up: GuitarTapp DOES NOT SYNC files with your Dropbox folder. GuitarTapp DOES have a sync feature, but it has NOTHING to do with Dropbox. With that out of the way; let’s explain what GuitarTapp CAN DO with your Dropbox folder: open files, edit and save them. That’s it.
How do I connect to my Dropbox account?
In GuitarTapp’s Favorites screen, tap the Dropbox item under “My Files”. You will be taken to the Dropbox website where you can authorize GuitarTapp to access your Dropbox.
Where should I put files to open them in GuitarTapp?
GuitarTapp can only access an app specific folder in your Dropbox account: the GuitarTapp directory. Once you’ve allowed GuitarTapp to access your Dropbox folder, you can store your files in /Apps/GuitarTapp. Kindly note that there are other ways to open your own files with GuitarTapp, you do not have to use Dropbox for that. Do not ask us why it’s not possible to import files from Dropbox to your device, because it’s fairly easy to add those files to GuitarTapp directly without taking the Dropbox-detour. Use Dropbox if you want easy access to files in the cloud from multiple devices.
Can GuitarTapp synchronize files with Dropbox?
NO. GuitarTapp can open files from your Dropbox account, you will be able to edit them, and save them back to your Dropbox account. GuitarTapp does not sync files with Dropbox any other way. If you want your files to be available at all times (with or without internet connection), copy them to your device instead.
How do I get GuitarTapp to save my favorites into Dropbox instead of on my device?
YOU CAN’T. Dropbox is a cloud-storage service that allows you to store files in the cloud and access them from different devices. BUT, you’ll need an internet connection to access those files. GuitarTapp stores your favorites on the device itself so you can always access them, even when there is no internet connection available. If you want to be able to synchronize your favorites with other devices, use GuitarTapp’s synchronization feature, not Dropbox.

Viewing tabs

How do I change the font size?
The font size for the legacy (NOT ChordPro) tab viewer can be adjusted in the app’s Settings – In the tab viewer, tap the menu button and select Settings. The font size for ChordPro files can be set in the special ChordPro popup menu by tapping the grey top-left corner of the tab.
How do I quickly hide the chord diagrams at the bottom?
A little-known feature is the ability to quickly hide the chord diagrams by tapping the title bar of the displayed chord. Tapping the Back button will also close it.
Chords are being displayed when I accidentally tap them, how do I turn it off?
This can be adjusted in the app’s Settings – In the tab viewer, tap the menu button and select Settings. In the settings, uncheck the “Show chord info when chords clicked” option.
How do I get ukulele, or left-handed chords?
By default, GuitarTapp will display right-handed guitar chords. If you are left-handed, or you play Ukulele (or both) go into the app’s Settings and enable the options “Left-handed chords mode” and/or “Ukulele chords mode”.
How do I use the AutoScroll feature?

ChordPro viewer

What are ChordPro files?
The ChordPro file format has been around for some time, and there’s quite a few tools available to read, display and print them. ChordPro files are plain-text files that contain simple formatting directives. The original specification allows tab authors to easily write chords in between lyrics, show titles and subtitles, define chords and display their diagrams, define chorus blocks, define tab blocks, and add comments into the sheets. The ChordPro format eliminates the need for word-processors like Microsoft Word to create uniform and good-looking song sheets.
How do I change the way ChordPro files are displayed?
When you are viewing a ChordPro file, you will see a grey area in the top-left corner of the first page. If you tap that corner, a popup menu will appear where you can tweak how ChordPro files will be displayed by GuitarTapp. From that menu, you can change how many columns are used, the font size, font width, color of the chords, if lyrics or chords should be displayed, how recurring parts should be repeated etc. You can also have a sheet exported to PDF from this menu.
How do I make ChordPro files?
Simple, just use a plain text editor. For a complete description of the ChordPro format, see Introducing the new ChordPro viewer in GuitarTapp
When does GuitarTapp display a song with the ChordPro viewer?
All favorites of type “ChordPro” are rendered by the ChordPro engine. Additionally, if a file has a ChordPro title directive on the first line ({title:Some song}) it will also be rendered by the ChordPro engine.
How do I export to PDF?
When viewing the ChordPro file in GuitarTapp, the first page will have a grey area in the top-left corner. If you tap that area, a popup menu will appear, tap”Export to PDF” and select the desired export mode. Available export modes are: “With current settings”, “1 col 10pt portrait”, “2 col 12pt portrait”, “2 col 14pt portrait”, and “3 col 12pt landscape”. If you choose “With current settings”, it will export the PDF with your device’s current orientation (landscape or portrait), and the font size and number of columns set in your configuration. In any export mode the set chords color, display mode, repeat mode etc will be used, so it will always resemble what you see on the screen.

Installing GuitarTapp

I purchased GuitarTapp Pro, but it won’t download
You must be an Android user! Kindly note that we (at 8:45 Tools) do not handle your payment or download, Google does. Unfortunately, Google Play sometimes takes a while (up to several hours) to charge your account. During that time, you won’t be able to download. Another reason for not being able to download could be that your credit card company (or network carrier when paying through your phone bill) denied the transaction for whatever reason. If so, you will have received an e-mail from Google about that and you should either update your payment details, or use a different payment method.
I bought a new phone/tablet, do I have to purchase GuitarTapp again?
That depends. If your new device is running the same platform (Android,iOS,Windows 8/RT) as your old one, you will not have to pay again. Make sure you log into your appstore (Google Play, Apple Appstore, Amazon App store, or Windows Store) with the same account as you used when you purchased, and you will be able to download again without having to pay. If you switch platforms however (eg if you switched from Android to Apple), you will have to pay again – their stores do not exchange licenses as you might understand.
I reset my device back to factory settings, how do I get GuitarTapp on it again?
Make sure you log into your appstore (Google Play, Apple Appstore, Amazon App store, or Windows Store) with the same account as you used when you purchased, and you will be able to download again without having to pay.
What platforms does GuitarTapp support?
Currently we support Android 2.1 or higher, iOS 4.3 or higher (iPhone,iPad,iPod touch), and Windows 8/RT.
Can I use GuitarTapp on my computer?
Yes! If you have Windows 8 on your PC, you’ll be able to purchase GuitarTapp from the Windows Store!

Troubleshooting

I can’t jam-along with YouTube anymore, what happened?
Unfortunately, YouTube changed quite a bit in their API and it is currently not possible to jam along with YouTube videos. Our team is looking into this, me might reintroduce this feature in the future. Note that it’s still possible to search for videos and lessons from the app, but you can only watch them on YouTube.
The mp3 jam-along says it couldn’t find a matching mp3 on my device, why is that?
GuitarTapp will search through the music library on your device for mp3′s with a matching artist and title. If you think a song in your library should match, check if the artist name and title are spelled the same as the song you are viewing. If the mp3 is missing this information in its ID3-tag entirely (the ID3-tag stores info about the artist, title, genre, album etc of the mp3), add it and try again.
Why am I getting error 0×1 (“Prepare failed”) when I try to have tablature played
We are currently investigating this issue that arises on some Samsung Galaxy SIII devices running Android 4.1.2. If you have an other device and/or Android version and having the same issue, please contact us and provide those details.
There is no sound when playing tablature, using mp3 jam along, or using the metronome. How do I fix that?
Make sure the sound on your device isn’t muted. Press the volume up button while it is playing to test this.
GuitarTapp doesn’t work on my device, how do I fix it?
If something in GuitarTapp isn’t working as expected or promised, please contact us and provide as much information as possible. Describe the issue in detail, provide steps to take to reproduce the problem, let us know what device you are using exactly and what firmware version it is running (eg “Android 4.1.1 on my Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100″ or “iPad 3 with iOS 6.1.1″). If the problem occurs only when you open specific songs or files, please let us know which one(s), and (when possible) attach those files to your e-mail to us. Without those details it’s very hard for us to reproduce and fix the issue.
How do I report a bug?
The best way to report a bug is by contacting us through e-mail. Please provide as much information as possible. Describe the issue in detail, provide steps to take to reproduce the problem, let us know what device you are using exactly and what firmware version it is running (eg “Android 4.1.1 on my Samsung Galaxy Note II N7100″ or “iPad 3 with iOS 6.1.1″). If the problem occurs only when you open specific songs or files, please let us know which one(s), and (when possible) attach those files to your e-mail to us. Without those details it’s very hard for us to reproduce and fix the issue.
I have a suggestion to improve the app, where do I send it to?
We’d love to hear what you have in mind for us, please drop us an e-mail at support@845tools.com!

Miscellaneous

Can I send tabs to an e-mail address?
Yes, you can. When viewing a tab, open the menu (Usually the top-right button on screen, or the menu button on your device). From the menu select “Send to e-mail”, a popup will appear asking for your e-mail address. Please make sure you enter your e-mail address correctly! Some devices automatically add spaces behind a dot (.), make sure to remove those before trying to send the e-mail. If the e-mail doesn’t arrive, double-check the e-mail address you entered. If you are 100% sure it is correct, check if the e-mail wasn’t mistakingly placed into your spam folder! If so, please mark it as “This is not spam” and optionally add our sender address “guitartapp@845tools.com” to your whitelist. If it wasn’t in your spam folder either, check if your mailbox isn’t full by sending yourself an e-mail. If it’s not, check if you have any anti-spam software running that verifies the sender is a human by letting them open a link and provide additional details in an automatic reply. Our system cannot do this, so you’ll have to manually add our e-mail address “guitartapp@845tools.com” to be allowed by your anti-spam system.
Are there special gestures I can use to perform particular tasks?
Yes, there are. Try these in the tab viewer:
* Swipe left/right with 2 fingers to load the previous/next version of a tab, instead of using the top buttons.
* In setlist mode, swipe left/right with 2 fingers to open the previous/next song on a setlist, instead of using the bottom setlist buttons.
* Tap the bottom half of your screen to quickly scroll the page down 3/4th of the screen.
* Tap the top half of your screen to quickly scroll the page up 3/4th of the screen.
* In ChordPro viewer, swipe left/right with 1 finger to flip pages.
* In ChordPro viewer (setlist mode), swipe right with 1 finger on the last page to load the next song on your setlist.
How do I use a bluetooth footswitch with GuitarTapp?
Make sure to pair the footswitch with your device (see your footswitch’s manual) and set the footswitch to pageup/pagedown or left/right mode. On Android down/up mode is also supported.
What bluetooth footswitches does GuitarTapp support?
We have tested the app with the PageFlip Cicada and with the AirTurn, but it should work fine with other footswitches as well.

Old help

Homescreen

Searching tabs
In the search (home) screen of GuitarTapp you will see two text input fields. The top one says ‘Band’, the bottom one says ‘Song’. Once you access these fields, those default texts will disappear and you can type in what you are looking for. You can fill in both fields, or just one of them. Once you press the ‘Search’ button, an (internet) connection will to be made to our server. [v2.5+] You need to enter a minimum of 3 characters in the band and/or song fields.

[v2.4+]: When typing in one of the search boxes, “quick jump suggestions” will appear at the bottom of the box, so you can quickly jump to songs and/or tab versions. Please note that the band and/or song you are looking for might not appear in the list, especially with very recent songs. This doesn’t mean it’s not there – use the normal search to find out. If you would rather search the ‘oldschool’ way, you can turn it off completely in the settings.

Quicklink icons
On the homescreen you will also spot a number of quicklinks:

History: Takes you to the History screen, where you can see which tabs you’ve viewed in the past
Favorites: Takes you to the list of tabs you’ve saved to your favorites
About: Takes you to the About screen
Help: Takes you to this page…
Like: Opens up the GuitarTapp Facebook page in your web browser, where you can become a fan of us, which, of course
we would recommend and appreciate very much
Share: On Android this opens up the default application sharing utility to spread the word on GuitarTapp; on iOS devices and Nokia phones this opens up a Facebook share link in your webbrowser so you can tell your friends about us!

Note: (Nokia/Android) The History, Favorites, About and Help items are also available from the application’s menu. (Android users: press the menu button on your phone; Nokia users: open up the bottom ‘Options’ menu)

Band/song search results
If you’ve searched for a band, a list of matching bands will be shown. If you’ve searched for a song (with or without band), a list of matching songs will be shown.

Note: [v2.2+] To improve performance, only 30 results will be returned at a time. If there are more than 30 results, a ‘More..’ item is added to the bottom of the list. By clicking this item, 30 more results are retrieved and displayed. [v2.3.1+] When scrolling down towards the end of the loaded results, the next 30 items will automatically be loaded.

Tab viewer

The tab viewer displays the tab you requested. The tab viewer is capable of detecting chords; colorize them; show chord diagrams; transpose chords (up and down); wrap the lines to fit on your screen (see IntelliWrap); and AutoScroll to enable you to play along from the screen without having to scroll manually.

Note: To tweak how tabs are displayed, and to get more options (eg send to e-mail), see the menu options. On Android devices you can always access the menu by pressing the menu button on your device (or the top-right icon with 3 horizontal lines). On iOS devices a menu button will be shown in the top navigation bar.

Note (Android): [v2.5+] GuitarTapp will add playback icons on top of each detected tab block. We call this a GuitarTapp Labs feature; something we added mostly for fun! Do not expect perfect playback, as playing back textual data is virtually rocket science – we’re the world’s first to add such functionality to text tabs! Use this feature as a quick reference only, so you can quickly hear if the proposed notes are somewhat accurate – DO NOT use it as a study guide!

Note: [v2.4+] GuitarTapp automatically “prettifies” tablature: the usual dashes (—-) will now appear as a light grey line so it’s easier to focus on the actual riff to play. You can choose to turn off this feature in the settings.

Note: [v2.3.1+] GuitarTapp has always automatically reduced the number of blank lines in tabs; you now have the option to disable this feature in the Settings.

Note: [v2.3+] GuitarTapp now supports a ‘white on black’ tab viewing theme. If you enable this in your Settings, GuitarTapp will show tabs with a white text on a black background (instead of black text on white background). This makes tab viewing in dark areas easier on the eyes. Additionally, this will reduce battery consumption if your device’s screen doesn’t use a backlight (such as OLED screens).

Note: [v1.3+] You can adjust the font size used for the tab viewer. You can change this by going to the Settings screen (iOS devices & Nokia phones: access this screen from the top menu in the tab viewer; Android devices: access Settings by pressing the menu button on your device). Additionally, if your phone has keys, pressing the star (*) key on your phone will switch to a smaller font, pressing the pound (#) key will switch to a bigger font. You can also define the font-size
to use in the Settings screen. The default font-size used is determined by GuitarTapp and is based on the size of your display.

Tab viewer menu
iOS devices: Open the menu by tapping the top-right menu button
Nokia with touchscreen: you can open the top menu by tapping the ‘Menu’ button in the top-left corner of the screen. Tapping the ‘Menu’ button again will close the menu again, tapping a menu option will execute the chosen option.
Nokia with keys: you can open the menu by pressing the ‘C’ key, or by pressing the middle key twice (the first will set the focus to the menu; the second will open it).
You can access the menu options by pressing the up and down keys wile the menu is open.

Tab menu options

Back (Nokia only): This option takes you back to the screen you came from. iOS: tap the ‘Back’ button in the top navigation bar. Android: just press the back button on your phone
Home: Switches to the home (search) screen
Add to favorites: Adds the current tab to your favorites, so you can quickly open it again later.
If you have enabled local saving in the Settings screen, the tab will be saved on your phone so you won’t need an internet
connection to view it in the future. [v2.5+]: If you’ve transposed a song that was already a favorite, your key changes
will be saved. [v2.8+] All tabs are now always saved on your device, the local saving setting was removed
Settings: Opens the settings screen, where you can define if you want to colorize chords, IntelliWrap
(see below) tabs, what font size to use for displaying tabs etc.
Transpose: Enables you to change the key of the song. All detected chords will be transposed in the direction (Up or Down) and the
amount of steps you specify. Eg: if a song uses chords Em, G and C, transposing 2 steps up will change
the chords to F#m, A and D. See Transposing
Show Chords: [v2.0+] Displays chord diagrams for all detected chords in the tab, see Chord diagrams
Rate Tab: [v2.0+] Enables you to rate and comment on the currently displayed tab, see Rating tabs
Jam with MP3: [v2.7.1+] (Android only) Finds a matching MP3 in your device’s music library, plays it and starts AutoScroll so you can jam along
Find on YouTube: [v2.1+] Searches YouTube for videos (or video lessons) of the current song.
Other songs by this band: [v2.3+] Quickly takes you to a list of other songs by the current band
Other versions of this song: [v2.3+] Quickly takes you to a list of other versions of the current song
Edit Tab (Android & iOS): [v2.3.1+] Saves the tab to your favorites and opens it for editing. On iOS devices a simple internal editor will appear. On Android it will open in your favorite text editor. If you don’t have a text editor installed on your device, there are numerous of free apps available in the Play Store.
Send to e-mail: [v2.5+] Enables you to send the current showing tab to your e-mail. Please note that all e-mails are sent
from our server (guitartapp@845tools.com), if you don’t get the e-mail in your inbox: check your spam folder. if it arrived in
your spam folder, please click ‘This is not spam’ and add guitartapp@845tools.com to your address book, or whitelist.

IntelliWrap
An intelligent technique invented by 8:45 Tools: analyzes the tab and wraps the lines intelligently to fit on your screen. Using
IntelliWrap, you no longer have to scroll horizontally because all text, chords, lyrics and tabs will
be adjusted to the width of your screen. What makes IntelliWrap so special is that it recognizes:

Tab blocks: IntelliWrap cuts the whole tab into smaller (screen-sized) pieces (*marked with »)
‘Chords guided lyrics’: lines of chords above lyrics will be wrapped together, so the right
chords stay above the lyrics. (*marked with →)
Wraps all other lines to fit your screen. (*marked with ↓)
Cuts off and removes empty tabs. (*marked with •)

Basically, IntelliWrap makes it look like the tab author created the tab for your screensize!

(*these special characters are only displayed if ‘Mark wrapped lines’ option is enabled in the Settings)

Note: In some rare occasions, IntelliWrap cannot detect tabs or chords-guided lyrics because the
tab author used weird characters or formatting. When this happens, the loaded tab will look awkward:
turn off IntelliWrap to see the original tab. 99.9% of the tabs are displayed correctly though!

Note 2: On some older Nokia phones, IntelliWrap might crash the app on larger tabs. If this happens
on your phone, switch IntelliWrap off or buy a new phone!

Note 3: [v1.3+] IntelliWrap now also supports drum tabs.

AutoScroll
You can have the displayed tab scroll down automatically so you can play along with it.

Phones with touch screens:
[v2.0+] You can tap the ‘Autoscroll’ button in the bottom-right corner of the tab viewer,
a slider will appear on top of the button. Once you start dragging the slider, the Autoscroll button will display the
time (minutes and seconds) it will take to entirely scroll the tab down from top to bottom. For most songs, a setting
of 3 to 4 minutes is about right. 5 seconds after you’ve changed the speed setting, the slider will be hidden again.
If you want to stop autoscrolling, drag the slider all the way up until the button says ‘Autoscroll’ again.
You can show or hide the slider at any time by tapping the autoscroll button. [v2.3.1+] AutoScroll will be paused when
the slider control is shown, if you don’t adjust the slider speed and hide the slider again, AutoScroll will resume
at the same speed.

Note: [v2.3.1+] Auto scroll speeds are remembered. (max 30 days for songs that aren’t loaded from your favorites). If you reload a song later,
your previsously set autoscroll speed will be set automatically; pressing the autoscroll button (which shows the time setting) will start
autoscrolling right away; pressing the button again pauses autoscroll and shows the slider.

Note: On Nokia phones you’ll have to tap on the slider bar to set the speed, because of the absense of appropriate
touch events.

AutoScroll on non-touch screens (Nokia only)
You can have the displayed tab scroll automatically by selecting ‘Start AutoScroll..’ from the top tab menu.
The AutoScroll options screen will open, where you can define the scrolling speed. Scrolling speed is defined
in lines per second. The default setting is 3 seconds per line. To start scrolling, press the ‘Start’ button. To
cancel, press the cross in the top-right corner. To turn off AutoScroll when it is running, select
‘Stop AutoScroll’ from the top tab menu.

Transposing
Enables you to change the key of the song. All detected chords in the tab will be transposed the
amount of steps you specify. Each step is half a note. Select a transposing direction and amount of steps in the dialog, then
tap the Transpose button to start transposing. Tap the Cancel button to cancel transposing.

Example: if a song uses chords Em, G and C,
transposing 2 steps (a whole note) up will change the chords to F#m, A and D.
When transposing down: if a song is in the key of
E and you transpose 2 steps down, the new song will be in D.

Note: If you add the tab to your favorites, and have enabled the option to store the tab on
your phone, it will be saved in the transposed state. (not with the original chords!)

Note 2: The transpose function only transposes the chords it detected automatically. Sometimes, a word might
mistakingly be detected as a chord, or a chord not detected.

Note 3: [v2.5+] When you’ve transposed a song, GuitarTapp remembers what the original state was and displays
this on top of the Transpose dialog, along with a capo hint to be able to play the song in the original key, using
transposed chords. EG: If you transposed a song 2 steps down, it will say ‘Original: Up 2 steps (or capo on 2)’.

Chord diagrams
[v2.0+]: GuitarTapp has a built-in chords dictionary containing hundreds of chords and variations,
complete with fingering information and background info. You can view all detected chords in a tab by selecting
‘Show chords’ from the menu, a chords strip will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. Tapping a chord in this
strip will open the chord information view, which shows detailed information about the chord and enables you to
browse through the chord variations and fingering alternatives.

Hiding the chords strip
The chords strip will be hidden again by tapping on the chord info view’s title bar. Other ways to hide chords:
Android: Either press the back button on your phone, or select ‘Show chords’ again from the menu;
Nokia: select ‘Hide chords’ from the top menu.

[v2.5+]: Playing chords (Android only, iOS support coming)
We’ve added a playback icon to each chord diagram. If you tap this icon (or the chord diagram itself), the shown chord will be
played. Make sure you have your media sound volume unmuted, or you won’t hear it.

[v2.5+]: Browsable chords dictionary
When viewing chords, a ‘dictionary’ item is included to the right of the chords list. When tapping this item, a dialog
will appear where you can select the chord root note to use. When selecting a note (eg ‘E’), GuitarTapp will generate and show
all chords for that note in the dictionary, such as ‘E’, ‘Em’, ‘Esus4′ etc.

[v2.5+]: Ukulele chords
To switch to Ukulele chord diagrams, check ‘Ukulele chords mode’ in the Settings. All chord diagrams will be shown using default
Ukulele tuning (GCEA).

[v2.5+]: Left-handed support
To switch to left-handed chord diagrams, check ‘Left-handed chords mode’ in the Settings. All chord diagrams will be displayed in
left-handed mode (mirrored).

Note: Non-touch Nokias currently don’t completely support the chords features!

Rating tabs
[v2.0+]: If you add your personal rating to a tab, a bar will be displayed on top of the tab,
so you can always see what you thought of it later. Adding an optional comment to your rating enables you to describe
exactly what you did or did not like about the tab. Optionally, you can choose to share your rating on Facebook and/or Twitter.

You can rate a tab by selecting the ‘Rate tab’ option from the menu (only visible when viewing a tab of course). This will
bring up the rating dialog where you can select your rating of 1-5 stars, and optionally add comments. Once you’ve rated a
tab, this will be shown on top of the tab. You can always adjust your rating and comments later by clicking this rating bar, or
selecting ‘Rate tab’ again from the menu. If you’ve chosen to share your rating on Facebook and/or Twitter, you will be taken
to their website(s) to confirm your sharing.

Note: [NEW v2.6] Ratings are no longer displayed in a separate bar, but behind the song’s title. Adjust your rating by
selecting ‘Rate tab’ again from the menu.

Note: [v2.3.1+] When adding comments to your rating, the text field is maximized on your screen.

Note: Your personal rating is currently only displayed in the tab viewer, but will be displayed on other screens as
well in future versions.

Jamming along with YouTube videos
[v2.1+]: Jam along with your favorite YouTube video or take online video lessons for the tab you’re viewing!
By selecting ‘Find on YouTube’ from the menu, the app will search YouTube for videos of the currently selected song. A
dialog window will appear that shows you what videos are available. You can choose to search for music videos, or video
lessons. By default, music videos are selected. By clicking on a video in the list, a preview of the video will be shown
(Android 2.2+ only). If you want to jam along with a video, click ‘Use video’ in the preview window; the YouTube dialog
will close and a new bar at the bottom of the tab will appear containing a number of basic playback controls – Play/pause,
stop, rewind and forward. The video (better said – its audio track) will start playing immediately, and the Autoscroll
feature will be enabled and set to the video’s length. Clicking ‘pause’ will *pause* the video and autoscroll, ‘<<’ rewinds
the video 10 seconds and ‘>>’ forwards the video by 10 seconds. Clicking ‘stop’ will stop playback and close the YouTube
bar entirely.

Note: Jamming along with YouTube videos is currently only available for Android versions 2.2 and higher – other phones
can still search for videos on YouTube, but can only be played on the YouTube site or with an installed YouTube player.

Favorites
You can save a tab to your favorites, so you can quickly open them again later. You can
optionally have the tab stored on your phone so you won’t need an internet connection to open it later.
To save a tab to your favorites, select ‘Add to favorites’ from the menu (Nokia: top-left menu displayed in
the tab viewer; Android: menu button). To view your previously added favorites, select ‘Favorites’ from the
application menu (Nokia: Options > Favorites; Android: menu button > Favorites; iOS: Favorites button in home screen).
Note that this menu is not available when viewing a tab. To remove all stored favorites, select ‘Clear favorites’
from the menu (only available if you are currently viewing your favorites).

Recommended: [v2.5+] Periodically backup GuitarTapp’s files! iOS: synchronize your device with iTunes
and make sure application’s files are sync’ed as well; Android: backup the entire GuitarTapp folder on the SD card!

[v2.6+] Favorites screen is redesigned for easier navigation and better performance. When opening the favorites
screen, you will first see a list of options: Search, Bands, All Songs, Tags, Setlists, My Files, Dropbox and [NEW v2.7] Synchronization.
Selecting ‘Bands’ will allow you to browse through tabs by selecting a selected Band/Artist; ‘All Songs’ will list all songs sorted
alphabetically (by song name); ‘Tags’ allows you to filter songs by tags you’ve added to them.

[NEW v2.7] Synchronization of your favorites enables you to share your favorites and setlists between your devices, and
with friends and bandmembers. To setup synchronization, click the ‘Status’ item in the list.

[v2.3+, iOS & Android] If you have the option to save tabs locally enabled, tabs will be saved on the SD card of your phone
(Android: folder /GuitarTapp/SavedTabs, iOS: GuitarTapp’s SavedTabs folder). If you updated GuitarTapp from a previous version, your locally saved favorites will
automatically be moved to this folder when you first access your favorites.

Note: [v2.3+, iOS & Android] You can add your own tabs to GuitarTapp by copying them to a specific folder on your device, those files will be
displayed in your favorites list under ‘My Files’. On iOS devices: copy them to the MyTabs folder (you’ll see this folder in iTunes in tab
Apps > File Sharing, but you’ll need other software like “DiskAid” to access and modify its contents because of bugs in iTunes).
On Android: put your tab files in the /GuitarTapp/MyTabs folder on your SD card; IMPORTANT: Previous versions (v2.6-) expected your files
in “SavedTabs”; this has changed since v2.7.Please note that only plain text files are supported, no Power Tabs, no Guitar Pro tabs or anything else. If your tabs
contain non-latin characters (such as Russian, Chinese etc): make sure you save them using UTF-8 encoding, otherwise those characters
will not be displayed correctly.

[v2.6+, Android & [NEW v2.7] iOS]
You can access files in your Dropbox folder by allowing GuitarTapp access to your Dropbox. Once you’ve done this, GuitarTapp can read
and write to all supported files you put into ‘/Apps/GuitarTapp’ in your Dropbox folder.
You do not need to install Dropbox on your device; GuitarTapp communicates with the Dropbox servers directly. All you need is
a Dropbox account. IMPORTANT: GuitarTapp CANNOT read from other Dropbox folders besides the one specifically created by Dropbox for GuitarTapp!

[v2.5+] You can view/edit song details by clicking the settings icon at the right of each item; a menu will appear
where you can select what action to perform. More information about these options will be added to the online documentation on our
website. [NEW v2.6] You can also long press an item in the list to open the options menu.

[v2.4+] Files are now sorted by filename. [v2.5+] You can add files and songs to setlists. More information about
setlists will be added to the online documentation on our website. [v2.5+] Directories are now also supported, if you have lots of
files in the SavedTabs or Dropbox directory, it is recommended to organize them into multiple directories to increase performance.

Setlists [2.5+]

With GuitarTapp, you can turn your device into a digital songbook! Whether you’re playing a gig, practising with your band,
or jamming with friends; you can stop dragging around those bulky binders, save some trees, and amaze everyone with this
cool tool that shows you exactly what to play!

To create your first setlist, click the icon at (or longpress) one of your favorites and pick the option ‘Add to setlist’.
Once you’ve added a song to a setlist, it will appear under the Setlists option in your Favorites. Read more about setlists and
all options on our website: www.845tools.com/guitartapp

History
Every tab you open is automatically recorded into your history. This enables you to quickly recall a tab you opened
previously. To view the tab history, select ‘History’ from the menu (iOS: from the home screen; Nokia: bottom ‘Options’ menu; Android: menu button).
Note that this menu is not available when viewing a tab. If you want to erase the history, select ‘Clear History’
from the menu (only available when you are viewing your History, not supported on iOS yet)

[NEW v2.5] Only the last 50 visited tabs are saved in the history for performance improvement.

More information

If what you were looking for wasn’t here, please drop us a mail at support@845tools.com

Share this article:

Webmaster | October 20, 2010 09:49

2 Comments

By John Arpino, September 23, 2011 @ 02:08

I purchased the pro version and had it on my android phone, I just up replaced that phone. Do I have to repurchase?
John
917-533-7661
By Webmaster, September 28, 2011 @ 10:32

Hi John,

No you don’t have to purchase again. Please follow the instructions in this article on the Android Market support website: http://www.google.com/support/androidmarket/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=113410&topic=1100168 (“Retrieving previously purchased applications”)

Useful tools to make your life easier

GuitarTapp Help

Frequently asked questions

Tabs database

Favorites

Adding your own files

Setlists

Dropbox

Viewing tabs

ChordPro viewer

Installing GuitarTapp

Troubleshooting

Miscellaneous

Answers

Tabs database

Favorites

Adding your own files

Setlists

Dropbox

Viewing tabs

ChordPro viewer

Installing GuitarTapp

Troubleshooting

Miscellaneous

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GuitarTapp Help

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Troubleshooting

Miscellaneous

Answers

Tabs database

Favorites

Adding your own files

Setlists

Dropbox

Viewing tabs

ChordPro viewer

Installing GuitarTapp

Troubleshooting

Miscellaneous

Old help

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Tab viewer

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