Manual contents

External displays

SongSheet Pro can display your lyrics (a single stanza at a time) on an external display connected to your iPad. It can do this either via cable (e.g. HDMI or VGA) or using AirPlay mirroring.

You could use this for prompting other musicians or singers on stage, or for audience participation (e.g. congregational singing).

Setting up

AirPlay

To display your lyrics using AirPlay, connect your iPad and an Apple TV, AirPlay 2-enabled smart TV, Mac (with AirPlay Receiver turned on), or other AirPlay receiver to the same Wi-Fi network. Then open Control Center, tap Screen Mirroring and choose the receiver.

Whenever a stanza is highlighted on your iPad (e.g. when following an arrangement, or because you tapped on the stanza), just that stanza (without any chords) will automatically be displayed on the external screen as well.

If you tap on a highlighted stanza, it will become unhighlighted, and the external display will go blank.

For step-by-step instructions, see Apple’s guide:

Cable connection - HDMI, VGA, etc

For a wired connection, connect your iPad to the external display using the appropriate display adapter and an HDMI or VGA cable. USB-C iPads use a USB-C Display AV Adapter or USB-C VGA Multi-port Adapter; iPads with a Lightning connector use a Lightning Digital AV Adapter or Lightning to VGA Adapter. Select the correct input on the external display if necessary.

The wired connection behaves exactly the same as the AirPlay connection described above: highlighted stanzas are displayed whole on the external display.

For step-by-step instructions, see Apple’s guide:

External display preview

On your iPad’s screen you can preview what is shown on the external display. With a song visible, tap (the external display preview button). A preview window will appear and float above your lyrics. You can drag this window around and resize it, and close it by tapping the X icon in the top right.

You can open the preview even when no external display is connected. The button is available on iPad when the song is shown in a full-width or wide window; it isn’t shown on iPhone, in a narrow Split View or Slide Over window, or while you are editing the song.

In addition to showing you a live preview of what appears on the external display, this window provides you with a few extra controls you will see underneath the preview. From left to right, these controls are:

• Black out: immediately turns the external display black.
• Background only: the external display will be blanked to the background color of the currently chosen external display theme.
• Select/use image: allows you to select an image from your iPad’s photo library in order to use as a background on your external display.
• Select theme: chooses the external display theme, which is set independently of the iPad’s display theme. When you are viewing a song in a setlist, the theme you choose applies only to that setlist, as described in Setlist display themes. For an external display you would typically choose a theme with a very large lyric font so lyrics are readable from a distance, and SongSheet Pro will automatically reduce the font size to ensure that the entire stanza is visible.

Setlist display themes

When projecting lyrics from a setlist onto an external screen, the display uses the built-in Presentation theme by default. You may customize the theme by using (the select theme button) in the external display preview, as described below.

SongSheet Pro remembers the theme you have chosen for each setlist. You may choose a separate theme for each setlist, and change it by selecting a new one. When you update a theme, any setlists using that theme will use the updated version. When you duplicate a setlist, the copy uses the same display theme as the original.

To set the setlist’s display theme:

1. Open a setlist and open a song.
2. Tap (the external display preview button) to open the external display preview, then tap (the select theme button) in the preview.
3. Choose a theme, then close the preview.
4. When the setlist’s lyrics are projected to an external screen, they will use the selected theme.

Choosing a theme for a setlist does not change the external display theme used for songs outside of setlists, and a setlist without a theme of its own uses Presentation, not the theme used outside of setlists. The setlist’s theme is also independent from the main application theme. Changing the application theme will not update the theme for displaying the setlist on an external display.

If a theme is deleted, the built-in Presentation theme replaces it wherever it was in use:

• in any setlist that used it
• as the external display theme for songs outside setlists

Compatibility

At the moment, SongSheet Pro is only able to support external lyrics display for SongSheet Pro songs, Plain text files, and various ChordPro file types. Other file types such as .PDF, .RTF, .doc, and .docx are not supported for lyrics display, although they will still appear on the external display in demo mode, described below.

Mirroring using demo mode

By default, SongSheet Pro’s external display projection only displays lyrics. To mirror exactly what you see on your device’s screen, use SongSheet Pro’s “demo” mode. This setting is intended for situations such as training sessions. To enable demo mode, bring up the settings window and switch Demo mode to on. Now everything you do in SongSheet Pro on your iPad will be reflected on the external display.