Making Chord Sheets

Making a chord sheet used to mean writing chords into a text-based format, rendering it, spotting what was wrong, then going back into the file to fix it. Chordly keeps the familiar idea of chords above lyrics, but the workflow is completely visual.

You type directly into the document, open Chords + below the toolbar, and place chords where they belong. You can drag them onto the exact word or syllable you want, insert them from the keyboard, format them independently from the lyrics, and transpose them without rewriting the chart.

How chord sheets work in Chordly

Chord sheets in Chordly are live documents. The lyrics are regular editable text. Chords sit directly above the line, so you can work on the page the way it will actually look when you use it.

That changes a few things compared with older chord-sheet tools:

• You do not type bracketed chord syntax just to place chords
• You do not render the file to check alignment
• You can move a chord visually instead of rewriting text just to change its position

Instead, you build the chart visually.

Add chords two ways

There are two main ways to add a chord.

1. Drag from the chord palette

Click Chords + below the toolbar to open the chord palette. When it opens, you'll see a search field and a horizontal row of chords. If you've already used some chords in the current browser, the palette puts your recent chords first. Hover a chord to see its fingering diagram.

From there, drag the chord onto the lyric line and drop it on the exact character it belongs to. The chord appears above that position immediately.

This is the fastest way to build a chart when you're laying out a progression visually.

2. Use the keyboard

Press Cmd+K on Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows/Linux to open the chord editing menu at your current cursor position. Type the chord symbol you want, adjust its formatting if needed, then press Enter or click Insert Chord.

This is especially useful when you already know the chord you want and don't need to browse the palette first.

See Adding Chords for the full step-by-step guide.

Move and edit chords

Once a chord is in the document, it stays attached to the line and can be repositioned visually.

• Drag a chord within the same line to move it
• Drag a chord to another line to copy it there
• Click a chord to open its chord action menu

That menu gives you three actions:

• Edit Chord changes the symbol and opens the same formatting controls used when inserting a chord
• Copy Formatting copies the current chord's styling
• Paste Formatting applies copied styling to another chord

If you want to change Am to Am7, restyle a chorus, or reuse the same chord color system across a song, this is where you do it.

See Editing Chords.

Give chords their own look

Chords in Chordly are not locked to one look. Each chord can have its own:

• text color
• background
• font size
• font family
• bold
• italic
• underline

By default, a chord inherits the surrounding line's text size and font family. You only get a stored override when you change it. That makes it easy to keep a chart visually consistent while still calling out special cases when you need to.

This is what makes the notation layer genuinely useful. A chord can look like a normal chord, or it can act like a marker for things such as key changes, repeats, cues, or dynamics.

See Formatting Chords and Chord Notations.

Delete and transpose

Removing chords is just as direct as placing them.

• Put the caret on a chord and press Backspace to delete it
• Click the same chord twice to remove it with the mouse

Transposition lives in the toolbar. Use the up and down transpose buttons to shift the selected chords by semitone. If nothing is selected, Chordly transposes every chord in the document.

That makes two workflows possible:

• change the key of one section without touching the rest of the song
• shift the whole chart up or down for a new singer, instrument, or capo position

See Deleting Chords and Transposing Chords. For the bigger picture, including capo workflow, read the main Transposing section.

What to learn next

If you're starting from scratch, these are the pages worth reading next:

• Adding Chords for drag-and-drop and keyboard insertion
• Editing Chords for changing symbols and reusing formatting
• Formatting Chords for styling individual chords
• Chord Notations for cues like repeats, dynamics, and key changes
• Keyboard Shortcuts for the chord-specific keys

If you want the broader editor controls around fonts, colors, alignment, and spacing, continue to Editor.