Making Guitar Tabs

Writing tablature in Chordly is part of the same document flow as the rest of your song. You can insert a tab block directly into the page, type your notations into it, and navigate through the tab seamlessly without picking your mouse up.

The tab system is simple:

• click + Tabs to insert a tab block
• click on the tab to put it in edit mode
• click a cell to focus it
• type a character into a cell
• let Chordly move you to the next cell automatically

How tabs work in Chordly

Each tab block starts as a standard six-string guitar tab. Once the block is in the document, you click into it and type directly into the tab.

Every cell holds one visible character. That could be:

• a fret number such as 3 or 7
• a mute mark such as x
• a technique character such as /, \, h, p, or b

When you type a character into a cell, Chordly automatically moves focus to the next cell so you can keep entering the line.

Before you type, click a cell to focus it. Once you're in the tab, you can keep moving through it with your keyboard, including the arrow keys.

Insert a tab block

Use the + Tabs button in the toolbar to insert a tab block into the song. After that, click the tab itself to put it in edit mode.

Once the tab is in edit mode, additional controls appear for building and shaping it:

• Add Column
• Remove Column
• Add Divider
• Increase Size
• Decrease Size
• Increase Spacing
• Decrease Spacing

The tab block stays part of the same document as your lyrics and chords, so you can place tabs wherever they belong in the arrangement.

See Adding a Tab Staff.

Enter notes and notation

Tab entry is character-based. Click a cell, type a character, and continue. There is no separate notation button for techniques like slides or hammer-ons. If you want one of those marks, type the character directly into the tab just like any other entry.

Measure dividers are the one dedicated notation control in Tab Editor. Use Add Divider to insert vertical bar lines into the tab.

See Adding Tab Notations.

Format the tab for readability

There are two main ways to adjust how a tab block looks:

• change its size
• change the spacing between rows

You can do both from Tab Editor, and when the tab is not being edited you can also drag the resize handle at the lower-right corner of the block.

Tabs also wrap into multiple rows automatically based on the available width, so long sections stay readable inside the page layout.

See Formatting Tabs.

Removing notes or whole tab sections

You can clear individual tab cells while editing, remove columns from the tab, or delete the whole tab block from the document the same way you would remove other content in the song.

See Deleting Tabs.

What to learn next

• Adding a Tab Staff for the insertion flow and basic editing
• Adding Tab Notations for technique characters and measure dividers
• Formatting Tabs for size, spacing, and wrapping
• Deleting Tabs for clearing cells, removing columns, and removing a full tab block