On my old computers, I often use WordPad for words, it used to open up in the full screen mode.
In Win10 it opens in the portrait mode, and my words don't fit without word wrap which makes it too long to fit all the words in one screen without a page down.
If I use landscape mode, it fits, and I can save it that way, but as soon as I open the file again it opens in portrait mode.
So does anyone know how to open it in either full screen or portrait mode by default?
If not, another recommendation for a very light on the resources, basic, instant loading replacement.
I'm still using an XP computer on stage so it doesn't matter, but some day it will reach it's expiration date and go kaput, so I want to head this off at the pass.
I don't rely on words unless the song is new, or if I get distracted in the middle of a song (like somebody coming up and trying to talk to me while I'm singing). It's nice to have them there if I get out of the zone.
the links are the result of a google search i did not have time to test them at post time having taken the time to verify sadly i can report they do not work in windows 10
Lenovo YOGA 900 Window s 10 Home 64bit 16GB RAM\2018 13” MacBook Air casio wk7500 presonus audiobox i2 usb interface casio wk-7500 biab & realband 2023 everything pk both with Current builds
I like to make the word fonts bold (Verdana) and the chord fonts small (Arial narrow and in red) so a glance can find what I need.
Perhaps the answer is when I'm done, print to pdf or PrintScreen and save as a gif or jpg
I've investigated quite a few WordPad alternatives but none of them seem to want to open in full screen. I suppose most people like WYSIWYG on a page image on the screen. But I've never been like most people
Just thought of something Notes. Excel will do this. I'm not an expert with it but I have some projects at the office where I needed the result in landscape. Here's where it gets tricky. We work with a guy who is an expert with this stuff. He created macros for us one of which converts the Excel file to a Worddoc as landscape and it's somehow locked in. It even auto formats it so it won't word wrap, we need it all to fit on one page in landscape for printing.
If you simply reopen an Excel file you'll see all the cells and formatting and you don't want that. Excel is mostly for math based formulas for spreadsheets but it handles text too. If you don't have MS Office you can get Open Office for free. It's supposed to emulate all the features of Office, I'll bet you can do this in Open Office. They have a forum, maybe ask this question there.
If you don't know what a macro is think of it as a patch change in a DAW. You want to change all the parameters of a synth with one button push. A macro is the same, you write a script that includes multiple things you want done. Once it's written, you hit a hot key on your keyboard, the macro list opens, double click on one and voila' your screen goes crazy for a few seconds while all these changes are happening.
I'm getting a bit out of my depth here because I'm not the one who understands this stuff, the other guy does and I don't want to confuse you so this is as far as I can go. This is very tricky stuff but remembering what I do with Excel, someway somehow I know what you want can be done.
Edit: Another thing, Excel creates a "Workbook". Workbooks have as many pages as you want. Each page is called a Sheet. Each Sheet is simply displayed as a tab across the bottom of your screen. You could have say 20 songs loaded as Sheets and hit a hot key to bring any one of them to the front instantly. That way you only have to open the program once with your workbook file. Thinking further now I don't think the macro converts this to a Wordoc, it stays as Excel and I'm pretty sure the macro tells it to display the info only without all the formatting stuff visible.
With some apps, if you open the file directly from Explorer they will open sized and displayed exactly as saved but if you open them from within the app (viz. File Menu) they will reformat for the app display.
Thanks, but that doesn't work with the new WordPad (I just tried it).
I'm bogged down with gigs right now (tomorrow is my first day off in over a week) and as soon as I get some time, it's back to the replacement search.
Along with that, we learned two requests for a party tonight. Since there was no appropriate BiaB style for either, I had to do the backing track from scratch (drums, bass, and comp instruments). It's a labor of love thought.
I'll try Notepad++ first and then do a search for full page .rtf editors.
I forgot to mention, I sometimes paste a .gif or .jpg on WordPad (perhaps a line of music notation for a signature riff I'm supposed to play).
Microsoft may think it improved WordPad by making it more of a word processor, but for me it's worse.
I'm still running a 2002 Win XP ThinkPad on stage and also a Win7 one. ThinkPads last a long time so I have time to get this together. I'm just trying to avoid a disaster.
I wrestled with this a while back. Word will do what you want. Wordpad won't.
And a new enough version of Office where Word uses xml files, so rather than doc files they are docx. You can load them in, switch the view, save them off and they will stay landscape. I had recipes I gathered over the years and I have them in a notecard template. When I went to Office 2013 I had to load them all and resave them, but they DO open in landscape now. Of course that would require buying Office, and that's a lot of money for software JUST for that. If you don't do spreadsheets, Power Point and such, maybe not worth the investment. I got it when I was still working because I had to support it. Word is really powerful. It will do a lot of stuff Joe Average user doesn't ever use. Mail merge for mail list mailings and such.
I remember a job at a law firm. When Wordperfect was going away, the company switched everything over to Word. Rather than learn something new, over a dozen secretaries actually quit their job. That was how I felt when I had to change my recipe file to Word.
That's why I suggested Open Office earlier. It's supposed to do pretty much everything Word does and it's free. And another one I just thought of is the similar Office clone by Google. I know squat about that one but it could be worth checking out.
Silly question but have you tried +++ Microsoft Online +++ ? It's free and suppose to be 100% compatible with the desktop edition of Microsoft Office. +++ HERE +++ is a short review that covers the pros and cons pretty well.
The highest rated alternative is +++ Libre Office +++. The program is frequently updated and has a wealth of support available.
I have a copy of Libre Office - the successor to Open Office, but it's slow loading. I'm used to the old WordPad opening almost instantly.
Libre Office takes from 7-10 seconds to open (depending on the file). I'm using version 4.5, I might update to version 5.5 and see if that helps.
Microsoft Word took 11 seconds.
This is way to long. If I make a decision in the last few seconds of a song for what to play next, a wait of 5 seconds between songs can be too much. Once they start heading off the dance floor and back to their seats, it's too late to keep them there.
I have found some 'full page' text editors and bookmarked them. We are very busy gigging until mid-March so if I don't find a solution by then, I'll make a fresh HD Image, and try them one at a time.
I don't mind learning new software (although I'd rather not) if it would make my work easier or do something I'd like to add. I don't like learning new software if it doesn't fill my needs, that seems like a waste of time. Thus the questioning first.
The slow loading time is why I suggested you try Excel. Opening the program the first time takes a few seconds but it opens as a workbook. A workbook has sheets (individual pages) as tabs across the bottom of your screen, you may be able to drag those around, dunno. I've had as many as 15 sheets in a workbook and you can either tab them or one mouse click them and the sheet opens instantly.
I know this is primitive Excel 101, it's very powerful but I'm a total rookie with it. If you're interested I just Googled "Using Excel" in YouTube and pages of hits came up and now that I've seen all that's available, I should learn more about it too. I also searched Open Office Spreadsheet and it's the same. Tons of hits.
When I'm gigging, I'll have Windows Explorer up in alphabetical list mode. Type a couple of letters and hit enter and the song pops up. Alt+F4 and it's gone.
No mouse involved, and I can usually get a second or two of a free left hand if I'm playing sax, flute, or wind synth, and more often than not guitar.
I can even load a second song in the background, while ending the first one, Alt+F4 and the next one is up.
No mouse, no glide strip, no eraser head, means less time for my left hand if I only have a second or two.
I have well over 500 songs, so 500 tabs in Excel wouldn't work. I tried tabs in a notation app once, and that didn't work on stage for me. That's why I paste notation into WordPad.
I don't do set lists, I work the crowd, and often don't know what song I'm going to call next until the one I'm currently playing is almost over.
Especially if I'm doing up-tempo songs and the dance floor is full. I play for a baby boomer crowd most of the time, and between fast songs, if I take a second or two between songs, some people will head to their chairs and won't turn around when the next song starts. So I often run them together end-to-end like a DJ with a 'mix tape'.
I look at the faces. Do they want another? OK, I'll put another in cue (only takes typing a few letters). Do the men look tired but the women still want more? OK it's time for one of those 'dance jam' songs that the ladies like to dance to in a group. Do they all look tired, OK now it's time for one of those dances like a cha-cha or tango that the ballroom dancers live for. Everyone else can have a breather but I know the ballroom dancers will come out (you can usually tell which are the ballroom dancers by the kind of shoes they wear).
I might change my mind in the last two bars of the song.
Ok so left hand gets the next chart up on the left computer, then the right hand hits cues the next song on the right computer (while the first one is still playing in Media Player) and as soon as the song is done, right hand hits "enter" and the next one starts immediately.
My job is to study the audience, use my lifetime of experience to try to predict when the want more, what they want next, and how soon I need to get to it. I've gotten very good at playing the audience with all the practice I've had.
My goal is to give them a great time so that they have more fun than when other bands are playing, so that they stay longer and come back often.
We do a Tuesday gig in a 7 day entertainment venue (10 years now), and we draw the biggest crowd of the week - on Tuesday. Often people can't find a seat and either stand or leave. We even have a dozen or so who bring lawn chairs so that if all the seats are full, they have their own (it's outdoors at a marina, on a lagoon, with a beach past the deck). When the owners tell us we have the biggest draw of the week (including weekends) and pay us more than the other bands, it means I'm doing my job.
Of course Leilani is a great singer, I'm a decent singer, she plays guitar and synth, I play sax, flute, wind synth, guitar and synth, and the backing tracks I make myself are top-notch -- mixed for live performance so they work better than karaoke tracks.
And yes, the music is a very important part of the job, but it isn't the entire job. Performing is not a lecture, it's an emotional dialog between the band and the audience. I give to them, they give back to me, which allows me to give more to them which feeds back more to me - and so on,
Without the ability to work the crowd, and make spur of the moment decisions, the dialog wouldn't be that strong.
So what I'm looking for is something that I can mix fonts/colors on, open full screen (landscape is second choice), paste a line or two of notation (.jpg from a print screen cropped in my notation app) and open almost immediately with a couple of key strokes.
I love performing, it's the most fun I can have with my clothes on, and the more fun the audience is having, the more fun Leilani and I have.
Being on stage is not work, it's play. Sometimes I think of how lucky I am to be able to still do this past retirement age with the love of my life besides me and all that love coming from our 'extended family', the audience. And they pay me money for this (actually we play for free and charge to schlep the gear, learn new songs, and be the band salesman).
Every day we gig, I strive to give them a better experience. Every song I learn and sequence I try to do better than the last one, and I try to improve my audience skills.
I'm one of the luckiest guys in the world.
But that's drifting off topic. The tools today are different from the tools we had when I started. I used to tote a tenor in one hand, an alto in the other and a flute under my arm. As a band we lugged 400+ pound B3 organs and 'voice of the theater' speakers. Now we have lighter gear, and computers. Band-in-a-Box, a good DAW, synth modules, and WordPad (or whatever I replace it with) on the screen to jog my memory when it needs it allow the two of us to put out more music than some of the 5 or 6 piece bands I've played in.
I totally understand Notes. I will do a OMB thing on occasion using a complex Korg arranger keyboard. Lots of things for both hands to do pretty much every second.
I'm just throwing things out that I don't completely understand. One is Apple iPad apps like ForScore or Gig Perfomer (something like that). What caught my attention is backing tracks AND charts AND midi files are all linked. You just select the song and BAM, it's all there.
I just know that there's something that will work for you but you may have to discover it yourself.
Thanks for the suggestions. I appreciate the help.
We are in the middle of our busy season. My XP computers on stage will probably last through the rest of it, and then I'll resume searching. In retrospect it was probably foolish of me to even think about this during the height of the tourist season.
If worse comes to worse I could convert them all to .pdf files, but with 550+ songs, it's something I'd rather not spend the time on.
The default page orientation when firing up WordPad is tied to the settings of the default printer. I just checked here selecting 'Microsoft Print to PDF' as default printer and selected 'Landscape' in the printer settings.
Now WordPad opens up saved documents in landscape mode (Windows 10).
I tried that and as many times as I set the default to landscape, click "Apply" and/or "OK" it's stubborn and reverts back to portrait.
I went to Control Panel > Devices and Printers > set Microsoft Print to PDF as the default > Right Click > Select "Printing Preferences" > Choose "Landscape" in the drop down box > Click "Apply" > Click "OK" and it immediately reverts to portrait.
Instead of "Printing Preferences" I chose "Printer Properties" > "Preferences" > "Landscape" etc. same results.
I even tried "Change Properties" the "Do you want to allow..." dialog box comes up > "Yes" > "Preferences" > "Landscape" > Apply > "OK" and it immediately reverts to Portrait.
I did notice one thing that might be a clue. In the status bar at the bottom of the Devices And Printers dialog box, when complete, it says "Status: Setup incomplete because of a metered connection".
I have no idea what that means.
I have an early gig today, so that is the next mystery.
I tried the same thing with the Nitro PDF Creator that came with my ThinkPad, and it does the same thing.
If you start the Open Office interface, minimize it, and then use Windows Explorer to open a document file, it will open quickly and windowed exactly the way you saved it.
I think my computer guy put one of my computers on a metered connection and instructed me to to the same to the others.
This was in the Win 8 to Win 10 days. Microsoft was using Leilani's computer as a distribution source to other computers. Since we live too far away from the fiber optics, we can only get DSL light, so whenever Leilani's computer was on, our DSL connection slowed to a crawl (dial-up speed).
We have a St Patty's party every day of the week, s next week I'll do a fresh disk image and try those links.
Not sure whether metered connections are responsible for the recalcitrant behavior of your printer settings. I just set my system to 'metered connection' and tried this printer-settings-to-Landscape gymnastics. Worked flawlessly and WordPad opens documents in Landscape mode even with metered connection settings.
I did not see your reported warning "Status: Setup incomplete because of a metered connection", though. This might well be due to the fact, that I am on a DSL connection, which bypasses any mobile connection restriction, of course.
However, it sure appears somewhat unlikely, that this metered connection business should interfere with these printer settings at all. After all, printer settings may flawlessly get changed with any mobile or Wlan connection cut off.
If your printer settings keep being stubborn, this may be a case for a chat with some Microsoft Support guy - they have this Live Chat feature these days. Check it out.
One of my links was from Microsoft. They are aware of this setting affecting printers .. just saying. IT nerds run into every weird thing you can imagine.
Bob mentioning the error was a huge help (clue) in what was happening. Anyway, worth a shot.
From MS - "You might receive this message when you connect a device and it tries to connect to the Internet using a metered connection to check for new device software. To avoid unexpected data charges, your PC won't allow the device to automatically check for new software when you use a metered connection.
To always download device software on a metered connection:
Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, select Settings > Change PC settings. (If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, choose Settings, and then select Change PC settings.) Select PC and devices. Select Devices, then make sure Download over metered connections is set to On.
Once you've finished downloading your devices updates, you can turn this setting off to avoid unexpected charges when you're on a metered network."
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
This is really weird. If I save in landscape mode it should open in landscape mode.
I can save a page in MS Publisher in landscape mode and it opens in landscape mode, but WordPad in Win10 will not.
I can save a page in Word as a doc in landscape and it will open as a landscape in Word or Libre Office but not WordPad (wordpad doesn't really like doc files as the formatting confuses it). So I saved it as .rtf, opened in WordPad and it opens in letter mode.
Hey Notes, did you get a chance to try Rharv's metered connection links? I'm still wondering if that could be part of the problem. At least to see if we can rule that one out.
WordPad was a Windows 95 replacement for Microsoft Write and was always just a barebones editor one step above Notepad, but allowing for a limited amount of rich text formatting. And the issues with opening DOC files are known by MS, in that they even dropped DOC support with Windows Vista.
I would agree that the problem is probably WordPad itself.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 2x2TB, 1x4TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 2x1.5TB, 2x2TB, 1x4TB SATA
I liked the bare-bones Notepad with fonts and the ability to paste an image and nothing more. It make a great full screen display, perfect for lyrics with perhaps a line or two of music pasted from a notation app.
I think the thing to do is find a replacement. My XP and 7 computers are still working fine so I'm OK on stage. I just need to be ready with a substitute for the eventuality that one fails.
You probably have no idea how many people for how many years have been trying to find the answer you have just given to the problem of Wordpad retaining its orientation settings when reopening a RTF document. It is probably the most neglected piece of information Microsoft have never had the heart to supply. I have read so many expressions of frustration over this little known if not UNKNOWN fact.... that the page orientation is connected with the printer page orientation setting.
Some who have received your tip have unfortunately gone about it the wrong way. Going through the control panel doesn't work.
The right way is to have a RTF page open in Wordpad and go to print... at that point adjust the page print orientation to landscape or the default of portrait. When you save the page and close it, on reopening it will open in the orientation you set in the printer setup.
I believe it has also saved my tab margin settings too.
Thank you Martin for contributing in writing, this simple solution to the preservation of sanity in this age of the Covid-19 Devil
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