The chart viewer is where rehearsal happens. It shows one song's chart with your practice tools close at hand: key and file choices, the metronome, the practice player, and annotations. The page area stays dark in both light and dark themes, so charts read the same under stage lights.
Open a chart and rehearse
Open the chart. Tap Rehearse on Today or on a plan, tap a song in a plan's order of service, tap a PDF or audio file on a song's page, or tap a card under Recent activities.
To change key, tap Key and pick a key. Songbook loads that key's files and opens the first one.
To open a different chart for the same key, such as a lead sheet instead of the chord chart, tap File and pick it.
Swipe sideways to turn pages. A small counter such as 2 of 4 shows where you are.
Pinch or double-tap to zoom in on a page. Double-tap again to zoom back out.
Use the header buttons to open the metronome or the practice player, or tap the round Annotate button to mark up the page.
On an iPad turned sideways, a chart with more than one page opens as a two-page spread. Use the spread button to switch between two pages and one page. Your choice lasts until you leave the chart.
Tip: The chart viewer keeps your screen awake only while the metronome or the practice player is running. Otherwise your device's own Auto-Lock applies. For a service, use Perform, which always keeps the screen on.
Chart viewer reference
Header buttons
The first row of the header holds the ☰ menu, a back button, and the song title over the arrangement name. The second row holds the controls, from left to right:
Key - opens the list of keys. It shows whenever the arrangement has at least one key.
File - opens the list of charts for the current key. It shows whenever the song has a chart file.
Metronome - opens or closes the metronome under the pages. Always shown.
Player (headphones) - opens or closes the practice player. It shows when the chosen arrangement and key have audio or video, including YouTube and Vimeo, or when the plan you came from has some.
Annotations (squiggle) - shows or hides every mark on the chart, yours and your teammates'. Always shown.
Two-page spread - switches between one page and two facing pages, for charts with more than one page.
Order of Service - lists the plan's songs so you can jump to another song without going back. It shows when you opened the chart from a plan with more than one song.
Open songbook - starts Perform on the plan at this song. Leaving Perform brings you back to this chart. It shows when you opened the chart from a plan.
On a phone, the controls wrap onto two full-width rows.
Which charts appear, and in what order
Tap File to see a song's PDF charts, grouped in this order. The first file in the list is the one that opens by default.
Key of G (or whichever key is chosen) - files uploaded for that key. The chord chart One Church creates for the key comes first.
Shared files - files on the arrangement that apply to every key.
Song files - files attached to the song itself.
Plan files - the plan's own PDFs, only when you opened the chart from a plan. They never open by default, and you can't annotate them.
Only PDFs appear in this list. Audio, video, links, and other documents live in the practice player or on the song's page.
When a chart won't show
A spinning circle - the file is still arriving.
"No chart files for this song" - the chosen arrangement and key have no PDF anywhere. Ask your church admin to add one on the website.
"Couldn't load this file" - tap Retry. If the download failed, Songbook tries it again. If the file arrived but won't display, the first Retry reopens the saved copy, and the next one downloads a fresh copy, which needs a connection.