Chord Shifting Problem and Solution
When you copy a song from internet chord sites and paste it into MeloRep, you might notice that chords which stood correctly on the website have shifted to the right or left over the words in the app. Although this is frequently thought to be an app bug, the main reason is the text and font structure of the site you are copying from.
Why Does Shifting Occur?
Websites usually use the Space key to align chords with the lyrics on the line below. However, the width each letter and space character occupies on the screen varies depending on the font used (for example, the letter 'i' does not have the same width as the letter 'm').
When you copy the text, you do not copy the special page structure of the website, but only the space characters between them. When you open the song in MeloRep, your phone or tablet's screen size and the app's dynamic fonts kick in. This causes the width of those spaces to change, shifting chords from their original positions.
Definitive Solution: Switching to ChordPro Format
Attempting to align chords by pushing them with the space key on the keyboard will always generate shifting issues on different screen sizes. To ensure your songs are perfectly aligned on any device, in any font, and any text size, you must use the ChordPro format.
In ChordPro, instead of writing chords on the top line with spaces, you insert chords directly inside the word using square brackets:
- Problematic Method (with spaces):
Am GToday the weather is very beautiful - Perfect Method (ChordPro):
[Am]Today the weather is very [G]beautiful
If you write the chord in square brackets [ ] exactly before the syllable where it should land, MeloRep locks that chord to the word. Even if you turn the screen sideways or make the text huge, chords will never shift.
For more information, you can review our guide "What is the ChordPro format and how to use it?".