The song editor

Selecting and editing lines

Select a lyric and the editor offers rhymes, synonyms, syllable changes and a rewrite. What appears depends on how much you selected.

Showing the iOS appweb app

Selecting text is how you point a tool at a particular line. Nothing in the editor works on your selection until you make one, and what the app offers back depends on how much you picked.

Select some text and the bar along the bottom of the editor turns into a row of actions for that selection. Since iOS 2.22 every tool is in that one row. The menu on the selection itself keeps only the system's own Cut, Copy and Paste.

On the web there is one bar. Select text and a floating toolbar appears just above the selection, holding every tool described below. On a phone browser the same buttons sit in a row docked above the keyboard, and the less-used ones sit in that row instead of under More.

The selection bar#

The floating toolbar holds, left to right:

Button	What it does	Available when
Rewrite	Hands the selection to Wish Workshop to change.	The selection is six lines or less, on a tab you can edit.
To Master	Sends the selected lines to the Master tab. See The Master.	The song is shared, and you are not on the Master tab.
To Me	Adds the selected lines to the end of your own tab.	You are looking at a collaborator's tab or the Master.
Send to…	Sends the selected lines to a collaborator, who gets them in the song's chat. See Sending lines.	The song is shared.
Ask Genie	Opens Genie with the selection attached.	There is a selection.
Rhyme	Opens the rhyme tool for what you selected.	The selection is one line or less.
Thesaurus	Opens synonyms and related words.	The selection is one line or less.
⋯ More	Note, Make Blank, Move to Scratchpad, Record, Link to Recording. In the Scratchpad it also offers Move to Lyrics.	Each item appears when it applies.
−2 −1 +1 +2	Rewrites the line with fewer or more syllables. See Syllables.	The selection is a single line on a tab you can edit. +1 needs a syllable to start from, −1 needs two, −2 needs three.

To Master, To Me and Send to… send whole lines, widening your selection to the line starts and ends, the same as Arrange mode does.

Rhyme and Thesaurus open in the right-hand panel next to your lyrics rather than over them.

A word selected in the chorus, with the bar along the bottom showing Rewrite, Rhyme, Thesaurus and Sounds Like — A word selected, so the bottom bar turns into the selection row.

The floating toolbar over a selected lyric line: Rewrite, Ask Genie, Rhyme, Thesaurus, four syllable buttons and a More button — A word selected, so the bottom bar turns into the selection row.

The row reads left to right, and scrolls sideways when it is longer than the screen. Done, pinned at the right, puts the keyboard away.

Button	What it does	Available when
Rewrite	Hands the selection to Wish Workshop to change.	Your own tab. Up to six lines.
Rhyme	Opens the rhyme sheet for what you selected.	The selection is one line or less.
Thesaurus	Opens synonyms and related words.	The selection is one line or less.
Sounds Like	Words that sound like the selection.	Three words or fewer.
Word Associations	Words that go with it.	Three words or fewer.
+1 Syllable, -1 Syllable	Rewrites the line one syllable longer or shorter. See Syllables.	A single line on your own tab. -1 needs two syllables.
Make Blank	Swaps the words for a blank of the same length.	A single line on your own tab.
Move to Scratchpad	Cuts the selection out of the lyrics into the Scratchpad.	Your own tab.
Note	Leaves a note on the words.	Any tab.
Record	Starts a recording anchored to these lines.	Your own tab.
Link to Recording	Ties an existing take to these words.	Any tab but the Master.
Save to Concepts	Files the selection as a concept.	Always.
Arrange Lines	Opens Arrange mode with these lines ticked.	Always.
To Master	Sends the lines to the Master. See The Master.	A shared song.
To Me	Adds the lines to the end of your own tab.	A collaborator's tab or the Master.
To Collaborator…	Sends the lines to a collaborator, who gets them in the song's chat. See Sending lines.	Your own tab on a shared song.
Genie	Opens Genie with the selection attached.	Any tab.

To Master, To Me and To Collaborator… send whole lines, widening your selection to the line starts and ends.

On a collaborator's tab or the Master the row keeps only what reads or sends: lookups, notes, sends and Genie. Anything that would change their words is left off. Since iOS 2.23 the bar also appears there; before, it only showed on your own tab.

Why the buttons go grey#

Rhyme and Thesaurus do not disappear when the selection is too long. They dim, so you can see what you are missing. The other actions are left off the row when they do not apply.

Rewrite, Rhyme and Thesaurus dim on the web too. To Master, To Me and the syllable buttons are different: they are left off the bar when they do not apply.

The whole song selected, with the line tools dimmed — Select the whole song and the line tools dim, because they work on a line at most.

The whole song selected, with Rewrite, Rhyme and Thesaurus dimmed on the toolbar — Select the whole song and the tools that work on a line or two dim.

If you ask for a rewrite on more than the app can handle, it tells you rather than sending it. The cap is six lines and 500 characters. For a long verse, work through it a few lines at a time.

Long-press a selection and you get the system's own menu: Cut, Copy, Paste and Select All. Everything else that used to be in this menu moved to the bar along the bottom in iOS 2.22.

Record and Link to Recording are the two people miss. They tie audio to specific words rather than to the song as a whole, so you can play back the take that belongs to a particular line. See Recordings.

The web has no separate menu on the selection. Cut, Copy, Paste and Select All are your browser's own, from the right-click menu or the keyboard. The extra tools are in the floating toolbar's ⋯ More menu:

Item	When it appears
Note	Leaves a note on the selected words for everyone on the song. See Notes on lyrics.
Make Blank	You can edit this tab, and the selection can be turned into a blank.
Move to Scratchpad	You can edit this tab. Cuts the selection out of the lyrics into the Scratchpad.
Record	You can edit this tab. Starts a recording anchored to this line.
Link to Recording	You can edit this tab and the song has a take to link.
Move to Lyrics	You are in the Scratchpad. Moves the selection to the end of your lyrics.

Sounds Like, Word Associations and Save to Concepts from the app's menu are not on the web selection toolbar.

The floating toolbar's More menu open with Make Blank, Move to Scratchpad, Record and Link to Recording — The More menu on a one-line selection.

Moving whole lines instead#

Everything above edits text. When you want to reorder, duplicate or delete whole lines rather than rewrite them, use Arrange mode: Arrange at the left of the bar along the bottom of the editor, or Arrange Lines on a selection.

On the web it is the Arrange pill in the song bar.

The difference is worth holding on to. Selecting text points a writing tool at your words. Arrange mode moves your words around without changing them.

Selecting and editing lines

The selection bar#

Why the buttons go grey#

The menu on the selection#

Moving whole lines instead#