Hoster Editing

[WaltR]

I have decided to list one of each song in my songbook instead of sometimes 10 or 12, etc. I have been going in Hoster (5.05) edit songs using the wild card * to access all my songs. I then go through each song and as I come to duplicates I check the box to not place them in the songbook. This is very time consuming if you have many songs. My question, "Is there a faster or better way to accomplish this?"

Walt

[ddouglass]

Originally Posted by WaltR

I have decided to list one of each song in my songbook instead of sometimes 10 or 12, etc. I have been going in Hoster (5.05) edit songs using the wild card * to access all my songs. I then go through each song and as I come to duplicates I check the box to not place them in the songbook. This is very time consuming if you have many songs. My question, "Is there a faster or better way to accomplish this?"

Walt

Walt are you using single or multiple edit. You can use multiple, highlight the ones you want to hide and change all of those at once. Don't change anything else so the only change will be the Hide.

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by ddouglass

Walt are you using single or multiple edit. You can use multiple, highlight the ones you want to hide and change all of those at once. Don't change anything else so the only change will be the Hide.

Dale, I've tried it both ways. Muliple seems to save a little time but not much. The problem is, everytime I add new batches of songs I have to go through this time consuming process. I was hoping there was some magical speedy process to do this that I wasn't aware of. I've been told by other KJ's that this is why they don't use songbooks anymore. When you reach a point where you have many, many songs, the songbook becomes unmanagable in terms of trying to customize it. Also the expense and time of printing to keep the books up todate. I am about 75% done with going through the edit process in eliminating duplicates but like I said, the next time I add a significant number of songs I will have to do this all over again. I'm not complaining, just trying to find a faster way.

Walt

[Beavis]

i wish there were check boxes next to each song rather than having to hold the control key. sometimes it doesnt work and all the songs you selected go away!

[Lonman]

Originally Posted by WaltR

When you reach a point where you have many, many songs, the songbook becomes unmanagable in terms of trying to customize it.

I have to disagree with this. I still use Access for my books, this is all manual entry mind you. Every time I add new songs, I print a list first of what I am adding, then compare to my existing song list, then any duplicates found, I go & compare which version is better and list accordingly either adding the new one & deleting the other, or leaving the old one and not bother with the new one - although I don't purposely buy duplicate songs to begin with if possible - compare what you are buying to what you have before the purchase.

[RIKKI TIKKI]

Originally Posted by Lonman

I have to disagree with this. I still use Access for my books, this is all manual entry mind you. Every time I add new songs, I print a list first of what I am adding, then compare to my existing song list, then any duplicates found, I go & compare which version is better and list accordingly either adding the new one & deleting the other, or leaving the old one and not bother with the new one - although I don't purposely buy duplicate songs to begin with if possible - compare what you are buying to what you have before the purchase.

Walt, I've done the same thing as Lonman, in regard to building my books, even though I use a custom book making program that was built by a personal friend ( engineer/programmer ) who thought he wanted to market it, but later found that there was too much competition, and abandoned the project, but left me with a very good beta program that has served me well in the last 8 or 9 years... what Lonnie and I and most of the old timers that have been in the business for a while, and that are still using book making methods, is that, initially you are going to have to spend some time (many, many hours) getting your book to where you want to print it... I have eliminated 99% of my duplicates, and only print about 4000 of my 14,000 songs in my current book... customers won't want to spend hours pouring over your books to find obscure songs, that maybe only get played once or twice every couple of years... so I have culled out those obscure songs, as well as most duplicates, and my book is a manageable size and weight... now every time I add new selections, they go to a page in the "New Music Section", at the very end of my books, then about once a year, when I publish a new book, I cull a few more songs that haven't been sung in a long time, and add the songs from the New section. Now more and more, I look up any songs for clients that can't, or won't look in the book to find their song requests...that is why the singers database in Hoster has been one of the most used features in my shows in the last couple of years! All I'm trying to say is "There Aint No Shortcuts!". Everybody that has a good looking functional song book has spent countless hours getting it to that point, and their customers won't appreciate it anyway! lol

[Lonman]

Originally Posted by RIKKI TIKKI

and their customers won't appreciate it anyway! lol

Boy ain't THAT the truth!!!!

[kod]

All I'm trying to say is "There Aint No Shortcuts!". Everybody that has a good looking functional song book has spent countless hours getting it to that point, and their customers won't appreciate it anyway! lol

I've been using Excel for my books for years, even back when it was just for my personal song book.

And believe me, I have learned there are no "short cuts." I have spent countless hours in the last 10 years getting them to the point they are now (no duplicates except when a song is sung by more than one artist).

I too have my books (6 of them) reprinted only once a year because of costs (almost 2,000 pages for 6 books). Each book has songs listed by Song and by Artist in the same notebook (large notebooks).

However, I print my own "new songs" sections myself and use a different color paper and add them to the front of each section of my books for quick reference.

I get compliments on my books from customers that have visited other KJ's and seen some of their books.

I have put a lot of time in my books and take a lot of pride in them...

[a2kmike]

I have had the full version of Hoster with the Songbook functions since 2003 but I have only used it to make a songbook once. Sorry to say that there is other songbook software that works better and is much less labor intensive. The actual program that I use can read the .kma file extensions from your songs folder and build a songbook and then remove the duplicates with a single click...all you must do is proof the book to make sure all the Artists and Titles are spelled the same.
I found that the Hoster songbook feature was the most labor intensive of any book software I have ever used...but the Hoster Karaoke Show program is the easiest to use of any

[WaltR]

Originally Posted by Lonman

I have to disagree with this. I still use Access for my books, this is all manual entry mind you. Every time I add new songs, I print a list first of what I am adding, then compare to my existing song list, then any duplicates found, I go & compare which version is better and list accordingly either adding the new one & deleting the other, or leaving the old one and not bother with the new one - although I don't purposely buy duplicate songs to begin with if possible - compare what you are buying to what you have before the purchase.

What don't you agree with? You are using access but you are still going to spend a great deal of time trying to accomplish what I am doing. Using Access may be faster but it is still time consuming. As far as trying not to buy duplicates, that is not always an option. Sometimes when you find a disk with a song you are looking for, there are other songs on the disk that you already have, etc. Thank you for your input.

Walt

[Lonman]

Originally Posted by WaltR

What don't you agree with? You are using access but you are still going to spend a great deal of time trying to accomplish what I am doing. Using Access may be faster but it is still time consuming. As far as trying not to buy duplicates, that is not always an option. Sometimes when you find a disk with a song you are looking for, there are other songs on the disk that you already have, etc. Thank you for your input.

Walt

Right but to say a book is unmanageable is not correct. You check the new discs against your existing songlist & mark any duplicates - then you simply either don't enter them or mark them to not display. Nothing unmanageable about it. Time consuming is part of being in business - at least to do it right.