Accessing indexed files

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Dr. Jim Goldstein

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May 11, 2026, 12:58:03 PMMay 11
to OpenSongApp
Hi. I am a first time user with a new android tablet. I uploaded a .pdf file with a series of songs (words and chords) in alphabetical order into OpenSong. It asked if I wanted it to be indexed and I said, "Yes, " "Full Index." 

My problem is that I cannot find the indexed file. The program always opens up to the .pdf and I am unable to type in a key word and jump right to that song in that format. How can I bring up the indexed file so I can type in a key word and jump right to that song?
Thanks,
-Jim

Gareth Evans

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May 11, 2026, 3:02:01 PMMay 11
to Dr. Jim Goldstein, OpenSongApp
Hi Jim,

That is expected behaviour.  PDF files can simply be a series of vector images, lines, dots, etc, or sometimes with embedded text.  What you are describing is using multiple songs, or multiple PDFs.  When you index your directory, that app scans the file names in your OpenSong/Songs/ folder and adds the separate files to the song index.  Currently you have a single PDF, so that is all you will see in your song list.  PDFs don't have indexable/searchable text that the app can scan during indexing (some PDF viewers do), so that is why you don't see more.  The app will allow you to show the PDF as one single item and scroll through it, but that is it.
PDFs are not the preferred format for OpenSongApp, instead, OpenSong formatted XML files are expected.  The app can try to use OCR (optical character recognition) to try and extract text from the PDF.  You can then include this in searchable text, however, don't expect to be able to scroll to a specific song. within a merged PDF.
If you are determined to use PDF files for songs and be allowed to search for the content, you will need to upload these songs as separate PDFs with each filename matching the song title.  e.g. Song 1.pdf, Song 2.pdf.  This would then show these titles in the song menu and you can select them that way
If you want to be able to search for content within the PDF, you would need to use OCR on each file (you will see that option if you try to edit the PDF in OpenSongApp).  You can then save the extracted text as an OpenSong formatted song, or at least put the found lyrics into the metadata stored in OpenSongApp.
OpenSong formatted songs have the content stored as a list of metadata (lyrics, chords, author, key, etc.).

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