Download and install VirtMus

Follow the install instructions.

Decide on how to organize your music.

VirtMus makes use of two kinds of files: PlayLists and song files. A sensible suggestion would be to create a folder for the playlists, and in that folder create a new sub-folder for each song. The individual song sub-folders would contain the SongName.song.xml file along with the image files making up that song. The layout would look something like this:

• FolderForPlayLists
  • playlistA.playlist.xml
  • playlistB.playlist.xml
  • FolderForSong1
    • song1.song.xml
    • song1-version2.song.xml
    • song1_page1.png
    • song1_page2.png
    • ...
  • FolderForSong2
    • song1.song.xml
    • song1_page1.png
    • song1_page2.png

A song file (.song.xml extension) stores the location of the music page images. A playlist file (.playlist.xml extension) stores the location of the ''.song.xml'' files. You can move things around on disk to a limited extent after you create the songs and playlists, but VirtMus can not always keep track of how you shuffle things around. If you don't keep songs and music pages together, or playlists and songs together, you might need to re-create the songs or playlists. See the ChangeLog for version 0.52.

Start VirtMus

When you start the application (see VirtMusInstall for how to run especially if you're on Linux) you will see two default PlayLists that are always present: Default Play List and All Songs. If you open a song without first selecting a play-list to open it into, the song will be added to the "Default Play List". The "All Songs" play-list contains all the songs VirtMus was able to find on disk - this is where you would look for songs that are not part of any particular PlayList.

Configure the basics

Use the Tools->Options menu to configure the PlayList Directory and Songs Directory and make sure you save all your songs and playlists to the directories you configured here. Typically these will be the same directory. For more details on the rest of the options, see VirtMusOptions.

Create a song

Create a song by using the Song->New Song menu option or by clicking on the corresponding toolbar button. Navigate to the Songs Directory you configured above, and provide a name for the song file. Open the Default Play List and you will find your newly created song there.

Select the new song, and use the MusicPage->Add Pages menu option (or corresponding toolbar button) to select the images for this song. You can add multiple images at once from the dialog box provided by holding down Ctrl (to select random files) or Shift (to select a range of files). If you select a PDF file, you will be prompted for the page range you wish to import from the PDF.

Save the song using the Song->Save Song menu option.

Start your practice

Start your practice session by using the View->Go Live menu option or toolbar button.

Use the left/right mouse buttons or Page Down/Up to advance through the pages, or use a FootSwitch. See the KeyboardShortcuts section for a list of available keyboard shortcuts.

Also, see Tools->Options and the VirtMusOptions section for various settings that can be used to customize the display orientation, scroll amount and scroll direction.