Sections consists of pieces of music. A Fandango document must have at least one section, and it can have an indeterminate number of them. There is no precise limit, as that depends on your specific project, hardware and memory capacity. I have created files with over 1000 sections but memory limits make it difficult to go beyond a certain number, depending on the size of the sections themselves. At a certain point, the program slows down significantly.

Similarly, sections can include an indeterminate number of instruments or staves, but that number is physically limited to the space offered by a printer's page.

Each section has a number of characteristics that are those of a piece of music: key, time signature, etc. Those values are modifiable in the Section properties dialog. Access to that dialog is avaialble on the Section Ribbon, together with related tools and functions.

A. The section properties dialog:

This has several logical categories:

I. Texts

• Section Name: This is the title of your piece
• Section author: the composer generally
• Comments: can be anything fropm a source, to foliation, to a specific tuning indication, etc.
• End text: This is a bit of floating text that appears at teh end of the section. Be careful with that because it will need some space to print! It can useful either to add a flourish at the end of a piece or to add verses to a song.

II. Tempo and movement. This sets the tempo based ion a basic beat value (quarter note, eighth note, etc.) and you can give an indication fo the movement Moderato, Largo, or whatever. This is rarely used effectively and only affects the metadata of a piece - in HML export for instance.

III. Time signature. Tablature notation does not necessitate the appearance of the time signature at the beginning of the piece as is common in regular notation. You can set the time signature in the section properties for that reason.

IV. Key signature. This is divided into two sections.

1. Alterations: number of sharps or flats
2. Mode: Key name with alteration, melodic minor mode check box and modality: Lydian, Aeolian, etc. These mode values are not taken into account in the music itself, and they are provided for information purposes only.

V. Formatting:

• Left offset: By default, Fandango tries to make enough room for a regular notation clef at the beginning of the staff. A zero value, consequently means about 1 cm. Tablature only pieces may want to reduce that space by setting a negative value.
• Reset all sections offset: A convenient tol to reset the left offset space in all sectioon at one go.
• Bar number offset: Usually 0, but some people needed to start a section at bar 50 if the same piece of music has to be split over 2 sections for some reason - perhaps a significant change of signature.
• Staves per page: the number of staves per page is set in the Page layout settings, buit it can be overridden here. In that case, the New page on new section box must be checked in the Page Layout settings.

 

B. Section ribbon features

• Add new section: Opens up the wizard to add a new section to the document.
• Delete section: will delete the whole section and all its data
• View sections list: opens a dialog with a list of lal sections in the document. Unlike the sections side-bar, this allows you to sort the sections by name which can be convenient if you have a large number of sections. Clicking on a section entry in this dialog will immediately call up that section into the editing screen.
• Copy section: copies the current section
• Paste section: Pastes the currently copied section. Note: You can copy and paste sections between documents in the same session.
• Copy sections: Allows you to copy a consecutive range of sections, including all sections in a document. Copied sections are added to a stack which you can then use to paste into a different document or the same one if needed.
• Clear section buffer: This deletes the stack of sections you have copied.
• Split parts: If you have a duet for instance in one section, you may want to quickly create two sections one with each instrument only. This allows you to edit a multiple instruments section and make sure it aligns properly. Once finished, you use the Split part feature that will automatically create a s new secrtion for each instrument and preserve anything else crucial for that piece of music: signature, key, etc.
• Edit section notes: This is a rich text editor that allows you to annotate a section. The notes can remain hidden or you can print them either after each section on a separate page, or at then of the book as a list.
• Add facsimile image: Each section may be associated with a number of images, usually facsimiles but not necessarily. After you add an image it can be easily opened in split screen mode from the facsimile side bar, stacked below the sections list side-bar. This makes it easier to transcribe music and saves your neck as well as improve accuracy.

Instruments:

This has three elements:

• Add a new instrument to that section
• Delete an existing instrument - the cursor should be on that instrument
• Clone instrument across sections: this will copy an instrument setting (except for the tuning) to all other sections at that instrument index position: so if the second instrument is selected, all second instruments in all sections will be modified.

Editing sections tools:

• Align instrument data: This will recalculate all staves and align chord positions for all instruments. Shortcut: Control+F12 or Control+DECimal on NUMPAD.
• Reformat page: This will do the above but it will also recalculate the layout of the page and make sure there are the same number of bars for each instrument for each stave. It uses the horizontal cursor value defined in the Page Layout settings. This gives you control over the average spacing between chords on each staff. Note: Tablature tends to use a narrower interval than notation.
• Reset bars per staff: Use a fixed number of bars for each stave. This is a less flexible version of the Reformat page tool.
• Switch instrument positions: Used if you want to switch which instrument is above which one. For instance if you have two instruments, a bass and a treble in that order, and you want to put the treble over the bass. With the cursor over the lower instrument that you want to raise click on that tool. Note: You may have to reset the spacing between the two instruments.
• Position titles: This will center the section title and place the composer information to the right of the page and the comments to the left. Note: Another tool on the Document ribbon lets you decide about section texts positioning and can reset all those in all sections.
• Set number of staves per page: Will reset all sections to the specified number of staves per page.
• End text font: Sets the font for ending texts. That value applies to all sections evenly.
• End text editor: Allows you to edit an ending text for that section.
• Reset metaevent positions: Realign metaevents of the same category across that section. 
• Add new staves: Creates a page worth of blank staves available for editing purposes.
• Delete blank staves: Deletes all blank staves - in case you are finished editing and there are still another 3 or 4 blank systems you no longer need.
• Toggle page breaks: This toggle sthe value of the New page on new sectin in page layout.

 

C. Navigation:

• Bar finder: a quick way to find bar 231 in that section.
• Previous section: takes you to the previous section in the document (CONTROL+LEFT ARROW)
• Next section: takes you to the next section in the document (CONTROL+RIGHT ARROW)
• Beginning of section: takes the cursor to the first bar
• End of section: takes the cursor to the last bar
• Previous system: Takes the cursor to the previous system (SHIFT+ENTER or ALT+ARROW UP)
• Next system: Takes the cursor to the next system (ENTER or ALT+ARROW DOWN). Note: The cursor will move to the same instrument position. If you are on teh second instrument for isntance, the cursor will shift to the second instrument on the next or previous system.
• Page up: moves to the previous page in the section (also PAGE UP key)
• Page down: moves to the next page in the section (also PAGE DOWN key)