Corda: User Guide

General Navigation

At the top of the window, a shared bar gives you access to Corda's five spaces: Discover, Favorites, My Library, My Collections, and Workshop. Each tab is represented by a small colored gem that animates slightly on hover and fills in when the tab is active. This bar also subtly picks up the tint of the background you've chosen in Settings. It stays neutral while matching the overall mood. Switching between tabs preserves the state of each one (scroll position, selection).

On first launch, a short welcome screen offers two starting points: explore with sample chords already filled in, or start with a completely empty library.

Discover

This is Corda's opening screen, designed as a showcase rather than a working tool. As long as your library is empty, a central panel invites you to "Add a chord" or "Create a collection". As soon as a chord exists, the screen shows a prominently featured "Featured Chord" that changes every day, followed by several themed rows of chords, such as "Getting Started", that you can scroll through horizontally. A "See all" button expands the full list for a theme. This space is purely for browsing: the cards here aren't clickable to open a detail panel, and nothing can be edited from here.

Favorites

This space gathers only the chords you've marked with a heart. As long as no chord has been favorited, a message reminds you how: "Hover over a chord card and click ♡ to save it here." Once populated, the screen shows a grid identical to My Library. Clicking a card opens its detail panel; clicking an empty spot in the grid closes that panel. The Space key removes the selected chord from favorites (it then disappears immediately from this screen), and the Delete (⌫) key offers to permanently delete it from your library, after confirmation.

My Library

This is the heart of the app: every chord you've saved is centralized here. A floating bar at the top of the screen groups the "Add a chord" button, a counter showing the number of visible chords, a carousel of 17 root notes (C, C#, D...), and the Simple / Expert button.

Clicking a note in the carousel instantly filters the grid to show only chords with that root; clicking it again removes the filter. The Simple / Expert button toggles what the cards display: in Simple mode, only finger positions are shown; in Expert mode, harmonic functions (numbers and intervals) are overlaid on the diagram.

Clicking a card opens the detail panel on the right; clicking an empty spot in the grid, or the small arrow on the panel, closes it. The Space key toggles the favorite status of the selected chord, and Delete (⌫) triggers a permanent deletion alert. A chord can be deleted or edited even while it is currently placed in the Workshop. The ⌘N shortcut opens the form to create a new chord; if used while a root-note filter is active in My Library, the form opens with that root already selected.

My Collections

This space lets you group your chords by song, project, or theme. The list of collections appears as tiles, each showing its name and chord count. The "New collection" button in the top right opens a small window to enter a name. Hovering over a tile reveals a trash icon in the top right. Clicking it deletes an empty collection immediately. If the collection contains chords, Corda asks for confirmation first. The chords themselves remain in your library; only the collection disappears.

Clicking a tile opens its contents. From this detail view, hovering over the title reveals a pencil icon: clicking it turns the name into an editable field, confirmed with the Enter key or a ✔ button, and canceled with ✗ or Escape. A "My Collections" arrow at the top lets you return to the list. To add a chord to a collection, you need to go through that chord's detail panel (the "Add to collection" button); removing a chord from a collection is done card by card, without deleting the chord from the library.

Workshop

The Workshop is your free composition space on a large canvas. At the top, a palette lets you scroll through the cards in your library. If you have favorites or non-empty collections, the source button lets you display All chords, only your Favorites, or a specific collection. The root-note carousel then narrows that selection. You can click a card to add it directly to the center of the visible area, or drag it to the exact spot you want. A chevron button collapses or expands the palette to free up space.

As soon as a first card is placed, the Workshop locks onto that chord's tuning (a lock icon indicates this): cards with a different tuning become grayed out in the palette and can no longer be added, to prevent mixing incompatible chords.

At the bottom of the screen, a selector switches between two modes:

• Exploration: a free canvas where you place cards wherever you like to compare them.
• Progression: a structured space where you can add Sections (Intro, Verse, Chorus...) via a dedicated button. Double-clicking a section's name lets you rename it; selecting it and pressing Delete (⌫) removes it.

Cards and sections share the same selection system. A click selects one item. ⌘ + click adds an item to the selection or removes it. You can also drag a selection rectangle from an empty area to select every item it touches. Hold ⌘ while doing so to add those items to an existing selection. Clicking an empty area without ⌘ clears the selection.

Dragging an item that belongs to a multiple selection moves the entire group while preserving its arrangement. Hold ⌥ Option from the start of the drag to duplicate the item or group. The copies then become the new selection. Pressing Delete (⌫) immediately removes a single item from the canvas. If several items are selected, Corda asks for one confirmation before removing them together.

The canvas has real boundaries, and new moves and duplicates stay inside them. If an older version of Corda left items outside those boundaries, the "Bring items back into the canvas" button automatically appears above the zoom controls. After confirmation, it moves all affected items together without changing their relative arrangement.

Zoom is adjusted with the +/- buttons or a trackpad pinch, between 25% and 250%; clicking the displayed percentage resets it to 100%. Use a two-finger scroll to move across the canvas horizontally and vertically. Once the canvas isn't empty, two more buttons appear in the header: the share icon opens a choice to export as an image (PNG) or document (PDF), and the red trash icon offers to clear the entire Workshop. This irreversible action must be confirmed.

The Workshop is a single workspace whose contents are saved automatically on your Mac. Exporting it as a PNG or PDF creates a separate visual document. The Workshop's working contents are not included in .corda backup files.

Chord Cards

Each card displays the chord's diagram and name, with musical extensions shown as superscript (for example the "7" in Em⁷). Hovering over a card reveals a small heart in the top left: clicking it adds or removes it from favorites. Depending on where the card sits (a collection, the Workshop), a trash icon may also appear on hover to remove it from that specific spot, without affecting the library.

Chord Detail Panel

Clicking a card (anywhere except the Workshop) opens a panel on the right side of the window. It shows the chord's name in large type, the bass note if the chord has one, a detailed diagram, an accessible text description of the finger positions (compatible with screen readers), and your personal notes if you've written any. Three actions are available: "Add to collection" opens a small menu where you can check the collections you want, "Edit" opens the editing form for that chord, and the chevron in the top right closes the panel.

Adding or Editing a Chord

The form opens in its own window, whether triggered via "Add a chord," the ⌘N shortcut, or a chord's "Edit" button. On the left, a preview shows the card as it will appear, with its own Simple/Expert button.

On the right, you choose the root note and name the chord, then build the fingering by clicking directly on the cells of a grid representing the fretboard (each click cycles a string between fretted, open, and muted). -/+ buttons widen or narrow the number of visible frets, between 3 and 8. Corda also offers automatic name suggestions as clickable pills; for a chord with a bass note different from the root, both possible enharmonic spellings are suggested (for example "D / F#" and "D / Gb").

The advanced options, collapsed by default, let you choose the chord's tuning (Standard, Drop D, DADGAD, Half-Step Down, or "Custom…"), force a fixed starting fret, and write a free-form note or comment. With "Custom…", six selectors let you set the exact note for each string.

To reuse this configuration, click "Save as preset", give it a name, and confirm. The new tuning appears immediately in the same menu and is available for other chords. "Manage custom tunings" lets you rename or delete saved presets. Deleting a preset never changes the six notes of chords that used it. Those chords keep their tuning and are then listed under "Custom…" instead.

In edit mode only, a trash icon lets you delete the chord entirely (with confirmation). The Save button (shortcut ⌘Return) saves the chord; if an identical chord (same name, same diagram) already exists, Corda asks you to confirm before creating a duplicate. Cancel closes the form without saving anything.

Settings

Accessible via ⌘, or the app menu, Settings is split into two tabs.

Appearance: Choose Corda's overall background from four tones (Cotton White, Linen Beige, Sage Green, Ash Blue), the "gem" color that dresses your chord diagrams (Diamond, Sapphire, Ruby, Forest, Indigo, Sage), the fret dot style (Classic: plain black dots; Reading: the note shown inside the dot; Gems: a glossy, dimensional render in the chosen color), and the card size (Compact or Comfort).

General: Set the interface language (System, Français, English, Deutsch, Español, Italiano), use "Install Sample Chords" to add the creator's examples, or fully reset Corda in the danger zone at the bottom. The app needs to restart after a language change. Resetting first offers to back up your data, then asks for explicit confirmation before erasing your chords, collections, and local Workshop contents. Your appearance preferences, language, and custom tunings remain untouched. The app closes automatically once the process is complete.

The Information section shows your version of Corda and provides a "Privacy Policy" link to the official website.

Backup, Import, and Export

Corda lets you keep your data safe or move it to another Mac via a single file with the .corda extension. This file contains your chords, collections, and custom tuning presets. Appearance preferences, language, Simple/Expert mode, and Workshop contents remain specific to the Mac and are not included in the backup.

• Back Up Corda… (⌘E): opens a macOS save panel and creates a complete backup of the transferable items described above.
• Restore a Corda backup… (⌘I): opens a panel to select a .corda file, then offers two choices:
  1. Add to my library: merges the file's chords and collections with your existing content. Chords you already have are skipped unless the backup adds their favorite status. A collection with the same name receives the imported chords. Custom tuning presets are merged as well. Corda avoids duplicates and automatically resolves any naming conflicts without altering the six notes.
  2. Replace my library: after a second clear confirmation, replaces your current chords, collections, and custom tuning presets with those in the file.

Keyboard Shortcuts

• ⌘N: Create a new chord (inherits the filtered root note if you're in My Library with an active filter).
• ⌘Return: Save the chord from the add or edit window.
• ⌘E: Back up your entire library.
• ⌘I: Import or restore a backup.
• ⌘,: Open Settings.
• Space: Mark or unmark the selected chord as a favorite (My Library, Favorites, My Collections).
• ⌘ + click: Add a card or section to the selection in the Workshop, or remove it.
• ⌘ + selection rectangle: Add every item the rectangle touches to the current Workshop selection.
• ⌥ Option + drag: Duplicate a card, a section, or the entire selection in the Workshop.
• ⌫ (Backspace) or ⌦ (Delete): Outside the Workshop, delete the selected chord from the library after confirmation. In the Workshop, remove the selection from the canvas; a multiple selection requires one confirmation.
• Enter: Confirm renaming a collection.
• Escape: Cancel a collection rename in progress.