Import your songs

Import brings songs you already have as files on your computer into your Ilena workspace, so you can go on working on them here instead of typing them again. Reach for it when you arrive with songs written elsewhere: choose a few files, or a whole folder at once.

Before you start

Ilena reads .txt, .md, .rtf, .docx and .pdf files. What each file and folder becomes, and what Ilena says about a file it cannot import as it is, are in Import formats and results.

During the 30-day free trial of the annual cycle, Import files… and Import a folder… are greyed out.

Import files

  1. Open the workspace with ⌘ + O.
  2. Right-click the project that should receive the songs and select Import files…. Your author node offers the same entry; a work's menu does not.
  3. In your computer's window, choose one or more files and confirm.

While the import runs, Ilena shows where it is up to, from Preparing… to Importing 1 of 2…. Each file becomes a work inside the project, named after the file: Midnight Train.txt becomes Midnight Train.

The workspace tree with the line “Importing 0 of 2…” above it, while an import runs.
Where the import shows its progress.

A message confirms the import and ends with the share of your imports you have left, as a percentage: … 97 % of your imports left. If a file could not be imported as it is, the Import report opens and names it.

Import a folder

  1. In the workspace, right-click a project and select Import a folder….
  2. Choose the folder and confirm.

The folder becomes a project of the same name inside the one you right-clicked, and what it holds is imported inside it.

Example: import a folder of songs

The folder Album held a file Track One.txt, a file cover.odt, an empty folder Empty, and a folder Demos holding Demo Two.txt. Imported with Import a folder… into a project, it gave this tree:

  • Album, a project
    • Demos, a project
      • Demo Two, a work
    • Track One, a work
The workspace after importing the folder Album.

The confirmation counted two files imported. The empty folder and cover.odt, a format Ilena does not read, left nothing in the tree, and no message mentioned them.