stab Help

15. Saving and exporting

Sharing a file

Every Stab song is a single .stab file: its tracks and notes, their sounds, and how its panes are laid out, all in one. Send it to someone with Stab and they get the song exactly as you have it. For someone without Stab, export it in a format their app reads, or share a link.

Sharing a song as a file

Available on Mac and Windows. Not on Web.

This isn’t on Web.

Sending a song

The song’s file is in your library folder. Choose Show in Finder (⇧⌘R)Show in File Explorer (Ctrl+Shift+R)Show in Finder (not on Web) (in the File menu, or a song’s menu on the home) to see it in the Finder, then send it as you send any file: AirDrop, Mail, Messages, a shared folder. Save a Copy…Save a Copy… (not on Web) puts a copy anywhere you choose; see Copies.
The song’s file is in your library folder. Choose Show in Finder (⇧⌘R)Show in File Explorer (Ctrl+Shift+R)Show in Finder (not on Web) (in the File menu, or a song’s menu on the home) to see it in File Explorer, then send it as you send any file: email, a shared folder, a USB drive. Save a Copy…Save a Copy… (not on Web) puts a copy anywhere you choose; see Copies.
The web app keeps no .stab files. To give someone a song from the web, share it from Stab Cloud: see Share links. For someone without Stab, Export… downloads the song as MIDI, Guitar Pro (.gp or .gp5), MusicXML or the score as a PDF.

A song you keep in Stab Cloud can also be shared without a file: a share link opens it read only in the browser, no account needed, and Publish makes a page of it.

A song shared with you whose owner keeps it in Stab can’t be copied or sent; see Shared songs.

Opening a song you’re sent

Double-click the .stab file, or choose Open… (⌘O)Open… (Ctrl+O)Import… and pick it. A song opened from outside your library stays where it is and saves back there: to keep it with your songs, move the file into your library folder first.
Double-click the .stab file, or choose Open… (⌘O)Open… (Ctrl+O)Import… and pick it. A song opened from outside your library stays where it is and saves back there: to keep it with your songs, move the file into your library folder first.
Drop the .stab file on the home, or choose Import… there and pick it. It opens as a song to try; Keep It puts it in Stab Cloud, otherwise it goes when you leave it.
On the Mac and Windows, a song links its recordings where they are on disk rather than holding them: send the recordings along with the song, and see Relinking recordings for finding them again.

For someone without Stab

Export the song in a format their app opens:

  • Audio: the song as they’d hear it, as WAV or AAC.
  • MIDI: for a DAW or a sequencer.
  • Guitar Pro: the tab, as .gp for Guitar Pro 7 and 8, or as .gp5 for older versions and most tab apps.
  • MusicXML: the score, for MuseScore, Dorico, Sibelius and others.
  • PDF: the score, to read or print.

Printing

Stab prints through a PDF of the score: Print… (⌘P)Print… (Ctrl+P)Print… opens the Export sheet on Score PDF, where Print… hands the pages to the system’s printingPrint… hands the PDF to your PDF app to print (when that app can’t print on request, as Microsoft Edge, the PDF opens in it, and a note says to print from there)you save the PDF, then print it; or print the PDF from the app that opens it from the browser’s downloads. The PDF is the score as a Score pane shows it, its tracks and its music font, on pages; see Exporting the Score as PDF.

CommandKeysWhere
Show in Finder⇧⌘Rthe File menu; the home › song
Save a Copy…⌥⇧⌘Sthe File menu
Export Score as PDF…the File menu › Export As
CommandKeysWhere
Show in File ExplorerCtrl+Shift+Rthe File menu; the home › song
Save a Copy…Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Sthe File menu
Export Score as PDF…the File menu › Export As
CommandKeysWhere
Export Score as PDF…the File menu › Export As

Not on Web: Show in Finder, Save a Copy….