You first need to download the program at tabledit.com. There is free version you can play with but you can't do much with it. If it looks like something you will want to work with, just buy it. It will run on multiple machines and their support it good. With it, you can download the tabs you find. You can make your own arrangements too. It's a great tool to learn more about how to make tab and how to read it. Highly recommend.

My suggestion: Try the free version first and see if you like it and can work with it. The free version is TefView and can be downloaded here: tabledit.com/tefview/index.shtml

Once you get it downloaded, you can go to any .tef type tab and look for "download" and lick on the underlined Tabledit. That should bring up a file to download to your computer and then be able to transfer to your TefView file.

There are several things that the TefView can do such as editing out every instrument exept the banjo (that will save you paper if you're printing a song). You can change the tempo, listen to the midi and several other things. It will let you input (I believe this is right ) 16 bars of tab you generate.

I'm sure it will do more and maybe someone more experienced with it can tell you more.

You might also want to look at the sticky about Tabledit.   There's a wealth of information there.  Go here:https://www.banjohangout.org/topic/319174

I remember my foray into TefView. Somehow it enlarged the view so large it was impossible to use. Couldn't find a way to fix it. Imagine you are at the drive in movie theater and are 10 feet from the screen. You can see a tiny portion of the screen real good, but not the rest of the screen. Haven't been back since.....banjered

quote:

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Originally posted by banjered

I remember my foray into TefView. Somehow it enlarged the view so large it was impossible to use. Couldn't find a way to fix it.

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The zoom control is at the bottom right corner of the screen. + and - symbols with the size percentage displayed in between. That's for size of stuff in the window. You resize the window itself by clicking and dragging a corner same as any other app. Also, both the Windows and Mac operating systems have key combinations for toggling an app's specific window between full screen and whatever other size you've dragged it to.

Good luck.

Just to be clear:  TEFview is not a free "version" of TablEdit. TEFview is the free app for viewing and playing ".tef" files created by others with TablEdit. If all you want to do is look at, play and print the electronic tablatures that others have created with TablEdit, then TEFview is the software you need. 

TEFview does not let you do any editing of a tablature. The only cxhanges you can make relate to display and playback. As Sherry said, if the .TEF file includes multiple instruments (such as full band backup for the banjo lead), you can turn off the other instruments so they don't play (if you don't want to hear them), adjust volume, of every instrument, change the speed of the song if you want to practice at slower tempo, display tab or notation for any instrument, and control which instruments appear at all or print to paper.

If you want to write your own tab files, you need the full, paid, TablEdit app. I believe it's currently $60. That's a one-time payment with lifetime updates -- and updates are released several times a year as Matthieu keeps adding features or improving the way existing features work.

There is a free demo version you can download, if you want to see what TablEdit software can do, but it's severely limited. It can save no more than 16 measures, tabs created with the demo version can't be opened with TEFview, and any tab you print will be watermarked to indicate it was produced with the demo. But it's great for learning how the software works before you decide to buy it.

This makes me feel more confident. Thank you. I am not into writing tab yet. I was at the Blue Ridgfe Banjo Camp this summer and while I am able to read tab at a novice level, we were given Beatles stuff that had time changes and key changes and really advanced concepts. Thus my fascination with learning a new "language" proficiently. I'll keep reporting back.

I think I may be learning a little bit.
I downloaded something called cannonball blues and it came up!!

More later!
I don't intend to sleep tonight-have tp practice cannonball blues- and my wife will sleep in the car- it's 40 above zero in Wisconsin tonight, so she'll be warm. Til she runs ut of gas I guess.