Caller's Compendium — User Guide
Welcome! This is the home for Caller's Compendium user documentation — the guides that help you use the app, whether you are cataloguing dances, building a program for Saturday's gig, or calling from the stage.
Caller's Compendium is a free, open-source dance organizer for contra-dance callers, built for desktop, tablet, and phone. It keeps your collection of dances, helps you assemble programs (set lists) for events, and gives you a large-print, high-contrast Perform mode for calling live. It is local-first: your data lives on your own device, the app works fully offline, and there is no account to create and nothing to sign in to. You bring dances in from community sources or your own files, put everything in your own words with a dialect, and take it all with you with a single backup file.
These pages are written for callers and dancers. If you are a developer or you want the design rationale behind a feature, head to the design docs instead — see Looking deeper at the bottom of this page.
New here? Read these three
You can be calling from the app in an evening. In order:
- Installation — get the app onto your computer, tablet, or phone.
- Getting started — a guided first hour: fill your collection, build a program, call a dance.
- Dialect — put the app into the words you already use, so everything you read afterwards reads the way you speak.
Everything else can wait until you need it.
I want to…
| I want to… | Go to |
|---|---|
| Install or update the app | Installation |
| Fill an empty collection quickly | Imports & migration |
| Find one dance in a big collection | Collection & search — Search across your dances |
| Narrow a list by level, formation, or tag | Collection & search — Narrow things down with filters |
| Write a new dance, or fix one that came in wrong | Write & edit dances |
| Record how a dance is taught | Write & edit dances — Walkthrough |
| Build a set list for an event | Programs & matrix |
| Check a program for variety and repeats | Programs & matrix — Check your evening with the matrix |
| Call from the app on stage | Perform mode |
| Change a dance mid-evening | Perform mode — Adjust on the fly |
| Email, print, or hand off a set list | Share, print & export |
| Send a program to another caller | Share, print & export — Share a program with its dances |
| Move everything to a new device | Backup & portability |
| Call it "larks and robins" (or anything else) | Dialect |
| Use a screen reader, big text, or the keyboard only | Accessibility |
| Change how the app looks or behaves | Settings |
| Send a crash report to the developers | Settings — Diagnostics |
| Work out why something isn't behaving | FAQ & troubleshooting |
| Look up a word I don't recognise | Glossary |
All guides
Start here
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Installation | Downloading and installing on each platform |
| Getting started | Open the app, find your way around, call your first dance |
Build your collection
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Collection & search | Browse your library and find dances fast |
| Write & edit dances | Enter figures, notes, and credits — and fix what imports got wrong |
| Imports & migration | Bring dances in from other sources and apps |
Plan and call an event
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Programs & matrix | Build set lists and check variety at a glance |
| Perform mode | Call live with a stage-ready, large-print view |
Share and safeguard your work
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Share, print & export | Text, PDF, and hand-offs to other callers — and what stays private |
| Backup & portability | Save everything to one file and move it anywhere |
Make it yours
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Dialect | Put the app in your own words — role names and phrasing |
| Settings | Every setting, section by section |
| Accessibility | Screen readers, large text, high contrast, keyboard use |
Look something up
| Guide | What it covers |
|---|---|
| FAQ & troubleshooting | Common questions and fixes for common snags |
| Glossary | Plain definitions of the terms used throughout |
Reading these guides inside the app
Every guide on this page also ships inside Caller's Compendium, so you have it on stage with no signal. Open Guide — it sits beside Collection, Programs, and Settings in the app's main navigation, and also has a link at Settings ▸ About ▸ User guide.
The in-app copy is the same text you are reading now, with two differences:
- It is text only. Any illustration appears as its description in italics rather than a picture.
- Links between guides open in the panel, and Back returns you to where you were. Links out to the web open in your browser — nothing is fetched unless you choose to open it.
The app has no search inside the guide, so this page — and the I want to… table above — is the fastest way in. The app's own search box (and the Ctrl-K / Cmd-K shortcut) searches your dances and programs, not the guide.
Looking deeper
- Project home: the repository README — what the project is, how to contribute, and how to support it.
- Design & decisions: the design docs go behind the scenes on the dialect system, imports, search, the figure taxonomy, storage, and the overall UX.
- Accessibility commitments: the accessibility baseline spells out the standards the app holds itself to.
Contributing to these docs? Please read the style guide first — it covers voice, terminology, and our alt-text policy for images.