Everyone knows the old stand-by for text-based chord charts: Usually the lyrics are printed by sentence with the chords above the corresponding syllables. Here’s the bridge and chorus to "(What if God were) One of Us" by Joan Osbourne:

Dmaj9 Esus E
Yeah... yeah... God is great

Dmaj9 Esus E
Yeah... yeah... God is good

Dmaj9 Esus E
Yeah... yeah... yeah... yeah... yeah...

F#m D A E
What if God was one of us?

F#m D A E
Just a slob like one of us?

F#m D A E F#m D A E
Just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home


How many times have you seen this, then tried to make sense of it? This layout lacks measures and counts.

With the Bennardo system we can post chord charts using only *.TXT files, AND show where the measures and beats are.

Look and the same bridge and chorus below. Notice the formatting information at the top, which specifies the font size and document tabs, and so on. The pipes on the first line show the measures. Just copy and paste, set the document fonts, sizes, and tabs, and the song appears formatted.

Notice how the measures and clearer, and the lyrics are aligned with the chords.

When you create the file you must use TABS, not spaces, to place the chords and lyrics. All lines have the same tab stops. There are no tabs for the "Brigde" and "Chorus" labels.

(What If God Were) One Of Us - Joan Osbourne – 4/4
Times Roman Font 12, Left margin: 1 in, Right Margin: 1 in.
Left tabs at 0.75, 2.0, 3.25, 4.75, 5.75

| |
Bridge Dmaj9 Esus E
Yeah Yeah God is Great

Dmaj9 Esus E
Yeah Yeah God is Good

Dmaj9 Esus E
Yeah Yeah Yeh Yeh Yeh What if

Chorus: F#m D A E
God was one of us? Just a

F#m D A E
slob like one of us? Just a

F#m D A E
stranger on the bus trying to make his way

F#m D A E
home

Not a bad system, though on the web, you'll need to wrap the music in code tags or something similar so that the tabs and formatting comes through. In your post, both versions looked the same on output.

And, when all was said and done, Joe, his chords were still out of line with the music.

Dmaj9_Esus__E
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, what if

F#m_____D__________A____E
God was one of us?

That, I did not check. Making it "code" made them align, to what I can't take any credit for.