“Sing Out Joyfully” Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for Songs for Dec. 31–Feb. 10 Mandarin Meetings

(NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, due to its particular nature and purpose. See this disclaimer for more information.)

Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the new songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has been updated accordingly.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation.

While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.

Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.

Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more for all the songs scheduled to be used during the Dec. 31–Feb. 10 Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings has been posted to this resource that seeks to help with these challenges:

• “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
  (Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  proofread, mobile-friendly,
  links for getting around,
  song links sorted by number;
  Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
  easy-to-read font,
  guitar chords included;
  Pīnyīn Plus: flashcards integrated with the text,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  song, paragraph, etc.,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
  
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  “Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)

Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)

Scheduling notes:

• Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings: Production of at least partially proofread Pīnyīn material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) with a few basic Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” is expected to keep up with all the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018 Memorial meetings: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018 regional conventions: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for all the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018–2019 circuit assemblies: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics are available for all the songs scheduled. Musical notation is available for all the songs scheduled for the circuit assemblies with the circuit overseer. Musical notation is available for most of the songs scheduled for the circuit assemblies with a branch representative, and more is on the way.

The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:

• Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
• In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
• The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.

The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

In the material with musical notation in the above resource, the Pīnyīn lyrics do not have Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” functionality because they need to stay aligned with the musical notation. As time allows, links will be added to Pīnyīn lyrics in the material with musical notation, each of which will cause a dialogue box to appear that shows the English translations, Chinese characters, etc. that a corresponding Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” would show.

While the original intention re the above resource was to prioritize production of material with musical notation and leave off production of Pīnyīn Plus lyrics-only material indefinitely, further analysis has led to the realization that since proofread Pīnyīn lyrics must be produced in some form for the musical notation material anyway, and since Pīnyīn Plus technology is a time-effective way to record proofread Pīnyīn text, it would be efficient to first produce proofread Pīnyīn lyrics in Pīnyīn Plus format for a particular song, and then to use those proofread Pīnyīn lyrics to speed up the production of musical notation material for that song. So, that will be the production workflow going forward for the above resource.

Previously, musical notation in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.

“Sing Out Joyfully” Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for Songs for Dec. 24–30 Mandarin Meetings

(NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, due to its particular nature and purpose. See this disclaimer for more information.)

Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the new songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has been updated accordingly.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation.

While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.

Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.

Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more for all the songs scheduled to be used during the Dec. 24–30 Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings has been posted to this resource that seeks to help with these challenges:

• “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
  (Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  proofread, mobile-friendly,
  links for getting around,
  song links sorted by number;
  Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
  easy-to-read font,
  guitar chords included;
  Pīnyīn Plus: flashcards integrated with the text,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  song, paragraph, etc.,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
  
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  “Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)

Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)

Scheduling notes:

• Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings: Production of at least partially proofread Pīnyīn material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) with a few basic Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” is expected to keep up with all the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018 Memorial meetings: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018 regional conventions: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for all the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018–2019 circuit assemblies: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics are available for all the songs scheduled. Musical notation is available for all the songs scheduled for the circuit assemblies with the circuit overseer. Musical notation is available for most of the songs scheduled for the circuit assemblies with a branch representative, and more is on the way.

The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:

• Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
• In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
• The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.

The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

In the material with musical notation in the above resource, the Pīnyīn lyrics do not have Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” functionality because they need to stay aligned with the musical notation. As time allows, links will be added to Pīnyīn lyrics in the material with musical notation, each of which will cause a dialogue box to appear that shows the English translations, Chinese characters, etc. that a corresponding Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” would show.

While the original intention re the above resource was to prioritize production of material with musical notation and leave off production of Pīnyīn Plus lyrics-only material indefinitely, further analysis has led to the realization that since proofread Pīnyīn lyrics must be produced in some form for the musical notation material anyway, and since Pīnyīn Plus technology is a time-effective way to record proofread Pīnyīn text, it would be efficient to first produce proofread Pīnyīn lyrics in Pīnyīn Plus format for a particular song, and then to use those proofread Pīnyīn lyrics to speed up the production of musical notation material for that song. So, that will be the production workflow going forward for the above resource.

Previously, musical notation in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.

New Short Link: “My Follower” Book Links (tiandi.info/cf)

A new short link has been created for official and unofficial Chinese field language-learning resources for the “My Follower” book, which is scheduled to be studied next at Mandarin and Cantonese Congregation Bible Study meetings:

• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  “My Follower” Book Links (tiandi.info/cf)

“God’s Love” Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for Entire Book

(NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, due to its particular nature and purpose. See this disclaimer for more information.)

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more is now available for the entire “God’s Love” book:

• “God’s Love” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn Plus, Scriptures, Web)
  (Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  2017-02 Printing, proofread, mobile-friendly,
  flashcards integrated with the text,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  chapter, paragraph, etc.,
  links for getting around,
  picture thumbnails & links, audio links,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  “God’s Love” Book Links (tiandi.info/lv)

Fully proofread Pīnyīn Plus material:

• Up to the end of Chap. 1, Par. 6

Partially proofread Pīnyīn and Pīnyīn Plus material:

• Chap. 1, Par. 7 to the end
• Material with a grey background has been partially proofread. Pīnyīn material with a golden-hued background has been proofread, but not all of its “flashcards” have been added and proofread.

Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” added for all expressions:

• Up to the end of Chap. 1, Par. 9

Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” added for the more advanced expressions:

• Up to the end of Chap. 1, Par. 15

More “flashcard” material will be added and proofread as time allows. I plan to focus on the more difficult expressions first, and then to work my way through the rest of the expressions. The web material is updated first, and eventually changes are grouped together and integrated into the upcoming EPUB material. (FYI, EPUBs are largely made of web material.)

Pīnyīn Plus material pages now default to the 📄 Reveal Advanced mode, which by default reveals the “flashcards” of some of the more advanced expressions. This makes it easier for new users to get a taste of the available information. If they wish, they can then select the 📘 Reveal None mode, which by default displays only Pīnyīn that’s been optimized for readability, so that it’s easy to use to follow along when the text is read aloud or discussed in Mandarin.

For more information about the thinking behind the design of Pīnyīn Plus material, check out:

• Pīnyīn Plus

To expand on the points listed re the above resource, note that:

• The material in the above resource has been carefully translated, rendered, and proofread. Material with a grey background has been partially proofread. Pīnyīn material with a golden-hued background has been proofread, but not all of its “flashcards” have been added and proofread.
• The material in the above resource is based on the latest 2017-02 printing of the Mandarin “God’s Love” book. If you notice that some changes need to be made to the material in the above resource to bring it in line with revisions to the “God’s Love” book, please email me to let me know.
• Included in the above resource is the linked full text of all the cited scriptures that the English version specifically indicates should be read. The linked full text of the rest of the cited scriptures is in the process of being added as well.
• The above resource is mobile-friendly—it is quite legible and usable on everything from desktop/laptop PCs and Macs to iPads and other tablets to iPhones and other smartphones.
• In the above resource, links are used extensively to make it quick and easy to get around in the material, drastically reducing the amount of manual scrolling needed.
• The above resource contains picture links which point to the official pictures on jw.org. Thumbnails help identify the pictures linked to.
• The above resource contains links to the official Mandarin MP3 audio files on jw.org.
• On the web pages, there is a drop-down list at the top left for setting the desired text size.
• On the web pages, the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right can be used to turn Night Theme on or off.
• For your convenience, a short link (“God’s Love” Book Links (tiandi.info/lv)) is available for the above resource.

Also, the introduction explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

“Sing Out Joyfully” Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for Songs for Dec.10–23 Mandarin Meetings

(NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, due to its particular nature and purpose. See this disclaimer for more information.)

Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the new songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has been updated accordingly.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation.

While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.

Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.

Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more for all the songs scheduled to be used during the Dec. 10–23 Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings has been posted to this resource that seeks to help with these challenges:

• “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
  (Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  proofread, mobile-friendly,
  links for getting around,
  song links sorted by number;
  Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
  easy-to-read font,
  guitar chords included;
  Pīnyīn Plus: flashcards integrated with the text,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  song, paragraph, etc.,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
  
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  “Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)

Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)

Scheduling notes:

• Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings: Production of at least partially proofread Pīnyīn material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) with a few basic Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” is expected to keep up with all the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018 Memorial meetings: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018 regional conventions: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for all the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018–2019 circuit assemblies: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics are available for all the songs scheduled. Musical notation is available for all the songs scheduled for the circuit assemblies with the circuit overseer. Musical notation is available for most of the songs scheduled for the circuit assemblies with a branch representative, and more is on the way.

The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:

• Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
• In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
• The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.

The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

In the material with musical notation in the above resource, the Pīnyīn lyrics do not have Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” functionality because they need to stay aligned with the musical notation. As time allows, links will be added to Pīnyīn lyrics in the material with musical notation, each of which will cause a dialogue box to appear that shows the English translations, Chinese characters, etc. that a corresponding Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” would show.

While the original intention re the above resource was to prioritize production of material with musical notation and leave off production of Pīnyīn Plus lyrics-only material indefinitely, further analysis has led to the realization that since proofread Pīnyīn lyrics must be produced in some form for the musical notation material anyway, and since Pīnyīn Plus technology is a time-effective way to record proofread Pīnyīn text, it would be efficient to first produce proofread Pīnyīn lyrics in Pīnyīn Plus format for a particular song, and then to use those proofread Pīnyīn lyrics to speed up the production of musical notation material for that song. So, that will be the production workflow going forward for the above resource.

Previously, musical notation in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.

The Article “Pīnyīn is a Good, Workable Writing System On Its Own” Has Been Revised

The recent revisions to the article “Pīnyīn is a Good, Workable Writing System On Its Own” have been revised, to emphasize that Pīnyīn helps Mandarin-learners to take advantage of the familiarity of the Latin alphabet, with no downside necessary:

What about the claim by some English-speaking Mandarin-learners that using Pīnyīn causes their Mandarin to sound like English? This can indeed happen if they let the Latin letters of Pīnyīn make them think of English sounds instead of the Mandarin sounds that they actually represent. In such cases, the problem is not with the Latin alphabet letters used by Pīnyīn—the Latin alphabet is used successfully to write many languages besides English, including French, Spanish, Vietnamese, etc., and it is just as capable of being used successfully to write Mandarin. As English-speaking Mandarin-learners get more familiar with the sounds of correct Mandarin speech, they can come to get used to correctly mentally connecting Pīnyīn to correct Mandarin sounds, rather than to English sounds. Then, they can regularly and reliably use Pīnyīn to help them speak Mandarin-sounding Mandarin, just like people regularly and reliably use written French to help them speak French-sounding French.

So, the key to speaking Mandarin-sounding Mandarin is to mentally get familiar with the sounds of correct Mandarin speech, e.g., by hearing the sounds of correct Mandarin speech a lot, by learning how to use the mouth, tongue, etc. to make Mandarin speech sounds correctly, and by practising making Mandarin speech sounds correctly. Turning to Chinese characters and avoiding the Latin letters of Pīnyīn is not the only or best way to go—if you are not familiar with the sounds of correct Mandarin speech, then your spoken Mandarin is still going to sound off, even if you stick with Chinese characters.

So, Pīnyīn is not necessarily less effective than the hard-to-learn-and-remember characters are at helping people to speak Mandarin-sounding Mandarin. In fact, once people mentally get familiar with the sounds of correct Mandarin speech and get used to connecting those sounds to the familiar Latin alphabet letters of Pīnyīn, Pīnyīn then allows them to leverage or take advantage of their familiarity with the Latin alphabet, such that that familiarity enables them to more easily and more confidently speak Mandarin that is more precisely correct. E.g., with Pīnyīn, no more does anyone need to be uncertain about how in the world “增加” is pronounced, or about whether it starts with a “z” sound or a “zh” sound—the Pīnyīn (“zēngjiā”) uses familiar Latin alphabet letters to literally spell out the correct Mandarin pronunciation so that it is clear and obvious!

“Sing Out Joyfully” Bk. Partially Proofread Pīnyīn Web Material or More Available for Songs for Dec. 3–9 Mandarin Meetings

(NOTE: While the organization expresses valid general concerns here about posting copies of official publications to the Internet, there are good legal and spiritual reasons for concluding that those concerns do not apply to this particular material, due to its particular nature and purpose. See this disclaimer for more information.)

Thankfully, an official Pīnyīn PDF file for the current songbook “Sing Out Joyfully” to Jehovah (sjj) is now available for download from jw.org. (The short link for the new songbook, tiandi.info/sjj, has been updated accordingly.) Note, however, that the currently available official Pīnyīn PDF file only contains lyrics—it does not contain musical notation.

While we greatly appreciate the official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file that is available, the PDF format itself was conceived of in a world dominated by paper. Unfortunately, that means that PDF files are often not optimal for reading on the mobile devices that are now so prevalent among Mandarin field publishers.

Also, having to share limited display real estate with Chinese characters (and, in the past, musical notation) can in certain situations force the Pīnyīn text to be rendered in small type that can be difficult to read, especially for older people.

Another difficulty that is encountered, especially when one needs to quickly find the song that is about to be sung at a meeting, is that the official meeting schedules only list the numbers of the songs to be used, and the brothers announcing what song is about to be sung often only mention the song number, but in the current official Pīnyīn songbook PDF file, there is no listing of song links in song number order.

Partially proofread Pīnyīn web material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) or more for all the songs scheduled to be used during the Dec. 3–9 Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings has been posted to this resource that seeks to help with these challenges:

• “Sing Out Joyfully” Bk.
  (Pīnyīn+Music, Pīnyīn Plus, Web)
  (Pīnyīn (Pinyin) used as the default writing system,
  proofread, mobile-friendly,
  links for getting around,
  song links sorted by number;
  Pīnyīn+Music: prezoomed to use full screen width,
  easy-to-read font,
  guitar chords included;
  Pīnyīn Plus: flashcards integrated with the text,
  carefully done human-translated
  context-appropriate English translations
  with literal & effective meanings,
  Simplified & Traditional characters,
  📖 Reveal All, 📄 Reveal Advanced, and
  📘 Reveal None controls
  for all the “flashcards” in a
  song, paragraph, etc.,
  Night Theme that can be turned on or off
  using the ☀️/🌙 button at the top right,
  adjustable text size)
  (Info re offline viewing and printing)
  
• Short Links:
  Links > Publications > Books >
  “Sing Out Joyfully” Book Links (tiandi.info/sjj)

Screenshots of the above resource being used offline on an iPhone 📱, using the app GoodReader. (Other similar apps can also be used, e.g. Documents.)

Scheduling notes:

• Mandarin Our Christian Life and Ministry and “Watchtower” Study meetings: Production of at least partially proofread Pīnyīn material (more correct than computer-generated Pīnyīn like that displayed by apps like Equipd, and more mobile-friendly than PDFs) with a few basic Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” is expected to keep up with all the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018 Memorial meetings: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018 regional conventions: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics and musical notation are available for all the songs scheduled.
• Mandarin 2018–2019 circuit assemblies: Proofread Pīnyīn lyrics are available for all the songs scheduled. Musical notation is available for all the songs scheduled for the circuit assemblies with the circuit overseer. Musical notation is available for most of the songs scheduled for the circuit assemblies with a branch representative, and more is on the way.

The Pīnyīn songbook material in the above unofficial resource has been designed to be mobile-first, so it works well on mobile devices of various shapes and sizes, including tablets and smartphones 📱. Some of the ways in which it does so are:

• Song material with musical notation 🎼 automatically loads “prezoomed” to take full advantage of the width of your device’s display, so as to render its Pīnyīn lyrics in as large a size as possible.
• In the song material with musical notation 🎼, the typeface (font) chosen for the Pīnyīn lyrics is one that is especially legible at smaller text sizes.
• The lyrics-only material uses Pīnyīn Plus technology, so the text automatically reflows according to the width of the display. Also, the text can be set to different sizes by the user, and a Night Theme is available. As time allows, more Pīnyīn Plus “flashcards” will be added, with their English translations, Chinese characters, etc.

The introduction for the above resource explains why it’s good to use Pīnyīn as a writing system on its own.

In the material with musical notation in the above resource, the Pīnyīn lyrics do not have Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” functionality because they need to stay aligned with the musical notation. As time allows, links will be added to Pīnyīn lyrics in the material with musical notation, each of which will cause a dialogue box to appear that shows the English translations, Chinese characters, etc. that a corresponding Pīnyīn Plus “flashcard” would show.

While the original intention re the above resource was to prioritize production of material with musical notation and leave off production of Pīnyīn Plus lyrics-only material indefinitely, further analysis has led to the realization that since proofread Pīnyīn lyrics must be produced in some form for the musical notation material anyway, and since Pīnyīn Plus technology is a time-effective way to record proofread Pīnyīn text, it would be efficient to first produce proofread Pīnyīn lyrics in Pīnyīn Plus format for a particular song, and then to use those proofread Pīnyīn lyrics to speed up the production of musical notation material for that song. So, that will be the production workflow going forward for the above resource.

Previously, musical notation in the above resource was taken from screenshots of an official PDF file. Note (and make it a musical note ♪, at that 😄), though, that the musical notation for song 77 marked the debut in the above resource of musical notation 🎼 produced “from scratch” to be mobile-first in design. This should provide for better and more consistent user experiences going forward, especially on smaller mobile devices like smartphones 📱.