General Settings

The General tab on the settings window is where options for play and timing appear. From this screen you can also configure what is displayed on the initial screen when DanceWizard starts.


General Options

Save venue as default when switching

When set any changes made to the current venue are saved. The same venue will be active the next time DanceWizard is run.

Splash screen shows database

When set the initial screen when DanceWizard starts will display the current database. From that screen you can switch to a different database. This is useful if you have multiple dance database.

Splash screen shows remote settings

When set the initial screen when DanceWizard starts will display the current remote control options. These settings can be changed from the startup screen.

Display preferred dances in bold

When set dances that have the Preferred flag set are displayed in bold on the dance selection screen.

Enable DanceMaster color scheme

When set the Stop and Play buttons on the play screen with be colored a red and green (matching previous DanceMaster button colors).

Enable speech synthesis

When set the name of the dance will be announced when the remote control is used to switch to the next or previous dance in a playlist. At the present time this is simply for demonstration purposes.

Enable debug logging

When set DanceWizard creates log files (under Documents > DanceWizard > Logs) containing information about its operation. These logs are particularly useful when reporting a bug in the program.


At the present time this setting is not allowed to be changed.

Play Options

Stop fades out audio

When set pressing the Stop button during audio playout will fade out the music instead of immediately stopping play. The Audio fade out time controls the length of time for the fade out.

Display all cue card text in black

When set all text on a cue card displayed by the play window will be converted to black.

Playlist displays dance details

When set the playlist displayed on the play window will include the rhythm, phase, and choreographer on a second line.

Enable voice cues by default

When set all dances will have voice cues (if present) enabled for playout.

Enable voice introductions by default

When set all dances will have voice introductions (if present) enabled for playout.

Enable karaoke cues by default

When set all dances that are timed will use karaoke cue highlighting when being played. Clearing this will cause a timed cue card to be displayed without special highlighting, but still scroll automatically to keep the current cue visible.

Audio fade out time

This is the length of time in seconds that audio will fade out when the Stop button is pressed. The default is 0.6 seconds.

Bookmark lead time

This is the length of time ahead of a selected bookmark that music play should start. This allows additional time to hear the music before the bookmark location is reached. The default is 2½ measures of music.

Minimum play time for history record creation

This is the minimum amount of time a dance needs to be played before a dance history record (if enabled) will be generated. The default is 30 seconds.

Cue Timing Options

Timing Style

The timing style selection allows for two styles of timing a dance.

Spacebar times current cue

When using this timing style you should press the spacebar at the point when dancers would dance the step. After each press the next dance cue is highlighted. This style, in combination with the Automatically adjust timing one measure earlier, makes it relatively easy to time the dance. The cuer uses the spacebar to advance the cues at the point when the dancer would dance each step. When done the cue timing is automatically adjusted to one measure earlier in the music. You can use the highlight lead time to further fine tune when each cue is highlighted.

Spacebar times next cue

When using this style you would press the spacebar at the point you want each cue to be highlighted (generally one measure before the dancers would do the step). Further fine tuning of when each cue is highlighted can be done by adjusting the dance’s highlight lead time.

Auto timing mode is enabled by default

When this is set the Auto Cue Timing checkbox is checked on the play window when timing cues. This enables the use of the Return to trigger DanceWizard to compute the timing of all remaining cues in a dance after a minimum of 20 measures of music have been timed. This works best with constant rhythm music where the beats per minute are consistent throughout the music.

Automatically adjust timing one measure earlier

When set DanceWizard will automatically adjust cue timing one measure earlier. This setting is available only when using the Spacebar times current cue timing style.

Default highlight lead time

The default highlight lead time is how much earlier the cue should be highlighted to provide time to see the cue and prepare to speak it. This value is used to set the value for a new dance when performing timing. Decrease the value to have cues highlight earlier; increase to have them highlight later.


More information about cue timing is available in the Cue Timing and Karaoke topic.

Settings Import and Export

Import Settings

This button imports all DanceWizard customized settings from a file written by the Export Settings button. This feature is not currently supported.

Export Settings

This button writes all DanceWizard customized settings into a file for import into another computer.

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