20. How do I add my personal styles to the Band-in-a-Box® StylePicker list?

Band-in-a-Box® styles need to be placed in the Band-in-a-Box® root directory (C:\BB) so the program can find them.

In Band-in-a-Box® 2008 and higher, when you press the Rebuild button in the StylePicker window, Band-in-a-Box® will find your styles and add them to the 'Other Styles Found' category. This list of styles includes all of the styles that are found in your bb folder, and in 'Styles' subfolders within your bb folder, that are not PG Music styles.

Alternatively, you can access them by using File | Load User Style, or by pressing F9. If you get a "style not found" message when trying to play a song, this typically means that the style is not in the bb root directory.

If you want to add a memo or other information to your styles, or sort them in other categories within the StylePicker, there are various things you can do. There is a file called BBW.LST located in the Band-in-a-Box® folder. This file defines all of the PG Music styles that appear in the StylePicker and we update the file when we release new Styles Sets. There can also be one or more *.LS3 files in the Band-in-a-Box® folder. These files can be used to define 3rd party Band-in-a-Box® Styles and your own personal styles. Here is what you would typically do to add one of your personal styles to the StylePicker in a new category.

  1. Make sure your styles are saved in the BB folder.
  2. Open the StylePicker window.
  3. Click on the [Edit...] button. This opens the StylePicker Editor dialog.
  4. Add your new categories and styles by filling in the information in the dialog.
  5. When you are finished, press [OK-Save]. This automatically creates a file called A_USER.LS3 containing your new style information. Band-in-a-Box® will automatically rebuild the StylePicker window, adding the styles in the A_USER.LS3 file.

    LS3 files can also be created manually. There is more information about LS3 files here.

Note that you shouldn't edit the BBW.LST file, since this file will be overwritten with an updated one when you update Band-in-a-Box® or purchase a new Styles Set. If you would like technical information on how the bbw.lst file is constructed, we have information in the Band-in-a-Box® 2004 FAQ.


Last edited by Alyssa - PG Music; 08/21/18 10:32 AM.
Alyssa - PG Music