Finger numbers on Fretboards?

• Aug 14, 2019 - 14:46

Someone in the Brazilian forum asked if it is possible to put finger numbers on a fretboard diagram. I know this is not currently possible and my initial thought is that you would need eagle eyes to be able to read them. Anyone else have thoughts?

Barizilain discussion is at


In reply to by mjbartemusica1

"Yes, from GP6.
The first pic is the UI for setting up diagrams and so the finger numbers can be shown on the dots."

Not exactly, as far I know, and except if a custom setting escaped me.
Indeed, the dialog shows the finger numbers on the dots.
But not when you apply: finger numbers are displayed below the fretboard diagramm. It's what you see on the score.
An option exists for not displaying them at all.
Same for GP6 and GP7

In reply to by cadiz1

Fingering below the diagram or inside/next to/instead ofthe dots should all be made possible, I do have books using the latter (finger numbers next to/instead of dots in the diagrams). Those books BTW also have the diagrams turned 90° counter-clockwise and also show different string thickness depending on pitch (i.e. the left/bottom string thickest, the right/top one thinnest)

In reply to by Ziya Mete Demircan

To clarify:

In the chord diagram setup dialog, finger numbers are shown on the dots because the dots are big enough.

When a diagram is inserted into a score the numbers are NOT shown on the dots, presumably because the text would be too small. The setup dialogue has a tick box to allow the finger numbers to be shown BELOW the chord when inserted into a score.

The relates to GP6. I haven't used GP7 but I expect it's similar.

I prefer not to show them at all since guitarists don't all use the same fingers for a given chord.

In reply to by yonah_ag


I was thinking this was the case. For instructional purposes the OP would need to modify the fingers for a given chord if different than the one selected.

In reply to by yonah_ag

If someone for educational purposes really MUST have fingered Chord Diagrams in MS he can import it as graphic (png or svg) until MS maybe will support it in future (?).
There are different programs out there to create such a graphic. For LibreOffice there is an extension that is quite powerful for creating Chord and Scale Diagrams with a high degree of control of the Layout. It can export to SVG and PNG. Although SVG is usually to be preferred I recommend using png for MS because of its not-too-good SVG import filter.


In reply to by kuwitt

This looks great. I installed libreoffice and this extension but I'm stuck as to how to use it. I can't seem to find it anywhere in the the program. Nor can I find any help on line. What is the first step to accessing this extension once you have it installed? Is it somewhere in the Draw program?

In reply to by Jeff Belding

Hi, the instructions are only here:
It's for Writer, not for Draw but you can copy and paste if you want.

After you restarted LO you get the Toolbar. Then click on "Input" and type eg.: dm7
If you want to make changes then select the diagram and click on "Edit".
There are lots of possibilities with the extension (to succed and to fail :-) ) and the instructions are very short and dense.
