Most writers have authorized multiple versions of their work, making changes as a result of an evolution in their thinking, or at the request of churches or publishers. At all times, the need of the Church to sing its faith in clear, contemporary terms was a primary consideration in making editorial decisions. Texts by living authors will have copyright information that shows the date of the latest revision. The editorial style is based on that adopted by the New Revised Standard Version Bible translation. Capitalization is limited to beginnings of sentences, names in general and names of God, directly quoted speech and, occasionally, indirect speech when in the form of an acclamation.
Punctuation is standard, except where required by authors for certain hymns.
Texts are placed between the staves where possible. Many professional and amateur musicians read from melody and chord symbol charts, and so chord symbols are offered for their use. C, Fm, etc., represent the chord. The chord symbols show most of the chord progressions. Thus, Ab becomes G, Eb becomes D, F becomes E, and so on.