I'm not sure what the difficulties are with adding chords and lyrics, but my own observation is that programs I've tried generally "come apart" on the text and text-like stuff, if there's going to be any problem with them. The program I mentioned, that "doesn't run in XP" actually will run, as long as I only put in notes. Any text or lyric entries cause a program crash.

While the basic cause of incompatibility with XP is probably that the program is attempting illegal (under XP) disk writes(?) or other direct hardware access, most of the inexpensive programs I've tried seem somewhat "unstable" in handling text, even when compatible with the OS on which you're using them. They are consistent in that "complex text" entries sometimes cause a "file explosion." Either the program stalls, the file self-corrupts, or the text simply won't stay where you put it.

These programs all seem to use what Word would call a "text box" or a "frame" for all text-like entries, with the frame/box anchor point "attached" to a note (or to the note's own anchor point). This makes it easy(?) to synch a lyric syllable (in its own frame) or a chord symbol (in a separate frame) with a specific note, for a nice display, but the anchor points seem unstable if you exceed some minimal text limits.

Most of these programs include automatic spacing, so that a measure can grow or shrink to accomodate the number of notes - and the length of linked lyric syllables - inserted; and I've suspected the problem relates to the "anchor" for "attached text" being lost when the autospacing moves a note (by moving the anchor point for the note).

In the "normal" use in these programs, each text frame/box will contain only a very few characters - typically one syllable of lyric text per box, or one chord label, etc. Problems usually arise only when you try to put something like a paragraph (*a second verse below the score, perhaps) all into one text entry; but most of the "cheaper" programs I've used do have a "come-apart" point where more text blows up the file. In some of them, even a very long title/composer string (which of course you forgot to insert before you had all the notes in) will occasionally cause the file to fall apart.

*In the programs of interest, even a verse below or beside the score is usually anchored to/with a note in the score - although it can be difficult to tell which note. Perhaps a separate "long text" box anchored to "page" would behave better?

Note that for the most part I'm referring to commercially available score producing programs at low to moderate price levels. I haven't used a sufficient number of freeware/shareware programs to the point (large enough scores) where I can tell whether either the method or the result is the same in typical ones there.

I'm not sure there's a suggestion here for what/how you should do anything, but perhaps the observation will help you to develop where you want to go with something.

John