The ultimate CLEAR guide of how to make stepfiles in notepad.

[BPM guy]

1. Go to notepad.
2. Start out the file like this.
#TITLE:Ignorance; <---- Put song name.
#SUBTITLE:Grindcore; <---- Put song genre.
#ARTIST:The Berzerker; <---- Put artist.
#TITLETRANSLIT:;
#SUBTITLETRANSLIT:;
#ARTISTTRANSLIT:;
#CREDIT:;
#BANNER:;
#BACKGROUND:Igbg.PNG; <---- Put in the background you want (Example:Capricebg.PNG)
#LYRICSPATH:;
#CDTITLE:; <--- Not important
#MUSIC:Ignorance.mp3; <---- This is very important. Type in the music audio file you are going to use. Without it, there is no sound during gameplay.
#OFFSET:-0.120;
#SAMPLESTART:;
#SAMPLELENGTH:12.000; <----- Don't worry about this
#SELECTABLE:YES;
#BPMS:0.000=250.000; <----- Find BPM. This one is important too. leave the 0.000 at the left alone, but change the one at the right, which sets the BPM.
#STOPS:; <--- Not important
#BGCHANGES:;

Copy EXACTLY what I wrote down there (Except for the comments and examples)

3. Then press ENTER/RETURN and do this.

//---------------dance-single - ----------------
#NOTES:
dance-single:
:
Medium(Hard, etc. But only chose one. You can make more later.):
11: <---- Difficulty level
1.000,1.000,0.081,0.008,1.000: // measure 1 <---- This begins the first measure. Press ENTER.
1001
0100
0010
0100
, // measure 2
1001
0100
0010
0100

You may notice there's a whole lot of 0's and 1's. Well, here is how it goes.

0=No arrow
1=Arrow
2=Starting of a hold arrow
3=Where the hold arrow ends

According to this, measure 2 would go like this.

Left-Right (Double)
Down
Up
Down

To make a freeze arrow, simply do this.

, // measure 3
0002 <---- Type a "2" here. This starts a right arrow hold.
0100 <---- You can add in "1's" but please, don't do it at the column spot the freeze arrow is.
0010
0003 <---- Voila! Just type a 3 and that is where the right arrow hold ends.

O.K. Now here is where it gets tricky.

1001
0100
0010
0100

A basic 4-row only has quarter notes. So that whole measure only has quarter notes.

However, if you want to put in eighth notes, you add an extra 4.

1001 Red <--- (You do NOT need to type down what color the arrow is. Just type a "1".)
0100 Blue
0010 Red
0100 Blue
1001 Red
0100 Blue
0010 Red
0100 Blue

so it becomes a 8-row. Each slot represents 1/8th. I show what color the arrow is.

4. Then start a new measure.

, // measure 4 (You MUST put your measures in order or else the file will be messed up, like order the measures from 1,2,3,4,5,6, and so on.) If you want 16ths in your stepfile, then double the amount of rows than the eigths.

1001 Red
0100 Yellow
0010 Blue
0100 Yellow
1001 Red
0100 Yellow
0010 Blue
0100 Yellow
1001 Red
0100 Yellow
0010 Blue
0100 Yellow
1001 Red
0100 Yellow
0010 Blue
0100 Yellow

You should now have 16 rows. Each row represents a sixteenth. (Just out of curiosity, if you want to put in 12ths, chop off 4 rows. You should then get 12 rows, each row representing a 12th.)

I think you're getting the drift now. For 32nds, double the amount of sixteenth rows. You should then have 32 rows, in a new measure.

, // measure 5
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100

If you want to put in 24ths, chop off 8 measures, which gives you 24 measures.

If you want to put in 64ths, double the amount of rows from the 32nds. Start a new measure.

1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100
1001
0100
0010
0100

If you want 48ths in your stepfile, chop off 16 rows from 64 rows, which gives you 48 rows.

And for the last measure, ALWAYS hit ENTER/RETURN and put a semicolon.

Lastly, save your notepad stepfile as a .SM file.