Each text type has a basic style. For example, title text is centered and uses a large font size, Composer text is smaller and aligned to the right. To edit text styles go to Style → Edit Text Style....

During text editing, you can make changes that depart from basic style. For details see "Formatting existing text" below.

Text properties:

• Font: name of the font such as "Times New Roman" or "Arial"
• Size: the size of the font in points
• Italic, Bold, Underline: font properties
• Anchor: page, time, notehead, system, staff
• Alignment: horizontal: left, right, center; vertical: top, bottom, center
• Offset: an offset to the normal anchor position
• Offset Type: mm, space, or percent of page size

Text types:

• Title, Subtitle, Composer, Poet: anchored to page
• Fingering: Fingerings are anchored to note heads.
• Lyrics: Lyrics are anchored to a time position.
• Chord name: Chord names are also anchored to a time position.
• System: Applies to all staves in a system.* Anchored to a time position.
• Staff: Applies to a single staff in a system.* Anchored to a time position.

* The distinction between System and Staff text matters for ensemble scores. System text will extract to all parts. Staff text will only extract to the part to which it is anchored.

Formatting existing text

In MuseScore 1.0 and earlier, text style changes apply to new text but do not consistently change existing text. However, you can change the formatting of existing text by right-clicking and choosing "Text properties". To apply your changes to all text of the same type, check the box "apply to all elements of the same type".