Possibility of Adding a "Worksheet Mode" to Musescore to Make Work Easier for Making Worksheets?

• Aug 12, 2020 - 06:18

I don't know about other MuseScore users, but I often use the software to make little worksheets for students. For this, I find it would be easier to be able to copy breaks (system and page breaks for example), key and time signatures, and other things along the lines of this. Such functionality is pretty well pointless for composing and transcribing, which is the vast majority of MuseScore users.

For this, I thought similar to the "Note-Input Mode" for entering notes, what if we had a "Worksheet Mode" for these extra features? It would make the process of making worksheets much easier. I am also going into computer science and have considered trying to add this as a feature. However, before I go about doing that, I just want to know if it's something that interests other users or if it's just me.

Basically, is there a need or want for a feature like this? If so, are there any other possible things this "Worksheet Mode" could do?

Thanks for any input you might have!

Comments

kuwitt

• Aug 12, 2020 - 17:32

See also this discussion #165746: Request option to copy system elements with copy/paste (ALL ELEMENTS). I could imagine, that these elements would be deselected by default in an extended selection filter, but selectable.

bomby

• Aug 13, 2020 - 03:57

I make worksheets too with Musescore. It would be an amazing feature to have. Maybe if this feature is added there could be templates for them too.

mike320

• Aug 13, 2020 - 04:26

The problem with using them as templates is that the breaks are ignored in them. Right now you can make a fake template.

Create a score with your breaks and save it. Open your file manager program and mark the file as read only and save it. You will now need to use Save as... to save an edited file so you won't be able to overwrite your "Template"

Justin Bornais

• Aug 14, 2020 - 18:30

As of right now, I found a temporary solution that does work, but shouldn't be necessary to do:

The worksheet I'm working on has a repeating template of 12 measures. It takes about 5-10 minutes every time to create this template. So rather than remaking it every time (it would be nice to be able to copy and paste it in this proposed "Worksheet Mode"), I did the following things:

I created a separate template file where the template is.
I saved both the template file and the original file as .mscx files instead of .mscz so it would be uncompressed.
I went into notepad++ (you could also just use notepad) and copied all the "Measure" tags inside the "Staff" tags from the template file, then I pasted them at the end of each "Staff" tag in the original score. This will basically create the template by editing the code itself. This is almost essentially what the "Albums" feature in Musescore 2.0 tried doing.

I don't mean to attack the software, but when doing something in the software is slower than doing something to the code of the file itself, you know something needs to be edited!

mike320

• Aug 14, 2020 - 18:50

The album feature is being worked on at long last. It's still in development and I don't expect it before version 4 so I don't know too much about it. There is also discussion of a possible copy & paste all that sounds like it might be a better option for what you describe. These are both likely to be in version 4 so it won't happen very soon.

Justin Bornais

• Aug 15, 2020 - 00:23

That makes me happy! Maybe I could work on the copy/paste all mode, but I'm unsure of how to go about getting permission to edit the code. I know it's open source, but I don't know if there's something I need to sign or get permission on at least, or if I can just fork the code and edit it. That I'd have to look into.

mike320

• Aug 15, 2020 - 00:33

Instructions for contributing code are located at https://musescore.org/en/handbook/developers-handbook/getting-started/y…. You must sign a release making your contributions public domain and there are instructions for building the program as well. Your contributions would be most welcomed.

Chat among the programmers is on Telegram mostly at https://t.me/musescoreeditorchat and there are also instructions for joining that chat in the contribute to development menu option above. Once you get MuseScore built I suggest that you talk to people on telegram about work currently being done on the copy/paste all mode. The programmers are very helpful to new arrivals.

frfancha

• Aug 14, 2020 - 19:22

I don't understand why that would be need to be called worksheet mode.
We just need basic copy/paste functionality that has been sadly missing in this program since day 1.

mike320

• Aug 14, 2020 - 19:26

The worksheet mode could suppress rests automatically for example rather than needing to hide all of the rests again as the time signature changes. It could also make set measure lengths (better than it does now), which is another worksheet type request we've seen a lot. I'm sure there are other things that would be included.

frfancha

• Aug 14, 2020 - 19:43

Ok get it.

Justin Bornais

• Aug 15, 2020 - 00:21

Anyone writing, transcribing or editing music would have no need for these copying tools, but those working on exercises or worksheets would. This makes up a smaller percentage of users, but it's still a feature that is requested a lot. Replacing the copy feature currently with this would cause lots of hate because why copy a key signature and page break while composing? It would waste their time. So a separate worksheet mode would be beneficial for all.

yr4scqt5js

• Dec 19, 2022 - 02:54

All I can suggest is to use the best tool for the job. Thankfully there is a program now called Mustud, designed specially for creating music worksheets without all the heavy UI that comes with full notation software.