Lyrics
I have a song with 7 verses, two of which (v3 & 4) are optional and in the original that I'm transcribing, those two verses are shown in italic.
Not a problem I thought! Simply highlight those two verses and change the text properties to italic.
Doesn't work that I can see.
Selecting the two verses doesn't give me any text options in inspector,
just "Style-Lyrics odd lines" and "Reset text to style"
I can't alter either odd or even lyric lines as that would change some lines I don't want as italic.
Then I highlighted the two verses and right-clicked (had to point at a lyric syllable). Fine, gives me the text properties menu and I was able to select italic.
Except it didn't amend all the highlighted lyrics, just the one syllable.
then tried select/more/same subtype and that highlighted the lyrics for a single verse but again, setting italic only affected a single syllable.
Is there a way to do this that I'm missing or is the only method to deal with each syllable in turn?
28 syllables times 2 seemed to take for ever !!
using 2.0.2 in Win 7
Comments
Lyric entry has long been considered a weak point of MuseScore, although it's improved tremendously. As far as I can see, you are correct that each syllable must be italicized individually.
However, you don't have to manually select each syllable. Highlight the first syllable on a line, make it italic, then press Ctrl-Right arrow to move to the next syllable. The text for that syllable will already be highlighted, so you can simply click the italic button and move on: Ctrl-Right, Italic, Ctrl-Right, Italic until you reach the end of the line.
In reply to Lyric entry has long been by Seamas
Thanks for the comments but it doesn't work like that on my system.
Ctrl-right simply adds a space character before the syllable I've just italicized.
In reply to Thanks for the comments but by Ewart North
I'm using V2.0.2 on Windows 7 as well, so I'm not sure what the problem with Ctrl-Right is.
However, I replied too quickly. There's an altogether different option—you can create a custom text style. Go to Style > Text..., select "Lyrics Odd Lines" in the list of styles, then click "New" below the list. Enter a name like "Lyrics Italic" in the box, click the italics button, and click OK. You've created a custom style for that score.
Now use Shift and mouse drag to select an entire staff's worth of lyrics. In the Inspector, click the "Style" button, and type Ctrl-End; your new "Lyrics Italic" style will be at the very bottom of the list. I don't think you can do more than one staff at a time, but it's still better than single syllables (and less likely to accidentally wipe out hyphens or underlines).
In reply to I'm using V2.0.2 on Windows 7 by Seamas
It's way easier than that. Simply right click one syllable, Select / All Similar Elements in Same Staff. There is also All Similar Elements in Same Staff, and also a More dialog that allows you to select by verse by system, etc. No need to laboriously drag select individual lyrics!
Once you've selected the syllables you want, then indeed, applying a custom text style is exactly what you want. Or, if it's literally the even verses, you don't need to select anything at all - just change the Lyrics Even Lines text style.
In reply to It's way easier than that. by Marc Sabatella
Marc: That's great. I'm still learning all the new ways 2.0 can select stuff.
Ewart: For your specific case, create a custom style as I described, then right-click any syllable of verse 3. On the popup menu go to Select > More..., check "Same subtype" (which should say "Verse 3"), and hit OK. All lines of verse 3 should be highlighted, and you can change their style in the Inspector. Then do the same for verse 4.
In reply to Marc: That's great. I'm by Seamas
Thanks Guys, that worked.
I was almost there. I had been able to highlight the lyrics for a single verse (using Select/more/sub-type) but I hadn't created a "New" format for italic lyrics.
I shall know for next time.
Thanks again.