MuseScore works with your "System" language (the one used for most programs, and generally depending on your country and the language settings of the PC, or account).
In the General tab, select the desired language from the drop-down list in the Language section:
To update translation(s):
A message which displayed if the version of your language is already up to date, if not then the update will be downloaded.
To complete this step, a restart of the application is required.
To change the appearance of MuseScore
In the Appearance tab, select the desired option described below.
The following options are available to change the colors of MuseScore. The display changes immediately so options can be tested without closing the dialog. The changes apply to all open instances of MuseScore (see Windows)
To change the font face and text size for Menu and Palette elements:
This does not affect and text elements in the score.
Windows, toolbars and panels within MuseScore can be repositioned, and you can choose which elements you want to see displayed in them.
The default appearance of MuseScore is shown below:
To show or hide the playback controls, note input toolbar, or the status bar:
To change the position of either the note input or playback toolbars, click on and hold the six dots at the left of the toolbar, then drag and drop it to the desired location. The toolbar can be left free floating, but in the case of the note input toolbar, you can also drag and drop it either to the left or the bottom edge of the program window—a blue rectange then appears to show you that you can drop the toolbar at that location to redock it. The playback toolbar can only be redocked in its default position.
To select the icons that you want on view in the note input or playback toolbars, click on the gear icon to the right of the toolbar:
In the case of the note input toolbar, this reveals a dropdown list from which you can hide or display the various icons by clicking on the eye symbol to the left of each one (closed=hidden, open=displayed).
In the case of the playback toolbar, uncheck or check the various options in the gear menu to hide or display the corresponding elements.
To undock and move one of the side panels (Palette, Instruments, Properties, or Selection filter), click on the three dots on the tab, select the Undock option, then drag the undocked panel to the desired position.
You can leave the panel free-standing but there are also dock positions at the top and right hand edges of the document window—a blue rectangle appears to show that you can drop the panel to redock it at that location.
In a similar way, you can redock the free panel back to the sidebar:
You can also redock the free panel in its original position by clicking on the three dots on the tab, and selecting Dock.
Panels such as the Mixer or virtual Piano can be undocked if desired, by dragging them into position or clicking on the three dots icon and selecting Undock. To redock, click on the three dots icon and select Dock.
The undocked mixer can be resized by dragging the edges inwards or outwards.
To choose which elements to display within the mixer or the virtual Piano, click on the three dots, select View and uncheck or check the applicable options.
To customize the palettes area, see Customization: Palettes.
This chapter contains incomplete information and does not reflect the current status of Musescore 4. Please consult third party professionals listed on Getting help instead.
useful info for editing:
TODO testing
Styles in Musescore are profiles that contains settings, rather than being the settings themselves. The visual setting for text and musical symbol in musescore some users mistaken for style is called Font.
All styles are built-in, they contain visual and functional settings default values. Each object type, eg Chord Symbol object, Accidental object, has a corresponding style of the same name built-in: "Style for Chord Symbols", "Style for Accidentals". Each Text object, eg Chord Symbol object, Lyrics object, also has one or more corresponding style(s) built-in: "Style for text inside Chord Symbols", "Style for text inside Chord Symbols (Alternative)", "Style for text inside Lyrics Even Lines", "Style for text inside Lyrics Odd Lines". Style is not the object type.
You cannot create a new style, but you can edit the settings values in each style. Use the "Style" window: Format → Style , or Properties panel: 'three dots' button : Save as default style for this score.
After you created an object, you cannot change its object type. The same is almost true for style: an accidental object on a score must use values in "Style for Accidentals", it cannot use values in "Style for Staff Text" or "Style for Chord Symbols". You cannot change which style (the named profile) an object on a score uses unless the object is a Text object or it contains a Text object within. A Lyrics object on a score, if desired, can use the compatible values in "Style for text inside Chord symbols" or "Style for text inside Staff Text" rather than the values in "Style for text inside Lyrics Odd Lines" or "Style for text inside Lyrics Even Lines", for more see Formatting text chapter.
Read on to see the final visual and function of objects are determined.
Layout and formatting in Musescore consists of two main levels, Text objects and objects containing them have more levels, see Formatting text. The final visual and function of most object in a score file is determined by:
Every score file has a "Full Score" layout. It also contains "Parts" when you use Musescore Part feature to generate different versions of the same score. Each "Part" and the "Full Score" has their own separate complete set of layout and formatting information.
Visit https://musescore.org/en/node/355981 for .mss files shared by other musicians.
The concepts and layout logic are explained in the overview. .mss file contains "level 2 information" and can be stored in any folder, Musescore does not automatically use any specific folder. The default folder for easier file management can be set-up in Edit → Preferences.
Open Preferences → Score tab
Not to be confused with Staff/Part properties: staff type template.
Usage of template is covered in chapters Create your first score, and Setting up your score. Score template can be used to quickly set up a new score. A template contains:
[This item list is a work in progress, please add missing info, see TODO above, and
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/instruments-staff-setup-and-templat…
- itemX
- itemY
- itemZ
]
A template file is a score file under certain directory that Musescore uses. You can create a score from scratch and save it as template, or copy any existing .mscz file to that directory to use it as template. There are two kinds of templates:
Click File → Save as and save the score file as .mscz format into the template directory Musescore uses. Content of the last added Title text is used as the template name (not the content of File → Project Properties → Work Title field; also not the file name as Musescore 3).
This chapter shows you how to customize the palettes and their contents; the application of palette items is already covered in Using the palettes (Basics).
To add a preset or a custom palette, see Using the palettes: Adding more palettes.
To hide a preset palette, right click on it and select Hide palette. The palette is returned to the Add Palettes list (see above). Note that preset palettes cannot be deleted.
To hide or delete a custom palette you have created earlier, right click on it and select Hide/Delete palette. Then follow the instructions in the dialog.
To change the order of a palette simply drag it up or down and drop it onto the desired position in the palettes list.
Palettes can be populated with items from the Master Palette (Shift+F9 or View→Master palette), or from an opened score.
Score items, when added to a palette, are saved with their custom properties.
To enable/disable editing for a particular palette:
To add a symbol from the Master Palette to a palette in the Palettes panel:
If you have created a custom palette, there is another way to access the Master Palette:
To add score elements to a palette:
Symbols can be moved from one open palette to another simply by dragging and dropping them.
To delete an element in a palette, right-click on it and select Delete. In the case of preset palettes, the element will be moved to the More section. For custom palettes you are offered a choice of Hide (send element to the More section) or Delete permanently.
To reset a palette to its default state, right-click on the palette name, or click on the ellipsis symbol (three dots) to the right of the palette name; then select Reset palette.
Note: A custom palette will be reset to an empty palette when this function is applied.
To save a palette, right-click on the palette name, or click on the ellipsis symbol (three dots) to the right of the palette name; then select Save palette.
To load a previously-saved palette, right-click on a palette name, or click on the ellipsis symbol (three dots) to the right of the palette name; then select Load palette and navigate to the desired palette, select it and click Open.
To access display options for the palettes area, click on the ellipsis symbol (three dots) to the right of the Palettes title at the top of the palettes area.
To access Palette properties for individual palettes, right-click on the palette name, or click on the ellipsis symbol (three dots) to the right of the palette name; then select Palette properties.
This allows you to rename the palette, create a visible grid to separate elements, adjust width and height of cells, and change the scale and offset of the symbols.
Workspace is the visual settings, also known as graphical user interface (GUI), of the Musescore program itself. An analogy to the position of the pen, ruler etc on a composer's desk. It includes the content, docked/undocked status and positions of palettes, toolbars and assorted open panels. Changes made to the current workspace are automatically saved, no further action is required. You can create custom workspaces to quickly change all these settings with a mouse click.
Note that the following settings do not count as workspace. View→Show→ Show visible, Show Invisible, Show formatting, Show Frames, Show Page Margins, Mark irregular measures, and status bar's Concert Pitch, Zoom level, and Page View/Continuous View option. These settings, covered in The user interface chapter, are score data. They are saved to and loaded from each score file. Templates contain these settings and will be used when you create a new score from a template, see Setting up your score.
To create a new workspace:
To customize the palettes display and contents, see palettes.
To customize the display of toolbars and panels, see Toolbars and panels.
Alternatively
MuseScore commands can be accessed via the main menus, toolbars, Properties panel or context menus, or by using keyboard shortcuts.
Pre-existing keyboard shortcut are shown alongside the commands in the main menus or context (right-click) menus, or by hovering the mouse pointer over an icon in a toolbar.
Alternatively, you can view a list of commands and their shortcuts in Edit→Preferences→Shortcuts. This is also the place where you can create a shortcut or change an existing one. To locate a command in the list either scroll down the alphabetical order, or enter an appropriate keyword in the “Search shortcut” box.
To define a new shortcut, or change an existing one:
Note: You can select more than one shortcut if needed. Press the Shift key to establish a continuous range, or the Ctrl key for a list.
To save the existing shortcuts or import a list of your own:
To edit Preferences (the appearance and general behavior of MuseScore), go to Edit→Preferences.
These are divided logically into sections (see below); notice also the three buttons at the bottom of the window:
You can specify your language, and autosave interval in “General”. See also Language.
“Program start” allow you to choose what, if any, score you want displayed in the edit window after launching.
“Folders” allows you to customize locations for any user folders (though it’s a good idea to leave them at default to start with if you are a new user).
Choose between light and dark options, and specify the accent color; there is also a high contrast option for visually impaired users.
The system font is also the default for the MuseScore UI, but you can alter this if desired—and the font-size.
You can set the score paper/color option and the background. For visually impaired there is an “Invert score” option which inverts the score colors (white to black and vice versa)
Specify the default zoom level of the score, and the mouse zoom precision. Also how you want your score pages to scroll, and the degree of precision of mouse selection.
Specify the autosave duration and options relating to generating and publishing audio on musescore.com and audio.com.
Here you can specify whether to advance to the next note on key release (in MIDI input), whether to color notes outside of an instrument's usable range, whether to play notes when editing (and for how long), and customise how voice assignment for dynamics works.
Customize the default order of instruments for new scores, and default styles for scores and parts.
Specify audio device, buffer size and sample rate, MIDI input and output devices, and customize mixer behaviour.
Here you can map certain keys of your external MIDI keyboard to certain actions, for example to start or stop score playback, set note-entry duration, and so on.
Here you can specify a custom style file to use for imported files (MIDI and MusicXML), set the character set for imported binary files, customise MusicXML import, set the shortest note value to use in imported MIDI files, and choose whether to import the layout in MEI files.
For details of the MusicXML options, see Working with MusicXML files.
See Keyboard shortcuts for more information.
By default MuseScore automatically checks for updates when online. You can turn this off by unchecking the box.
Specify the default folders for scores, style files, templates, plugins and soundfonts.
A number of specialized options can be accessed here, such as voice color, and palette behavior.
Enable or disable the braille panel, and customize its behavior.
Not to be confused with VST and VSTi.
A MuseScore plugin is a small piece of software that adds extra functionality to the program. A plugin need to be enabled first, and then executed by using the Plugins menu. Some plugins come pre-installed, they are disabled by default. There are also plugins created and shared by other musicians, anyone can download and use them.
Updating works the same way as installing, but remember to remove the files from the previous version to avoid duplicate plugins!
To assign a keyboard shortcut a plugin, use Home: Plugins or Plugins: Manage plugins....
[work in progress, please provide missing info, write brief info on each]
See https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/tree/master/share/plugins
The plugin system of Musescore 4 is currently being redesigned and reimplemented.
As of October 2023, Musescore 4.1.1 plugin system is mostly a somewhat restricted version of the Musescore 3 plugin system. Visit Developers' Handbook Plugins for 3.x Chapter for fundamentals, and Plugins for 4.x Chapter for info on the new parameters and porting a Musescore 3 plugin to MuseScore 4.