Layout and various improvements requests
Hello guys,
Here some requests/suggestions:
It would be very convenient to be able to manage the score more fully in terms of typography.
Specifically, I'd like to have:
1 - ability to add a simple blank page at any point in the score for compile that with images, text; I get it now by inserting frames and page breaks, but is not very comfortable and intuitive; moreover the ability to hide a single page number in that pages;
2 - text frames and images which can be positioned freely with a magnetic placement, also in a blank page;
I know that everything is already possible now, but think of doing it in a more convenient is lawful. ;)
Bye ;)
Tommaso
Comments
I can imagine ways of adding blank pages that would be more convenient - if rarely used and so not much of a time saver compared to improvements in operations that are more common. But I can't really see what you mean about more convenient ways of adding or positioning text. As far as I can tell, the current system works is fine. Can you be more specific about what you want?
In reply to I can imagine ways of adding by Marc Sabatella
When writing a complete score I believe, like you, that every detail that can save time is a big thing, perhaps many people do not compose books, but since I tried with big satisfaction the album function I realized that I can use Musescore to combine an entire book, including the cover, the author notes, index, captions etc ... and I'd like to do this with more comfort in a powerful and rewarding software as MuseScore.
I'm quite accustomed using graphic software as Pixelmator, Affinity designer for vectors and obviously the user experience that we have in this software is certainly more rewarding in the management and manipulation of objects.
I imagine it would be great in a future that even in MuseScore we can place objects freely and guidelines for the alignment, centering with the same ease with which takes place in dedicated software.
MuseScore is certainly not a word processor such as Pages or Words and even a graphics software.
You are right, the current system is fine, I believe in future can do more to simplify the management of the text, with regard to justification, numbered lists, with more options ready in the inspector, in the same way I can do today in Pages.
Is obvious that musescore offers everything we need and also better than many other famous and expensive.
I think even that our imagination can help to do things more and more perfect.
Love Musescore, It is all I ever wanted.
Thanks Marc.
In reply to When writing a complete score by Tommotide
"I imagine it would be great in a future that even in MuseScore we can place objects freely and guidelines for the alignment, centering with the same ease with which takes place in dedicated software."
Something like this , or do you just mean general document layout sorts of things?
In reply to When writing a complete score by Tommotide
Hmm, I think trying to give MsueScore all the features needed to actually create a book is a mistake. I mean, ability to add blank pages sounds innocuous enough, and while I still don't understand hwo the text facility you mention would be any different / easier than what already exists, let's take that for granted. But what about word wrap - can you really pretend to write a book without that? Then how about paragraph styles - that seems pretty essential. And so on and so on. I think no matter what handful of features you add, MuseScore is just not going to be the right tool for creating books of text. All we would do is make MuseScore bigger, more complex, and harder to maintain, while still falling fall short of the goal, and taking programming resources away from core notation features that benefit everyone, not just those trying to use MuseScore to write books.
Instead, I would much rather see MuseScore focus on notation, let LibreOffice and Scribus focus on text / layout, and then make sure we integrate as well as we can with them so books can be created by combining these programs. And that's the rationale behind things like http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center/musescore-example-ma…. This is a much more effective way to write a book that is mostly text but with musical examples. It is not as well suited to the converse - books that are mostly music but with added text - but then, a *different* integration might be the way to go for that goal,
Either strikes me as much preferable to trying to make MsueScore something it isn't.
But simple enhancements that increase the usablity of MueScore for its intended purpose in creating scores that contain ordinary amounts of text are certainly welcome. So I am still interested to know more about what you are actually proposing and if it has some sort of application other than creating books.
In reply to Hmm, I think trying to give by Marc Sabatella
I fully understand your reasoning and I fully agree with you.
Unfortunately, working with translators online is never easy and so communication can suffer some misunderstanding.
My proposal is born when I started to use more intensively the album function. This spurred me to try to solve everything an entire album in a file produced exclusively in MuseScore, also for the fact that any changes to the distribution of the score are more easy to solve in the same project without jumping from one software to another.
In any case, I think there was a misunderstanding on my idea of book production. What I meant to say was not referred to a textbook with some musical score examples but to a work of music which, in addition to the cover and the various initial layouts, also give the possibility, for example, to insert the full text of a song at the end of the each track. As already mentioned, this can already done, mine was just a simple suggestion to do with the mode most confortable. That is.
I agree that to achieve a text book is better to use dedicated software.
Since you have added the wonderful album function, I think there are many and more reason to think more also in this direction of use, without subtracting importance to other priorityes referred to score.
In any case I use MuseScore with great satisfaction, I will continue to share my ideas with you, to support you in the development and, most al all, to ask help to you everytime I'll need. ;)
In reply to I fully understand your by Tommotide
OK, I understand what you mean by "book" better now, but I still don't understand what *specifically* you are looking for regarding text. For lyrics at the end of a song a song, it seems to me that appending a text frame and inserting the text into that frame is *perfect* aslready. what do you want that is different from that? Maybe posting the score you are having trouble with would help - show why simply appending a frame and adding text does not do what you want, show what you currently have to do to workaround whatever issue you see with the current system, explain in more detail what alternative you would like to see.
In reply to OK, I understand what you by Marc Sabatella
I mean a scenario like this:
Create a blank page on the fly, without adding frames, page breaks etc...
Click on an imaginary text button that make me able to point and click where to add a text (framed or not). Then on the inspector bar all the text facilities offered from a middle level text editor, i mean some more option;
Click on a image button to select an image and then freely add that where i need it.
Repositioning object with visual guides, magnetic alignment or other wistle and bells like this.
In reply to I mean a scenario like by Tommotide
It can be also that my vision is corrupted from the intensive use of graphic software and at the end of all my suggestions does not compete with the actual sistem present in Musescore.
I'm sorry if it seems that I dont appreciate the actual sistem. Several times can be only a question of prospective of point of view in the same purpose.
In reply to I mean a scenario like by Tommotide
So you're talking *only* about adding elements to completely blank pages? That is a very specialized application to be sure for a music notation program. As soon as one assumes there is actually music present ont he page - a natural assumption for a music notation program - then one realizes the text or other object needs to be placed relative to that music, which is exactly what the current system ensures. Attaching elements to a "page" doesn't normally make sense, because as the music layout changes over time (you add measures, change staff size, etc), measures won't be in the same positions relative to their respective pages.
In reply to So you're talking *only* by Marc Sabatella
I completely understand you.
I thank you for the clarification, and for the time that you gave me.
I wish you good work and see you soon for others and various.
Tommaso
In reply to I completely understand by Tommotide
I have run into a similar need when I finished a score and wanted to include a page describing the work (Performance notes, lyrics, about the composer's, etc.). In published works, I often see a page like this, often with the composer's picture/bio and the picture/bio of whomever the series belongs to. (Many choral works do this because they require specific instructions about text, diction, tempo dynamics etc.). Furthermore, it is pretty common for a score to have a few blank pages at the end or beginning, between the cover and the sheet music. Finally, of course, every printed sheet of music needs a cover.
I don't know if the goal of Musescore is to facilitate just the notation of the music, or to print final scores, but I for one would love to be able to put "100% Made with Musescore" on all of my scores. I think that implementing an image feature (or an image page feature, maybe) and using the existing text feature (and maybe a special page break that makes an empty page for text) would make it possible to print scores with covers, performance notes, bios, etc.
Of course, we could use other software to do this, and like I wrote previously, I'm not sure what the ultimate goal of Musescore is (obviously notation, but it seems to me that printing scores is the ultimate goal of notation itself), but I think that it would be a useful addition.
And I also think that performance notes are essential to the notation (even an element of notation itself!) but I understand this can probably be done with the existing text tool.
In reply to I have run into a similar by joseph.branden…
There *is* an image feature - you can drag and drop images to specific notes of your score or to frames, or use Add / Picture from the frame context menu. A title page can be created just by adding a frame then adding text and/or images to that frame.
So this is already possible. The tricky part is that any blocks text, like performance notes, won't benefit from all the nice formatting you'd get doing it in a program that specializes in that. Eg, justified text, word wrap, multiple columns, customizable bullet lists, etc. So it's up to you how much you are willing to compromise over what you get if you used the tools that were optimized for each job.
In reply to I have run into a similar by joseph.branden…
The "100% made with MuseScore" tag is a nice tag!
However Marc is, as usual, right: typographic or DTP tools like (Libre|Open)Office or Scribus allow a flexibility and a precision which for MuseScore would be a waste of resources to (attempt to) emulate.
I opted for a less ambitious tag: "100% Open Source Made", using a variety of tools, each the most suitable (or obtainable) for each task, with a little of scripting 'glue' to keep everything together.
A summary of this process is given in the home page of my score site ; if you want more details, simply ask!
M.