MuseScore does not support footnotes

• Mar 22, 2019 - 17:38
Reported version
3.0
Priority
P2 - Medium
Type
Functional
Frequency
Few
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Reproducibility
Always
Status
GitHub issue
Regression
No
Workaround
No
Project

MuseScore doesn't have, the possibility to include footnotes attached to a note. Footnotes are important in annotated scores, where comments on style, technique, historical data, etc. are necessary. A footnote should be placed at the bottom of the page, immediately above the footer, and should always be on the same page as the note which it is attached to. If for any reason after an edit the measure containing such note happened to jump to another page, the footnote should move along to the new page. Ideally, footnotes should suppoprt images.
One property of footnotes could be autonumbering according to several optional stlyles: arabic numbers, roman numbers, low case letters, capital letters or some type of symbols, and would be enclosed between brackets (or another custom method). Parts should inherit the footnotes originated in the part but visibility should be optional.


Comments

Most importantly, the footnote needs to be on the page referring to it. In a score with two words readers may need help pronouncing, I put a * after each word, then added a horizontal frame at the bottom of the page, but if later score changes affect pagination, I'll need to move the frame manually.

Now that it has been announced that MuseScore will turn from just an engraving application to also an aid for composers, footnotes should be taken more seriously since contemporary music composers very frequently use footnotes to explain performance details.

I'm not sure if this is still being considered as a feature, but it would make a big difference to those of us using MuseScore to create academic-style editions of music. Footnotes to explain editorial decisions etc that 'travel' with the notes in question when scores are reformatted, and auto-number, would be really helpful. Any current workaround is clunky.