how to import a PDF file?

• Feb 20, 2018 - 17:50

Does anyone have a step-by-step procedure for importing a PDF file? I see the option on the GUI but it doesn't seem to do anything....


Comments

After you click Import PDF in the menu, you will be taken to a website with a button that says "Select PDF file." Pressing this will allow you to select the PDF on your computer you would like converted to MuseScore. Returning to this page later will give an update on the progress of the import or the failure of the import if applicable.

In reply to by bramdod

It should popup a dialog showing the contents of a folder on your computer. if that folder is not the one that contains your PDF, simply browse to the desired folder. if you're saying you don't even see the dialog, be sure your browser isn't blocking popups or disabling JavaScript or anything else that would prevent websites from working properly.

It's an experimental feature. So far, I've not been successful at importing any lead sheets I've tried. They're very simple, Real Book-quality PDFs too. It doesn't give you an explanation why it failed.

In reply to by steve@manes.nyc

If you literally mean, the handwritten fakebook called the Real Book, that's the explanation right there - the AI that attempts to turn a picture of a score into an actual score doesn't deal well with anything but traditionally engraved music.

There are other third-party programs to attempt to convert the PDF to MusicXML that might do better here, but in general, you normally need to spend more time fixing the errors than it would to just enter the music by hand A typical real Book chart shouldn't take more than 15 minutes or so; you could easily spend several time that trying to clean up a PDF import.

In reply to by steve@manes.nyc

I had just finished entering an entire piece for solo piano (treble and bass clef) into Sibelius when I discovered that I couldn't change the colour of individual noteheads in a chord in my version of sib. So I tried MuseScore and discovered that it CAN do that (I need to grey out a load of tied notes because they're incredibly hard to read the ties in some tricky sections). I needed to export the sib file as something that MuseScore could import. Sib can export to MusicXML but only if you pay for a really expensive plugin, no thanks! So I printed from sib to PDF using the free program PrimoPDF at full print resolution (600dpi) and then used the ImportPDF option in MuseScore which meant signing up for a free account and then uploading it to the server, waiting for the conversion to happen, and then downloading it and opening it in MuseScore. SUCCESS! It had added a few bogus rests here and there which just needed tidying up, and it messed up some ties so I tidied those up, and it missed out all the grace notes but they were easy to add back in. Overall it was dramatically quicker to do all that than to enter the whole lot again from scratch in MuseScore, and now I know the technique I can convert some of my other sib scores even quicker if I need to. Very happy! I'm grateful for this thread as if gave me the hint on how to go about conversion.

This is probably the wrong place for such a comment, which someone will point out. Nevertheless, I wanted to say something positive. I agree about Sibelius First by the way, tried and failed to get an SATB vocal score set up, then gave up. I had a score Piano SSAATTB processed by the MuseScore decoder. It came up Score Corrupted, open anyway? On opening the score looked promising if a little Morecambe and Wise. Re-opening produced the same Corrupt warning, but exporting to MusicXML and re-importing worked without apparent error. I think it would be possible to tidy up in MuseScore, but exporting MIDI or MusicXML to Cubase allowed easier editing. The piano grand stave was pretty close before misinterpreting a time signature change, and I think I should be able to move the rest and the vocal parts around to nearer Andre Previn accuracy. So it wasn't ideal, but should save time.

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