eliminating duplicate text entries
I fairly often find I have entered the same text, such as dynamics, twice at the same spot, perhaps because I copy and paste a lot. Is there an easy way to eliminate, or at least identify, such duplications? On the screen they look slightly bf, but amidst text and symbols of various weights, they do not stand out. I have tried selecting all text (or all of some kind) followed by Ctrl x, but I still don't find the duplicates easy to identify, especially in a score with several parts often with the same dynamics, rit's, dim's, etc.
Comments
Normally copy and paste would replace the destination I would guess the real problem is that you double-clicked rather than single when adding from the palette, except that generally doesn't create a problem with text, only with lines and maybe a couple of other symbols (because after the first click of text, the text is now selected instead of the note, so the second click is a no-op).
For most element types, autoplace will make the duplicates avoid each other, so it is mostly the element types that MuseScore tries to align vertically where they will overlap - dynamics/hairpins, pedal, and volta. So you can focus on those element types. Plus whatever others you've actually found yourself duplicating.
If you post a sample score with the issue, maybe we'll be able to guess better how the problem might have occurred, and that in turn might give us more insight into what to look for and perhaps find a creative solution for those cases specifically.
In reply to Normally copy and paste… by Marc Sabatella
I may have eliminated most duplicates by now, but on the last page, in m 21, I copied the fl mf to the bn to illustrate the problem. And I still haven't solved another major problem. My f's, p's, etc. don't look the same and I can't even find out what they really are. First page, m 2, the fl f is not custom formatted according to the inspector, the others are custom formatted, all are free serif 11 according to the inspector and according to the window under the navigator, but they are not all alike. I'd like to change all to the more vertical, heavier versions but can't find a reasonable way to do that.
In reply to I may have eliminated most… by jwpratt
It looks like you've maybe run the "remove custom formatting" on your dynamics, but that kills the ability to use the dynamics characters - they are custom formatting. Normally a dynamic character comes not from your specific text font (FreeSerif in this case), but the "musical text font" as per Format / Style / General (Emmentaler Text in this case). That's necessary because those special characters are not found in most text fonts, only in music fonts. So internally, there is a change from FreeSerif to Emmentaler Text for the dynamic characters. Removing that the custom formatting leaves it as just plain FreeSerif, so you get whatever character was at that Unicode position in FreeSerif, or maybe whatever fallback font gets chosen instead.
To fix, you'd need to re-enter them. For the simply dynamics, maybe simplest to delete them and re-add from the palette. For the ones with extra text also ("sempre" etc), you could delete the script character and type the proper dynamic character - Ctrl+Shift+letter.
Measure 21 doesn't seem to show any duplicate dynamics, but it does show the ones where apparently you removed the custom formatting. Either that or you tried to use copy/psste within a text, instead of just copying the full dynamic as a whole. Copy/paste of individual characters within a text indeed loses custom formatting as well.
In reply to It looks like you've maybe… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks. I would naturally like to fix my problems without having to go to each instance individually, but I gather that's not possible.
If you flip the lowest mf in m 21 on the last page, another mf will appear. At least it does on my screen.
The inspector offers "remove custom formatting" for all four mf's in the measure, so I assume that means they are now custom formatted. There is no other text to be within. Are we looking at the same page?
In reply to Thanks. I would naturally… by jwpratt
Apparently not, I just used Ctrl+F to go to measure 21, but since this piece has multiple movements, that didn't take me where you were looking. I've found it now, and see the duplication, but I still don't understand how that happened. If I delete one of them to get it back how it presumably was at one time, then copy the third staff down to the fourth, I still have only one mf - the one that was previously presented is automatically cleared on the paste just like the notes themselves are. So how did you make that happen?
In reply to Apparently not, I just6 used… by Marc Sabatella
Sorry about the measure number. What I see on my screen doesn't display it. Even if I thought to look for it, measure properties gives me the current section measure number. Is there an easy way to find what the current ctrl+f type of measure number is?
In the measure in question, click on mf in the 3rd staff, ctrl c, click on D just below, ctrl v, click on lowest mf, x to flip flips one mf leaving another behind.
In reply to Sorry about the measure… by jwpratt
Status bar shows the global / internal measure number - the one you get starting from 1 and just counting every measure.
Anyhow, as noted, I can see that somehow you did get the duplicate, but what I don't understand is how that happened, since ordinary copy/paste of the measure would not cause that. Are you saying you delberately copied just the dynamic alone onto a note that already had a dynamic? Indeed, this will result in two dynamics, by design - it's a similar technique as you'd use for creating two sets of chord symbols, etc. I can't think of why you'd be pasting a dynamic on a note that already had a dynamic, other than to do exactly this?
In reply to Status bar shows the global … by Marc Sabatella
Thanks. I don't ordinarily show the status bar. Far too much vertical space is used up by horizontal bars already. To be honest, I wasn't even aware of its existence. I hope by the next time I need it I will remember how to find it. I ordinarily use the measure numbers in the score in making notes about the score and communicating with collaborators (though I seem to remember a problem of their differing between score and parts). Come to think of it, collaborators are looking at pdf's so numbers on the status bar would not be available to them.
I did a lot of copy/pasting (or adding from the dynamics palette) in the process of trying to get all p's, f's, etc. to be the same. I may have done some operations on limited selections which took place partly off screen. Or I may simply not have noticed that I was pasting on a note that had the same dynamic. Or I may have assumed that, if it was the same dynamic, the old one would be removed. Anyway, in the end, I went through the score note by note and checked each dynamic, fixing them as needed. It didn't take as long as I feared. I wish I thought I would remember and avoid (how?) this problem in future.
In reply to Thanks. I don't ordinarily… by jwpratt
So you found a way to disable the status bar? (Via View > Status bar probably) That is on by default, so you must have disabled it.
But indeed that won't show on the PDFs
In reply to So you found a way to… by Jojo-Schmitz
If I did, it was a long time ago. Just now, I found it as you say, but already unchecked. Could it happen when I opened a 3.0 score (say) in 3.6, as I would do when hoping to format a new score like an old one without having to making a dozen or more format changes?
In reply to If I did, it was a long time… by jwpratt
It is not a per-score setting, so no.
In reply to Thanks. I don't ordinarily… by jwpratt
FWIW you must have been aware of the status bar at one point when you went to the trouble of turning it off :-). But I actually find it far more useful than any of the other toolbars since pretty much everything else is doable with a shortcut. So you might consider leaving it on but disabling the others instead. Or at least get rid of the “fluff” and keep only the controls you really need, and condense them to a single row.
The status bar numbers are not meant to be useful to anyone but you and to MuseScore. It’s the way of uniquely identifying measures for purposes like Ctrl+F or when MuseScore reports corrupt measures, etc.
As for avoiding the problem, to be honest I still don’t understand how you got into a situation where you deliberately pasted a dynamic on top of a note that already had one. But, to avoid this, simply don’t do that.
In reply to FWIW just have been aware of… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks. I don't see anything on the status bar that I would use except for communicating with you (and Jojo and anyone else who chimes in).
The bar starting 'File' I use a lot. I presume the underlined letters are shortcuts, but I don't see how to use them. The bar is thin, but I could easily see combining it with another if I knew how.
The next line starting with the new score icon indeed has fluff but I often use concert pitch. Maybe I could combine it with the next line, where I definitely need the note durations so I know what I am about to enter.
The file names in the next line I also need, thought I wish they didn't pile up so when there are parts.
So I think there is not a lot I can eliminate, but I could do a little if I knew how. Is it laid out somewhere?
In reply to Thanks. I don't see anything… by jwpratt
When you say "bar starting File", I guess you are talking about the main menu? That's not one meant to be hidable. I meant the actual file toolbar - the one with icons for open file etc. So, what you might want to do is have a custom toolbar - see View / Toolbars - containing just what you want. Also see the Handbook section on Workspaces to learn about creating different layouts you can easily switch between.
Regarding the duration, those you 8definitely* don't need, those are easy shortcuts, just the numbers consecutively. So if you're looking to save space, that's an easy win.
In fact, this discussion just inspired me to do a version of this myself for my main "Editing" workspace:
I expect I'll tweak this a bit over time, but it's the kind of thing I mean;
Regarding the status bar, info on the type of element selected can often be useful when looking at scores other your own and you aren't sure if something is text or a symbol or what, also, being able to check what mode you're in can occasionally be useful Seeing the select note name can be useful if you ever need to deal with, and seeing the sounding pitch for transposing instruments can also be useful at times. To me it's just useful enough to leave on in most of my workspaces. Only in my "Presentation" workspace - where I make it just about the score itself, for doing educational videos - do I turn it off.
In reply to Thanks. I would naturally… by jwpratt
Yes, all dynamics markings will report they have custom formatting, for exactly the reason I stated - the special characters p, f, and m (plus the others sometimes used) all come from a font other than FreeSerif. So even though the dynamic marking as a whole is set to FreeSerif, those specific characters come from Emmentaler Text. That's the custom formatting. Don't remove it unless your goal is to not have regular dynamics characters.