How to set up a common title-text block at top of first page of each part?

• Jan 28, 2020 - 04:26

I am using 3.4.1 on Linux Mint, trying to pull parts from an orchestra score. The usual format is to have a full-width block at the top of the first page of each part, giving the title and composer. The block is the same on each part (except for the instrument name at the upper left corner). In 2.2 IIRC it was possible to use the default title-page text frame by reducing its vertical size, and it would flow onto the first page of each part. In 3.x I have been fighting to get it to do this. Is there a procedure I need to use?

The text editing and positioning in MS seems a bit odd for someone used to a word processor. Copy-and-paste does not always work, and when it does, it often loses font properties (point size, positioning, etc.) that have been set manually. I would guess that the intended approach is to set up a style entry for this one purpose; if so, it would be good to have some explicit description of the procedure, or some examples.

I even tried exporting the score from 3.x in .mxl and importing it to 2.3.2 to work on it there, but 2.3.2 seemed to choke on the file format; it rendered the score (with dynamics mispositioned vertically), but I couldn't add staff text where I needed Roman numerals for the movement numbers. Is there any reason why .mxl files from 3.x might not properly import into 2.x?

Comments

• Jan 28, 2020 - 04:41

It's not quite clear what you mean - the parts should already get their title blocks by default. Could you attach the score you are having trouble with and give steps to reproduce?

It's true MuseScore doesn't have all the capabilities of a word processor (although it has more than a word processor has notation capabilities!) Style settings are indeed useful, but I'm not clear on which "one purpose" you mean. Again, an actual score to refer to would be helpful. Also, note that if you copy a whole text item, as opposed to going into edit mode and selected and copying the text within it, it does preserve all style.

Reply

• Jan 28, 2020 - 05:23

Marc: See score attached. To show what happens, I tried again creating the first 3 parts: flute, oboe and clarinet in that order. The oboe and clarinet parts got the frame & contents from the score title page, but the flute part did not - this is what I was fighting with.

I also found that the procedure when using File | Parts from the main menu that worked for me was:
1) Click "Single part"
2) Click on the part name in the list - it appears in "Instruments in part"
3) Expand "Instruments in part" and check the voices used
4) Un-expand "Instruments in part" and copy (ctrl-C) the part name
5) Paste the part name in the "part title" box (otherwise it just reads "Part")
6) Click "OK" to create the part
Otherwise I was unable to get the part name to appear.

Thanks again for your quick response, and please pardon my frustration - I know there's always a way, even if it's not immediately clear to me.

Attachment Size
DHF-Sinfonietta-Jan2016-MS3-parts.mscz 230.1 KB

Reply

• Jan 28, 2020 - 05:41

Not sure why you're doing it one part at a time or what went wrong in the attempt, but I do indeed see the fute part seems messed up. So I deleted your parts and regenerated them all at once and it worked fine. But I also tried doing it one at a time and it worked fine that way too, and without all the extra steps you listed: just click Single part, type a name, double-click the instrument. Although I guess copy/paste works too. Still, no need to mess with the voices unless you specifically want to try using the new voices-to-parts feature - but fair warning, that feature doesn't work well enough for me to recommend.

Reply

• Jan 29, 2020 - 05:26

Well, I think I have it figured out. Along the way I discovered the text-property items in Styles for title/subtitle/composer, which I now understand is the way to set font sizes, etc. As for the voices-to-parts feature, I had no idea what those check boxes were for, but I was checking them anyway. So what is voices-to-parts meant to do? Is it documented yet?

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.