Newbie question about Text Styles
In the "Edit Text Styles" dialog, I can't figure out how it's determined whether the text is below or above the staff. Is it one of the alignment settings? What reference point are the horizontal and vertical offsets measured from?
Solomon
Comments
The position of staff text is measured from the top staff line - the vertical offset specified in the text style plus any additional offset specified in the Inspector. The alignment controls which edge of the text is aligned to that point. So, with a vertical offset of 0 and bottom alignment, the bottom of the text is right on the top staff line.
To get text below the staff, set the vertical offset to some number greated that 4sp (the height of the staff).
In reply to The position of staff text is by Marc Sabatella
Ah, that will help me tremendously. I've always had great difficulty remembering whether positive offset values were upwards or downwards. I always just guess... and guess wrong. (I usually decrease the offset when I want the item to move downwards, and then I hit "Apply", see that it went upwards instead, and then proceed from there...)
What I would like to see would be some additional reference points in addition to the top staff line: it would be useful if there were one signifying the top edge and one signifying the bottom edge of an invisible bounding box containing all the music (noteheads, stems, beams, ties, slurs, etc) in the system. Generally I want the chord symbols to be as close to the top of the staff as possible without hitting any music, and the lyrics to be as close to the bottom of the staff as possible without hitting any music.
In the absence of such a feature, Marc, what is your recommendation for getting the chords and the lyrics on each system to be as close to the staff as possible on each system? Bear in mind that I frequently need to transpose my lead sheets into various keys (for a one-time gig with a particular vocalist), and usually I just print it in the new key without saving.
Solomon
In reply to Ah, that will help me by Solomon Douglas
I've always had great difficulty remembering whether positive offset values were upwards or downwards. (I usually decrease the offset when I want the item to move downwards, and then I hit "Apply", see that it went upwards instead, and then proceed from there...)
Ah yes :-)
I, too, grappled with this apparent 'idiosyncrasy' - considering that Cartesian coordinates increase when moving upwards.
(On the other hand, MuseScore's horizontal offset actually honors the Cartesian order.)
Regards.
In reply to Ah, that will help me by Solomon Douglas
First, you'll be happy to hear that for the next major release of MuseScore, many elements will automatically position themselves to avoid notes. Lyrics in particular will work exactly the way you say. Still plenty of details to work out; it's a long ways from being ready.
Anyhow, for now, easier is to set a reasonable default, then for any system where you see a problem (either too high or too low), just select the music on the system, right click a chord symbol, Select / All Similar Elements in Range Selection, then use the Inspector to move them up or down together. And yes, this process needs to be repeated for the transposed versions.
A way to secify text a specific distance below the staff (as opposed to a specific distance below the top line) is a common request (well, not *that* common actually, but common enough). As of a few days ago a control was added to allow lyrics to be placed above staff, hopefully something similar will follow for other text.