Palettes help please
In the breaths and pauses palette I want to insert an 'optional' breath mark by enclosing in brackets, i.e. (’) - not a perfect representation by the way.
I have exported the B&P palette, unzipped it and looked at palette.xml but ground to a halt as there seems to be no text there and I don't really understand what the subtypes are.
This may make it clearer
How do I get the brackets round some non-existent text - I can't see the breath mark?
Is is simply a matter of inserting 
(Sorry could ot get the code to display even using the code /code tags)
Input from someone who knows about these things would be much appreciated.
Comments
If the use is not very frequent you could add the braces to a note (from the Accidentals palette) and then place them
In reply to If the use is not very by Shoichi
An interesting solution that at least allows for similarity of text throughout. As you say, if the use is infrequent, this is a suitable method. It would be nice some time in the future to see a breath mark in parenthesis as a standard symbol on the breaths and pauses palette. Thank you for your input.
Applying brackets to a note and moving the brackets will work only if the note never changes position due to page layout changes etc.
You can , however, enter a couple of brackets with a space in between them and then drag the breath mark into the brackets. Next copy that part of the screen and use a graphics program to make your own special symbol. Paste it back into a score and [Ctrl][Shift]drag it onto a customised palette for later use. It won't be perfect but should stand up a bit better to score re-layouts. I have attached a small graphics file.
You can also play about with symbols from the Z palette. I have attached a palette that you can save and then load into a custom workspace. It contains a curious-looking glyph that turns into something resembling a breath mark with brackets around it. For reasons that are beyond me it will move successfully if you drag just the left-hand part of the symbols but will get messed you if you drag any other parts.
In short, there isn't a perfect way of doing this (yet).
In reply to Applying brackets to a note by underquark
Ah! Lord underquark, Knight Commander of the Ancient Order of Paletteers. Thanks for your continued palette support. I do appreciate the effort and the real benefit of simply dragging the whole thing from a palette on to the score.
In reply to Applying brackets to a note by underquark
Until such time as we have an 'optional breath' symbol on the palette I have gone for your text version and incorporated it into the 'breaths and pauses palette' (at font size 14 and not bold - just personal preference). Although I would have preferred the actual breath symbol this one works for me being a cohesive unit I can move about as I wish.
This shows it on a test score:
Many thanks to everyone for their input.
The palette doesn't allow for arbitrary combinations of symbols except as text. And you don't need to edit the palette file to do that - simply create the text in your score and add it to the custom palette normally. You can use the F2 "Special Characters" palette while entering text to access the musical symbols.
In reply to The palette doesn't allow for by Marc Sabatella
The palette doesn't allow for arbitrary combinations of symbols except as text
Actually, it does ;) One can combine any symbol from the Z palette together and MuseScore will recall their relative position.
* Press Z, search for breath and drag one on a note in the score
* Search for parenthesis, and drag the left and right one on the breath mark symbol you just added.
* Ctrl + Drag the breath mark to a palette.
It's a bit buggy, while dragging the parenthesis breath mark to the score or to the palette the parenthesis are not displayed well, but it works. Actually it should be possible to make it work with a real breath mark in a next version...
In reply to The palette doesn't allow for by [DELETED] 5
>>Ctrl + Drag the breath mark to a palette
Could not get that bit to work. Once off the score the combination just vanished.
In reply to >>Ctrl + Drag the breath mark by Grandpa David
Actually it is Ctrl+Shift+drag
See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/custom-palettes#customizing-palettes
In reply to Actually it is by Jojo-Schmitz
:) Thanks
In reply to The palette doesn't allow for by [DELETED] 5
Wow, I had no idea that would work - thanks for the tip! But I guess I could have said, "except as text *or symbols*" - the point is, it still isn't a real breath mark with the layout and possible playback semantics that would normally involve. At least until the next version I guess...
In reply to Wow, I had no idea that would by Marc Sabatella
Apparently still not available in MuseScore 4. :(
In reply to Apparently still not… by jscaranomusic
Can you explain which part of this thread you mean? A number of different aspects were discussed.
In reply to Can you explain which part… by Marc Sabatella
The main question the OP was asking: how to add a bracketed breath mark. It's been suggested/requested many times for inclusion in future updates, as it's a very common notation, but unfortunately it's still missing from the breaths/pauses palette in the newest version.
In reply to The main question the OP was… by jscaranomusic
I'm not sure bracketed breath marks are more common than any other bracketed symbol. The plan is to eventually allow you to add brackets to anything just by pressing the bracket key. Definitely makes more sense than adding brackets variants of every single symbol to the palette.
In reply to I'm not sure bracketed… by Marc Sabatella
I think the only more common bracketed symbols would be courtesy accidentals, and maybe bracketed noteheads. Bracketed breath marks are incredibly common for wind instruments, and are usually considered a different symbol, although being able to add brackets to a regular one would be just as good. There have been a lot of posts here about workarounds for inserting them (things like inserting "(ʼ)" using the lyric tool, or "( )" over the top of a regular breath mark, but in both cases they don't look quite right, and won't stay put if something changes the spacing and moves things around) because they're a necessary symbol and don't have the same meaning as the regular breath mark. I started using what I thought was an alternative, but I realised it's just a combination of a breath mark and a fermata, so it would actually affect the duration of the note or rest it applies to. I first came looking for it about a year ago, shortly after I started using MuseScore 3, and found comments and questions dating back to 2015 where people had been asking why it was missing, and I think I saw a reply saying that it would be included in the release of MuseScore 3. I'm really surprised it still isn't in MuseScore 4.
In reply to I think the only more common… by jscaranomusic
No, there are lots of requests for things like brackets articulations, brackets ornaments, bracketed fingerings, bracket time and key signatures - really, you name it, it's been requested. Accidentals and noteheads are already supported of course. Articulations and ornaments are the most commonly requested, followed closely by time signatures. Everything everything else - including breath marks - comes up far less often, but still, it makes the point, it really needs to be a general solution.
Meanwhile, the best workaround to me is to simply place the whole thing as text. That is, a single piece of text (I'd recommend either fingering or staff text) with the parens and the breath mark (added from special characters). This will work much better than the other methods you mention. You can even add this back to your palette for easy reuse if it's something you personally use a lot. And if you need the playback, also add an invisible breath mark.
In reply to No, there are lots of… by Marc Sabatella
I've tried that, and the breath mark is so incredibly tiny in relation to the brackets that I have to almost triple its font size to make it look the right size, but then it's way higher up than the brackets, and creates a huge unnecessary gap between the staff it applies to and the one above it. I've also downloaded the custom palette someone provided further up this thread (which may have actually used an apostrophe instead), but I think it was made for MuseScore 2, and I can't find any way to add it to versions 3 or 4.