Cannot convert to XML and pdf

• Feb 15, 2012 - 14:28

As a (Danish) beginner on MuseScore I have not been able to convert my *mscz-files to MusicXML and PDF. According to the Handbook, it should be easy: Save as - MusicXML or PDF - Enter. But this does not change anything. The files remain
*mscz-files.
I use the MuseScore version 1.1 on a Windows Vista Home Edition PC. Where is my mistake?

Attached a *mscz-file as an example.

Best regards
Ulrick Moos

Attachment Size
After You My Dear Gaston.mscz 6.86 KB

Comments

Hi Ulrick,

The "Save as" menu item does what the name implies: it saves the score you are working on as another type of file, but of course, your score remains as it is, the command does not change it. It is more an exporting rather than a conversion.

When you issue this command, you are asked where to save the new file: if you look there, you will find your new file in the new format.

Your score is still in msc(x|z) format, and I do not think you would get rid of it: msc(x|z) is the native MuseScore format and the only format which keeps all the info: if you want to read an XML, you need to import it and, even if the XML has been exported by MuseScore, some detail might easily be lost or altered in the process (not to speak of PDF, which you cannot even import into MuseScore in any case).

Hoping this helps,

M.

In reply to by Miwarre

Hi Miwarre
Thanks for taking an interest in the problems of a newbie. However, after the command: Save as - MusicXML, my PC does not ask me 'where to save the new file'. So, where in my system do I look for my new XML-file, if I wish to export it to a friend with another notation system? (I suppose by email, with the XML-file attached??)

Best regards
Ulrick

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Hi Jojo
Here is what happens when I click save - MusicXML:
A dialogue box shows up, telling me that the file concerned (After you, my dear Gaston.mscz) already exists. Furthermore asking me whether I want to replace the existing file. - By answering 'Yes' and clicking Enter, the box closes, but still, I have only the same mscz-file, and I cannot imagine where a possible XML-file might hide itself in my system. By answering 'No' and clicking Enter, the box opens again, asking the same (stupid) question. - Same thing happens when trying to convert/export a non-compressed backup-file.
I wonder if other Vista users might have the same experience.

Regards
Ulrick

In reply to by ju.moos

That 'overwrite' dialog is plain wrong.
'Save as' keeps he old name include the extension (.mscz here), that file does exist, so it shows that "overwrite" dialog, but if you say 'yes' it writes file.mscz.pdf and to the same place the file.mscz already is.
So in the "save as" dialog remove that ".mscz" and save then.

And yes, this (esp. the need to delete the extension) looks like a real bug and annoys me since quite a while.
And another reason why I very much like the batch export plugin

In reply to by ju.moos

I think the point is that the save as dialog itself contains the controls you would need to tell MuseScore where to save the file. You can change the filename, or you can change the folder. So when in doubt, try saving with a different name or to a different folder. If there is some sort of bug with what happens if you specify a file that already exists and don't change the extension in some particular cases, OK, make sure that's reported (I've enver noticed any such problem myself, and I overwrite files all the fime, but I don't doubt that bugs exist). But bug or no bug, you can definitely get the job dome somlly by specifying a filename that *doesn't* already exist, or saving to a folder on which there is not already a file by that name. And the place you'd do that is the very same "save as" dialog where you are telling it you want a MusicXML file in the first place.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Thanks a lot, Jojo and Marc. You saved my day. - Since the converted file still had the extension mscz, I did not understand that it actually had changed to an XML-file. On hindsight I recognize that the xml-files in my folder use another icon and name themselves: 'Type: Open Document-tekst'. Furthermore, if I click 'Save as' on one of my xml-files, the box tells me that it is xml.
Thank you again, now I will continue my exploration of MuseScore.
Regards
Ulrick

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