Locations of dynamics
Can you tell the alignment of each of these dynamics from the picture?
Here's the actual test score it came from
dynamics locations.mscz
By the way, the correct answer from left to right is:
Left justified
Center justified
Right Justified
Left justified (with text for reference)
I sort of looks like everything is supposed to be based upon the alignment being with the center of the note when you use only a dynamic. When you add text, what it looks like in reality is the the left aligned dynamic is aligned on the right edge of the note and the right aligned dynamic is aligned on the left edge of the note.
What I was trying to do was set the default alignment to left justified. This should put the dynamic to the of center on the note when no text is attached. This is actually a common location for dynamics. When I add text, it would stay put and the text would grow out to the right.
Comments
This has bothered me too. I can certain tell the aligment from the picture because I'm familiar with how it works. What we really need is a special alignment that says, "center first word under note, then let the rest extend to the right". It's kind of an awkward thing to do, and then invites questions about what defines "word" (eg, if you write "mp, sempre" does that include the comma? what about if the phrase is "sempre mp"?). So in the end, I pretty much resign myself to manual adjustment. Sometimes I added the dynamics as two separate elements - the "mp" by itself first with default alignment and position, then a separate "sempre" I can position manually.
In reply to This has bothered me too. I… by Marc Sabatella
You're almost stuck splitting them into two parts now, but I would prefer to be able to write mp, sempre and have the mp in a reasonable spot. Offset to the right side of the dynamic is not acceptable. I've played with the x offset a bit, but I haven't yet found a good setting that will work with the left justified yet. When I get into a score entry mode, I don't want to mess with details like that. Perhaps I'll figure out what looks good when I go back to tweak my current score. I would like to see left justified, be left justified with the left side of the note rather than the right side of the note.
I don't think I would often use the center first word under note option, but I do see where people might find it useful.