Difference in Musescore files

• Nov 9, 2020 - 23:01

Hello all
I have found that I have two particular file types, All supported files and Musescore files.
Sometimes (it seems) that a score opens inSupported files which causes a nuisance.
What is the difference please?
Keep well everyone


Comments

@ohdearme
Are you getting confused between the standard MuseScore format filename.mscz
and the backup MuseScore file format .filename.mscz, ?
Notice that the backup format starts with a full stop (period) and ends with a comma.

Backup files are probably not the most recent score and are only meant to be used if your original file is lost, damaged or deleted by mistake.

"All supported files" isn't a single file type, it is, as the name says, simply a list of all support file type types. MuseScore is capable of opening lots of different file types. But there is no such thing as a "score opening in supported files". Opening a file doesn't change the type of the file, and once open, you can then save it or export it to any format you like.

So it seems probably you are misunderstanding something, but it isn't clear what. Please explain in more detail what you are trying to do and what is causing you trouble, then we can understand and assist better.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Good morning and thank you everybody. It seems that I didn't make myself clear.

When I open a (saved) score, it opens in "All Supported Files with a bunch of ms files listed in the bottom right box. (Yes Marc)

I'm sure that it used to open in a box, "Musescore files .mscz .mscx".

I am confused, is there a configuration that I should use, or should I forget it?

Thanks for your patience.

Best

Alan

In reply to by ohdearme

@ohdearme
I checked on my old version of MuseScore 2.3.2: it also offers "All supported files" when you open a file.

The difference is this: MuseScore 3.5.2 now automatically recognizes and opens backup files, where the filename starts with a full stop (period) and the suffix is .mscz, (ends with a comma).

I may be wrong, but I cannot see any way in Edit > Preferences to limit the file list to just files with the .mscz suffix.

A workaround is to type *.mscz in the File name field of the Load Score window. That will filter out all the supported file formats except standard MuseScore files with the suffix .mscz - which is what you want.

[EDIT] "I'm sure that it used to open in a box, "Musescore files .mscz .mscx"."
Perhaps you are thinking of the Save As dialogue? See below for the Save as type dropdown:
MuseScore Save As dialog.png

In reply to by ohdearme

As said before, there is no such thing as "opens in All Supported Files". A file either opens or it doesn't. What you are seeing as "All Supported Files" isn't a special place that it opens it. That is just a dropdown menu telling MuseScore to show you all supported files - not just MuseScore files, but also MIDI, MusicXML, and other formats. You can, if you prefer, tell MuseScore to show you only specific file types, just click that dropdown and change to the specific filetype you want to limit your view to. Is there a particular reason you are wanting to do this, some particular problem you are trying to solve? Normally you should be fine just leaving that alone. It's just a way to limit which files are shown if you happen to have a folder with so many files of so many different types that it is hard to find what you want.

You wrote:
Sometimes (it seems) that a score opens inSupported files which causes a nuisance.
What is the difference please?

MuseScore can import and export different types of files.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/file-formats

If you are opening files to use in the MuseScore notation editing software, the best file types are those ending in .mscz or .mscx as they are native to MuseScore. Those are listed as: "Musescore files (* .mscz *.mscx") and should open and display perfectly in MuseScore.

Other file types, for example take MIDI...
A MIDI (*.mid *.midi) file can be played by Windows Media Player.
A MIDI file can also be opened in MuseScore, but since MIDI omits precise notation formatting information, it may have to be "cleaned up" to look presentable as written music. You have encountered this yourself with "the imported sheet music full of ties."
https://musescore.org/en/node/14225

A good practice is to make file extensions visible so that you can tell the difference as to which will give the best results when opened in MuseScore:
See:
https://www.howtogeek.com/205086/beginner-how-to-make-windows-show-file…

This way, if you have a file "Moonlight Sonata.mscz" and another file "Moonlight Sonata.mid", you'll know which to choose for MuseScore.

If you are using Windows (operating system) and see "All Supported Files" in the Load Score dialog with file extensions visible anyone can tell the difference between the two Moonlight Sonata files. Without the file extension showing they both appear as "Moonlight Sonata".

However...
When you look carefully where it reads "All Supported Files" and click on the small 'drop down' arrow you will see and be able to view (and select) only MuseScore files (.mscz .mscx) regardless whether or not file extensions are displayed.
File_chooser.png

BTW: Windows Media Player can play midi files. So can MuseScore. Windows Media Player cannot play .mscz files... so again, someone who does not know (or see) the file extension may try to open "Moonlight Sonata" in Windows Media Player and find out they tried to load the .mscz (MuseScore) file by accident into the media player.
That can also cause a nuisance... ;-)

In reply to by Jm6stringer

Hi - I have a question looks like you might have an answer for about formats.
The files are connected to a music ed book I published a few years ago - they're part of a free download for customers - and there's a few hundred of them.
I did the batch export, mscz & mscx - Musicxml & xml - and PDF, all good. (thanks JoJo)
It's generally a good idea to keep a download as small as possible, wondering if there's a good reason to include the mscx and xml files, or will mscz and musicxml be enough ... ?
Thanks!
DS

In reply to by Duke Sharp

mscz and mxl (!) should be enough, buth are compressed formats (for MuseScore resp. MusicXML). Whereas xml and musicxml are having the very same content, and are uncompressed MusicXML, so having xml and musicxml is superfluous, one is enough, mxl instead would save more space.

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