Comments/Notes window?

• Feb 25, 2021 - 01:17

Does MuseScore have a Comments/Notes window? If not, has this previously been requested?

Obviously I can add comments in a text field but I'd like to have an off-score location that's in the score document.

Also wondering if MuseScore offers "privilege" levels of access. In other words, a score might allow access to "public" or "public and private" comments.

Public could be general information about the the score for the user, such as comments on interpretation and performance, transposition, provenance ...

Private might be the scorist's working notes on the state of the score, areas to review, investigate or corrections, collaboration comments. Even comments on issues that arise while constructing or editing the score with MuseScore.

scorster


Comments

In reply to by cadiz1

I tried the plugin and it partially met my expectations. The two major issues are how clicking on the score to edit the music hides the notes window and not being able to have separate notes for each score. The minor issue is not being able to dock the notes window near the inspector or pallettes panel.

In reply to by cadiz1

cadiz1,

I find your comments on the forum ever informative and helpful, so my apologies for failing to respond to your suggestion about the Comments "notepad" plug-in for MuseScore 3.x.

I postponed trying the plug-in primarily because I was super busy sat the time you posted. And also because, though I'm comfortable with plug-ins that produce a function or transformation that I can choose to save with the score, I'm less at ease with a plug-in that stores and retrieves data.

Questions that arise:

1) "Where does the pug-in store the data stored?" Seems best if the data is stored in the score, less ideal if the plug-in caches it elsewhere, as something could happen to that data file(s) or the link to it.

2) "Can I easily access that data if the plug-in fails or becomes obsolete?"

Regarding your inquiry about my "notepad" expectations:

• I expected a simple text field area and the plug-in succeeds in providing essentially that. However, I can envision the need for public and private area, and nested comments, such as collapsable headers (i.e. disclosure triangles) and indented text. These features would be particularly helpful in creating notes for students and others using the scores for study.

• I was disappointed that the Plug-in's window failed to update on switching scores. The "Add your comments" window updates only after I click it. I can see how that could cause confusion at a glance ...

• Also, with almost no use other than testing in two scores, I once found that there were three instances of score 1's notes! So I'm not sure about the overall integrity/useability.

• I'd really rather depend on tools baked into MuseScore, particularly when the goal is to store score related data. And if it doesn't require a change in file format, it seems like a relatively simple addition compared to the significantly complex challenges that the developers frequently accomplish.

Thanks for your follow up!

scorster

In reply to by scorster

>> with almost no use other than testing in two scores, I once found that there were three instances of a particular score's notes

I now see the probably cause. If the Comments plug-in window is already open, again choosing Plug-ins>Comments creates a duplicate of that window. Ideally the plug-in would check to see if it's window is already open and simply bring it to the front, rather than duplicating it.

In reply to by scorster

For anyone following along, I removed a sentence from my previous post about possible "cross-contamination," due to the Comments window failing to update on activating an opened score, where the user might inadvertently enter comments related to the wrong score.

Naturally cross-contamination would be unlikely since the window updates once clicked, except perhaps if the Comments area was empty or contained comments identical to those of an already opened score.

I agree, a simple notepad would be of great help in many cases, for instance when you have lyrics but don't want to put them into the score until you are happy with both words and music. I can see a possible problem with file compatibility though, but that should not be impossible to solve.

I currently work with a separate notepad, but that's not ideal.

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