Using a bespoke font
I'm testing MuseScore to see if it can handle the unique symbols of my instrument's notation. Most of these symbols are from a 17th-century harp manuscript. I wrote a font set for them, and I'm looking for a way to use it in MuseScore. The symbols function like ornaments (placed on the score above the notes they apply to).
The solution I came up with is to change the "staff text" to this font so that I can highlight a note, press ctrl-T, and type in the desired symbol. Does anyone see an error coming my way? (What else is staff text used for?) Or does anyone know a better way? (Is there a way to add items from my font to the ornaments palette or create a user-defined palette?) I tried setting a User font (style settings --> text style --> User-1) and then using ctrl-T -->more --> text style --> User-1, but it doesn't bring in the font unless I make several keystrokes, and then it eventually switches over. Sometimes. I don't know; that might be a bug.
Comments
Staff text is used for pretty much any text that isn't one of the other defined text types = eg, no tempo, not dynamics, not a rehearsal mark. So in a typical score, anything you see above the staff that isn't tempo is staff text.
So I wouldn't necessarily recommend using the staff text text style for what you are doing but you can indeed define "user" style for it and assign it to the relevant texts. Not sure what you mean about it not bringing in the font. If you attach your score and describe step by step what you are doing, someone should be able to understand and assist better.
And yes, you can create your own palettes, Just click the add palette button, then you can Ctrl+Shift+drag elements into it from your score.
In reply to Staff text is used for… by Marc Sabatella
I have attached my test score. Diamond-head notes are placement guides for fingers on the harp strings, x-headed notes are damp marks (muffle the string marked with the x), and damping fingers are parenthetical. All these are functioning well in MuseScore 4.
I use the special symbols from my font rather frequently. Not as much as fingering, but more often than ornaments. So I’d like them to place in a score easily. Three or four keystrokes/steps would be ideal.
The beauty of setting Staff Text to my font is that level of simplicity: (1) highlight a notehead, (2) press Ctrl-T and then (3) type the keyboard letter for the symbol I want. (For my example, I will use “y” -- it produces a backslash/fork-like character in my font set.)
Following your suggestion, Marc, I returned to my user-defined text style. (I didn’t realize before that you must click away for the font to “catch”). So now I follow the three steps listed above, plus five more: (4) switch to “properties,” (5) Highlight the “y” again, (6) choose MORE from the property window, (7) at “text style” choose my font, and then (8) click away in a blank place of the score to set the font. That’s a lot of steps.
Your guidance on setting up a custom palette is intriguing. That would be an excellent solution. The symbols in their own palette, from which we could set them like we set finger numbers by simply clicking on the chosen symbol from the palette. But how do I get the symbols from my font into that custom palette?
Your instructions were to “Ctrl+Shift+drag elements into it from your score.” So I set the “y” symbol in the score following the eight-step solution above (so, not staff text). I highlight the symbol, press “Ctrl+shift” and then try dragging with my mouse with no effect. I tried using my pen/tablet. I tried both ways using right-click-drag and left-click-drag; I also tried the process without first highlighting the “y.” The symbol will not move anywhere, neither to the palette nor to another location in the score.
What am I missing? Do I perhaps need an old-fashioned mouse to make this work? (all I have to work with is the mouse pad on my Windows 11 laptop and my pen/tablet.)
I also tried moving a dynamic mark, but it doesn’t move either. I can’t drag it to another palette (any palette, not just my custom one) nor to another location on the score. I can, however, drag with just a left-click/drag movement (no ctrl+shift), but then only to another location on the score; it will not drag to a palette.
At this point, I’m pretty frustrated. I hope you can see what I’m doing wrong from my detailed description. Thank you.
In reply to Thank you for your reply,… by Cynthia Cathcart
How many different symbols are we talking about here?
If it's a relatively small number - less than 20-30, say - then I think the easiest would be to add each to a blank score the way you already are (more or less - see below), then Ctrl+Shift+drag each to your palette. Then from then on, you can simply add them directly from the palette. no need to even remember which character produces which symbol.
Ctrl+Shift+drag is definitely how you add items to a palette from your score. Sometimes the mouse pointer responds right away to show what you are doing, sometimes for whatever reason it does not. But when you reach the palette, you should see it change to something indicating you can now drop. Oh - on Mac, I assume it's probably Cmd instead of Ctrl, as usual.
When you create these in your blank, I'd create them as ordinary staff text, not changing the font yet - thus, not worrying about what they look like right now. Then when you're done, select them all at once (right-click one, Select / Similar), and change their font all together. This font information gets preserved in the palette, so when you add them later to your score alter, they get your font even though staff text in general is still a normal text font like the default Edwin.
If you have more than would fit in a single palette, I'd personally recommend an approach where you have a single one of these in the palette much like the generic "Staff text" that is already there. So then you can add your custom symbols by clicking the palette icon to add the text, press F2 to edit, then type your text.
Another possibility if you have a lot of these to enter per score: instead of changing the staff text text style (and I assume that some of your scores do contain ordinary text indications that you'd want to use staff text for), what about using Roman numeral analysis? You'd need to customzie the style for that too, but if you're not using this otherwise, it also hasd the very nice advantage of being able to quickly add symbols to notes by press Space after each to move on to the next note. That's maybe the easiest of all, although somehow it feels like "cheating" to me.
In reply to How many different symbols… by Marc Sabatella
Thank you, Marc. There are only about 30 symbols, so your first suggestion worked. Now I need to figure out how to explain this process to my students! If only I could just send them a copy of the palette.
Regarding the Ctrl+Shift+drag, with your assurance and a little perseverance, I finally got it to work. I share my experience in case it helps anyone else encountering this thread:
On the touchpad, hold down Ctrl+Shift while also pressing the Left-click portion of the touchpad. Then using the mouse portion of the touchpad, press on the character and start dragging. A "forbidden" circle appears (circle with a slash) -- drag anyway, and when you get to the palette, you can place the character.
On the pen/tablet, first press Ctrl+Shift, and hold them down while pressing on the character with the pen until a white circle appears and encloses the character. Now you can move it. (Don't do a left click; it doesn't work, at least not on my system. A right click works just like the left click on the touchpad, but it isn't necessary).
I hope this helps someone someday.
In reply to Thank you, Marc. There are… by Cynthia Cathcart
Glad you worked out the palette customization! And good news - you can send students a copy of your palette. Click the "..." icon at top right of the palette, then "Save palette". They will need the same font installed of course.
In reply to Glad you worked out the… by Marc Sabatella
Oh, that is excellent news. Thank you for sharing with me.
In reply to Oh, that is excellent news… by Cynthia Cathcart
Sorry to open this conversation again, but when I Ctrl+Shift+drag the symbols from my score to my new palette, they often display not as the new symbol but the keyboard shortcut. So, for example, the "Y-ish" symbol, which looks perfectly "Y-ish" on my score when I drag it to the palette is simply displayed as a "Y" (U;n assuming in the Edwin Font.) But only sometimes, and I can't figure out the pattern that leads to success. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?
In reply to Sorry to open this… by Cynthia Cathcart
It works if the text is manually set to the font via Properties as an override. It doesn't work if you actually change the style of the score to use the font. Because any text that is currently using the style defaults for your current score will use the default style of the palette when added there and the default style of each score you subsequently add it to.