lyrics appear in wrong place

• Jul 22, 2025 - 20:34

Hi,
Musescore 4.5. When I highlight a note and click on Ctrl L the little box for the lyrics appears above the stave not underneath it. No amount of fiddling will get it to open where I want it, below. I only want one stave and lyrics, like a lead sheet.
I would appreciate your solutions please.


Comments

Default should be below staff. It might be about the voice chosen. In any event, when lyric entry starts in the wrong place, to move it, hit the Flip Direction icon in the tool bar. It will say X is the shortcut, but that doesn't work move lyrics above or below the staff.

In reply to by bobjp

"Default should be below staff. It might be about the voice chosen."

IIRC, the default for the voice staff was set above some time ago.

EDIT: I was wrong, dynamics are set above as default fot the voice staff.

@played, if you have repro steps, you can raise a ticket on GitHub.

In reply to by dj frank rose

Here's what happens for me. Voice 1.
Ctrl +K starts lyric entry above staff. If I hit X, all that happens is that an x is entered. If I click away from the x, then select it again, hitting x moves lyric entry below the staff.
Ctrl+L starts lyric entry below the staff. With all the same results.

In reply to by bobjp

Okay, that's even weirder then!

Ctrl+K is the default for "Add text: chord symbol". I don't even have a shortcut action that will put the lyrics above the staff.

Yes, if you type the X while you are entering lyrics, then it types an "X". After all, you have to be able to enter words like "toxic" and "exciting" into your lyrics. But if you select a lyric syllable when you are not entering/editing lyrics, it toggles the lyric between "Above" and "Below", as it does everything else that can be so toggled.

In Format / Style / Lyrics / Lyrics text, you can set the default position to be "Above" or "Below". By default, it comes set to "Below". So, @played, take a look at that Style setting. Perhaps you have inadvertently changed it to "Above".

Hi all responders,
Thank you for your suggestions.
I have a success. I highlighted the note, pressed Ctrl K, the box appeared above the note, then as bobjp suggested, clicked on flip direction and it moved down.
So thank you all for your help.

In reply to by played

@played... You wrote:
> I highlighted the note, pressed Ctrl K, the box appeared above the note, then as bobjp suggested, clicked on flip direction and it moved down. <

ALERT: If you are entering lyrics, use Ctrl L, not Ctrl K.

Also, in your score that "the little box for the lyrics appears above the stave not underneath it" did you check what @TheHutch suggested:
> In Format / Style / Lyrics / Lyrics text, you can set the default position to be "Above" or "Below". By default, it comes set to "Below". So, @played, take a look at that Style setting. <
Then you won't have to use "flip direction" at all.

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