Using Styles
I have an ”oddity” with styles
When re-formatting music for my choir, I have created a style which I apply to every piece so they look the same.
One or two choir members suggested that bar numbers, currently being placed above the bar-line, should be moved a little to the right to make it really obvious to which bar they apply.
I found bar number in “Edit Text Styles” and made my changes and then did “Style/save”.
I then picked up another of my pieces, used “Style/Load” but the changes I had made to bar numbers were NOT applied. BUT, at that point if I use “Style/Text" and select Bar number, then menu options show the changes I had made. Buut then if I click OK at that point, the changes to bar Number formatting are not applied to the piece shown on the screen.
So why, if the changes are shown as being there in the system, do they NOT show on the screen?
And then to confuse me even further, I close MuseScore. I then start Musescore and load the same piece where I had applied my style (inc new bar Number Format) voila, the bar numbers now have their new format.
Is that how it's supposed to work? A modified style doesn't take effect until the program is closed and re-opened?
I’m using MuseScore V2 on Windows7
Comments
No need to close the program and reopen, but very occasionally, closing the *score* and reopening can help. Measure numbers are indeed special in they are not "real" - they are generated on the fly depending on your style settings. For instance, as you probably noticed, by default, the only appear at the beginning of each system, so they get regenerated every time the system layout changes - eg, if a different measure ends up being at the beginning of a system. So I think what you'll find is the bar number style change is applied the next time the bar numbers need to get regenerated - and reloading the file does this.
Anyhow, the fact that these are not "real" in some sense might explain the glitch you are seeing with this particular score and this particular style file. But in general, it *should* work even despite this. If I create a score and go to Style / Text and change the Measure Number style, it *does* take effect right away. But indeed, it doesn't work for loading a style file. You might want to file that as an official bug in the issue tracker.
In reply to No need to close the program by Marc Sabatella
Many thanks for the comments Mark. I had done some further experiments and found out that opening and closing the score caused the style I'm using, to take effect so I've got an easy work-around.
I will log it as a bug and will keep an eye open to see if any other style modifications have the same effect.
In reply to Many thanks for the comments by Ewart North
The one option I would be least surprised to see issues with is Hide Empty Staves, which has some kind of chicken-and-egg issues even when applied directly - certain decisions about layout need to be made before we know if a staff will be empty, and then it's too late. So toggling that option sometimes does weird things that clean themselves up on the next layout - any change to score, or even just Ctrl+A to select all. Wouldn't be surprised if similar things weren't the case on loading a style file that sets this option. Maybe the multi-measure rest option too. Or options having to do with the automatic generation of clefs, key signatures, and time signatures at the beginning / ending of systems. Not that I *know* of bugs, but these seem like areas likely to have the same sort of issue you are reporting here regarding bar number text style.