Measure numbers etc
Hello,
I am new to MuseScore, coming from Finale.
Because I'm new, many of the things I don't yet see may already be standard features, rather than new feature requests.
Apologies in advance for that!
Partway into my first MuseScore project, I have hit the following bumps:
- can I hit a note with something to supply a courtesy accidental, or do I have to drag the required accidental?
- can I hit a note to respell it, or do I have to manually change the pitch and the accidental? (e.g., I play an Ab on Midi keyboard, but MuseScore enters it as G#. Is there a one-click "respell" command, or do I really have to change the G to an A and the # to a flat?)
- How can I alter measure numbers in selected blocks of music? (e.g., after a repeated section, all subsequent measure numbers will be wrong unless adjusted...)
- How can I shift measures around so that more, or fewer, appear on each line?
Thanks!
Ch.S.
Comments
I answered the first two questions on a different post of yours, so I'll cut to the third question.
To alter measure numbers right click on the measure where you want the change to occur, and select "measure properties." From there a window will appear; under other you will see "add to measure no. :" The number you enter into the corresponding box is how much will be added to the original measure number. Note that no additional measures will be added to the score. Simply, only the measure numbers themselves are affected. You can even start your score at a random measure number-it does not have to begin with 1.
To shift your measures around you will need to go to the top toolbar- select style-edit general style. This will also produce a window. On this window there is a list of things that you can edit to fit your personal needs. There are two in particular that I think you would find useful in adjusting the measures so that you can fit more or fewer on a line, they are: page and measure from there you can fiddle around a bit until you finally get it the way you want.
In reply to Hi again! by rj45
That adjusts things globally. To adjust just a single system, use either line breaks (http://musescore.org/en/handbook/break-or-spacer) or else play with the stretch setting for the measures involved (Layout->Add More/Less Stretch).
Also, I don't know if there are keyboard shortcuts *by default* for the commands to add courtesy accidentals, but like most commands in MuseScore, you can create your own in via Edit->Preferences->Shortcuts. I've customized a few and added more, so I can seldom remember how it came originally.
As for respelling a single note, you *do* have to change it indirectly as you describe. I'm also hoping to see a single-keystroke "respell this note" command in the future. Note there is also a "Pitch Spell" command in the Notes menu, but works globally - no way to restrict it just a single passage. It tries to make good guesses about how you want things, but I don't generally trust a computer's guesses.
In reply to That adjusts things globally. by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for the pointer to "measure properties". Exactly what I needed.
And your alerting me to Style -> Edit General Style (and Edit Text Style) will be enormously useful: I hadn't poked into those much, but there's clearly a lot of useful stuff there.
For my current needs of shifting measures around, I had found Layout -> add more (or less) Stretch, and they did what I needed.
More about measure numbers: I wanted to know how to change their size, and positioning.
I thought surely " Style -> edit text style -> measure number" would have the answer-- but making changes there doesn't alter my document. Please don't tell me that changes will only apply to new documents? Surely there's a way to change such things on existing projects?
And one more question: how do I omit one particular measure number? i.e., I'd like them to show at the beginning of every system except one.
That's all for tonight, I promise ;-)
Many thanks for your big help so far.
My first day with MuseScore has been a delight.
In reply to Measure numbers etc by JSB_
Generally speaking, changes made in the Styles dialog only affect items not already created, at least in 1.0. It looks like style changes do take effect immediately in the *next* major release, as evidenced by the nightly builds. But for now, to change properties in existing text, you right click the element, select text properties, make your change, and be sure to choose the "apply to all elements of the same type" option. Although it doesn't always work exactly right - depends on the type of the text. Measure numbers seem fine, but not chord symbols.. I'm really looking forward to the next major release (still a ways off, it seems) where text handling is improvement, but for now, it does kind of pay to get your text styles set as well as possible before creating any major scores.
In reply to Generally speaking, changes by Marc Sabatella
Thanks again.
"right click the element, select text properties," is what I needed (and hadn't found).
In reply to Measure numbers etc by JSB_
"And one more question: how do I omit one particular measure number? i.e., I'd like them to show at the beginning of every system except one."
Right-click on the number and choose "Set Invisible."
In reply to Hiding One Measure Number by newsome
I can't make this work. It works fine to hide nearby elements (clef, volta line) but when I right-click the measure number I get a different box (see attachment).
I've tried moving the meas.number so it's further away from competition, and zooming in to have a bigger target, but still no joy.
?
Thanks,
Ch.S.
In reply to Hiding One Measure Number by JSB_
It does seem hard to select the measure number, but I am sometimes able to. Seems like maybe they are selectable right after a load but not after any layout changes? Something like that.
Still, I don't think I'd trust this, since as I mentioned in another response, measure numbers seem to be actually generated on the fly (so they can be placed on the first measure of a system even as the layout changes). So even if you succeed in hiding a measure number temporarily, it would not survive any operation that affected layout and caused measure numbers to be regenerated.
So instead, I think the way to do what you want would be to mark the measure "irregular" via measure properties. You might have to adjust the numbering int eh next measure, depending on your reason for wanting the number hidden, but since irregular measures are excluded from the numbering, that does seem to suppress display of measure numbers.
In reply to Hiding One Measure Number by JSB_
That menu looks like the "Create" menu from the menu bar, and I don't understand why you would be getting that if you right clicked on a measure number. I get a menu that looks like the attached graphic, I select Set Invisible, and it's gone. (Well, by gone, I mean that it still shows up gray on the screen unless I uncheck Show Invisible from the Display menu. Even gray it doesn't print at all.)
In reply to Measure numbers etc by JSB_
In the newest version -- 1.0 -- there are some things which do not seem to have any effect but actually do once the piece is saved and then reloaded.
Altering measure numbers properties is one of them. An example is under Style/Edit Text Style/Measure numbers, where you wish to globally change measure number properties. You make the changes and click Apply, followed by OK, but nothing seems to have happened.
But Save the document then, from the file menu, select Reload. This only takes a moment and often the changes you made then go into effect.
There may be other such things hiding in version 1.0 so I am learning to take this step before concluding that some feature does not work.
In reply to Measure numbers etc by Bill Watkins
I'm having the opposite behaviour: desired changes which seem to have been made are not made after saving, closing, and re-opening.
Example: I right click the first measure number, choose text properties, and adjust positioning by setting X to 3.00 and Y to
-3.00, also "apply to all elements of same type". All the meas.numbers obediently snap into place. I save the file, close it, re-open it, and they are back where they were, illegible and useless.
I will get back to this later: other things are calling me away from the computer just now.
Ch.S.
In reply to Measure numbers etc by JSB_
The text handling in 1.0 is definitely buggy. Just as you are seeing, with some things, the text properties dialog has no effect at all; with other things, it only works after closing and reopening the file, and with other things, it just does wrong things.
But it turns out that measure numbers *do* work. I should start by saying I actually *like* the default size and placement - unobtrusive yet large enough to read when printed. I was thinking to change properties, you would need to use Text Properties because they have already been created, but you are right - when you close and reopen the file, they are reset. I'm betting that's because measure numbers are actually recreated on the fly every time you open the file or make a change. So the right way to change measure number size & position *is* using Text Styles, but th changes won't be seen until the next time the numbers are generated. Measures number would be generated on the fly as you add measures or change layout, but the surest way to get them all regenerated at once is to close the document and open it again.
Unfortunately, some of the other element types *don't* work so well in 1.0, but for the most part, if you spend the time figuring out how you want things and then save the style or make it part of a template, things actually do work pretty well for text. It's mostly the initial experimentation phase that uncovers the things that don't work so well.
In reply to The text handling in 1.0 is by Marc Sabatella
I would like to fix the position of measure numbers in the score attached. But I realize that I cannot select it, and drag it. Also I do not find yet nothing in Style-Edit General Style.
How can I do that?
Sorry, I am not english-native speaker. Thanks.
In reply to Measure numbers by Miguel Astor
Don't us Edit General Style, use Edit Text Style, and select Measure Numbers. see my post just before your for more info.
In reply to Don't us Edit General Style, by Marc Sabatella
Thanks. Done
In reply to Measure numbers by Miguel Astor
The attributes of bar numbers are edited in the Style>EditText Style>Bar Number dialogue.
I have done a bit of basic editing for you.
Bear in mind that the current version of MuseScore has to reload the score before changes become apparent.
HTH
Michael
In reply to Hi again! by rj45
I'd like to start measure numbering at 1 for every movement of the piece I am working on. The above instructions look fine, but I have a Mac. How do you right click on stupid Mac? Also I can't manage to select measures -- as opposed to objects inside measures like barlines, rests etc.
I would like to fix the position of measure numbers in the score attached. I realize that I cannot select it, and drag it. Also I tried to readjust the alignment of the measure number in the Edit-text style but everytime I hit apply and ok, nothing happens. The measure number appears somewhere on the top left inside the staff of the piccolo section of my score. Is it possible you can help fix this for me?
In reply to Fixing the Measure Numbers by cjsoliven
You can change the settings in Style -> Edit text style and reload the file.