MuseScore works with your "System" language (the one used for most programs, and generally depending on your country and the language settings of the PC, or account).
In the General tab, select the desired language from the drop-down list in the Language section:
To update translation(s):
A message which displayed if the version of your language is already up to date, if not then the update will be downloaded.
To complete this step, a restart of the application is required.
To change the appearance of MuseScore
In the Appearance tab, select the desired option described below.
The following options are available to change the colors of MuseScore. The display changes immediately so options can be tested without closing the dialog. The changes apply to all open instances of MuseScore (see Windows)
To change the font face and text size for Menu and Palette elements:
This does not affect and text elements in the score.
Windows, toolbars and panels within MuseScore can be repositioned, and you can choose which elements you want to see displayed in them.
The default appearance of MuseScore is shown below:
To show or hide the playback controls, note input toolbar, or the status bar:
To change the position of either the note input or playback toolbars, click on and hold the six dots at the left of the toolbar, then drag and drop it to the desired location. The toolbar can be left free floating, but in the case of the note input toolbar, you can also drag and drop it either to the left or the bottom edge of the program window—a blue rectange then appears to show you that you can drop the toolbar at that location to redock it. The playback toolbar can only be redocked in its default position.
To select the icons that you want on view in the note input or playback toolbars, click on the gear icon to the right of the toolbar:
In the case of the note input toolbar, this reveals a dropdown list from which you can hide or display the various icons by clicking on the eye symbol to the left of each one (closed=hidden, open=displayed).
In the case of the playback toolbar, uncheck or check the various options in the gear menu to hide or display the corresponding elements.
To undock and move one of the side panels (Palette, Instruments, Properties, or Selection filter), click on the three dots on the tab, select the Undock option, then drag the undocked panel to the desired position.
You can leave the panel free-standing but there are also dock positions at the top and right hand edges of the document window—a blue rectangle appears to show that you can drop the panel to redock it at that location.
In a similar way, you can redock the free panel back to the sidebar:
You can also redock the free panel in its original position by clicking on the three dots on the tab, and selecting Dock.
Panels such as the Mixer or virtual Piano can be undocked if desired, by dragging them into position or clicking on the three dots icon and selecting Undock. To redock, click on the three dots icon and select Dock.
The undocked mixer can be resized by dragging the edges inwards or outwards.
To choose which elements to display within the mixer or the virtual Piano, click on the three dots, select View and uncheck or check the applicable options.
To customize the palettes area, see Customization: Palettes.
A template is simply a standard MuseScore file (*.mscz) stored in a dedicated “Templates” folder.
There are two kinds of templates:
System templates. These are supplied with the installed version of MuseScore and cover a wide variety of solo instruments and ensembles of all genres. When you open the New Score dialog, these template files appear under various categories in the Create from Template tab.
User templates. These are created by the user and stored in the folder marked Templates in the MuseScore4 folder of your Documents directory. When you open the New score dialog, user templates are displayed in the My Templates section of the Create from template tab.
A style file is a file containing customized style settings for all musical and text objects in a score. You can save an existing set of styles or import one using the Format menu (see below).
[to be added]
This chapter shows you how to customize the palettes and their contents; the application of palette items is already covered in Using the palettes (Basics).
To add a preset or a custom palette, see Using the palettes: Adding more palettes.
To hide a preset palette, right click on it and select Hide palette. The palette is returned to the Add Palettes list (see above). Note that preset palettes cannot be deleted.
To hide or delete a custom palette you have created earlier, right click on it and select Hide/Delete palette. Then follow the instructions in the dialog.
To change the order of a palette simply drag it up or down and drop it onto the desired position in the palettes list.
Palettes can be populated with items from the Master Palette (Shift+F9 or View→Master palette), or from an opened score.
Score items, when added to a palette, are saved with their custom properties.
To enable/disable editing for a particular palette:
To add a symbol from the Master Palette to a palette in the Palettes panel:
If you have created a custom palette, there is another way to access the Master Palette:
To add score elements to a palette:
Symbols can be moved from one open palette to another simply by dragging and dropping them.
To delete an element in a palette, right-click on it and select Delete. In the case of preset palettes, the element will be moved to the More section. For custom palettes you are offered a choice of Hide (send element to the More section) or Delete permanently.
To reset a palette to its default state, right-click on the palette name, or click on the ellipsis symbol (three dots) to the right of the palette name; then select Reset palette.
Note: A custom palette will be reset to an empty palette when this function is applied.
To save a palette, right-click on the palette name, or click on the ellipsis symbol (three dots) to the right of the palette name; then select Save palette.
To load a previously-saved palette, right-click on a palette name, or click on the ellipsis symbol (three dots) to the right of the palette name; then navigate to the desired palette, select it and click Open.
To access display options for the palettes area, click on the ellipsis symbol (three dots) to the right of the Palettes title at the top of the palettes area.
To access Palette properties for individual palettes, right-click on the palette name, or click on the ellipsis symbol (three dots) to the right of the palette name; then select Palette properties.
This allows you to rename the palette, create a visible grid to separate elements, adjust width and height of cells, and change the scale and offset of the symbols.
A workspace includes the visible palettes, toolbars and assorted open panels. You can customize the appearance of all aspects of a workspace, and create new ones.
To create a new workspace:
To customize the palettes display and contents, see palettes.
To customize the display of toolbars and panels, see Toolbars and panels.
Alternatively
MuseScore commands can be accessed via the main menus, toolbars, Properties panel or context menus, or by using keyboard shortcuts.
Pre-existing keyboard shortcut are shown alongside the commands in the main menus or context (right-click) menus, or by hovering the mouse pointer over an icon in a toolbar.
Alternatively, you can view a list of commands and their shortcuts in Edit→Preferences→Shortcuts. This is also the place where you can create a shortcut or change an existing one. To locate a command in the list either scroll down the alphabetical order, or enter an appropriate keyword in the “Search shortcut” box.
To define a new shortcut, or change an existing one:
Note: You can select more than one shortcut if needed. Press the Shift key to establish a continuous range, or the Ctrl key for a list.
To save the existing shortcuts or import a list of your own:
To edit Preferences (the appearance and general behavior of MuseScore), go to Edit→Preferences.
These are divided logically into sections (see below); notice also the three buttons at the bottom of the window:
You can specify your language, and autosave interval in “General”. See also Language.
“Program start” allow you to choose what, if any, score you want displayed in the edit window after launching.
“Folders” allows you to customize locations for any user folders (though it’s a good idea to leave them at default to start with if you are a new user).
Choose between light and dark options, and specify the accent color; there is also a high contrast option for visually impaired users.
The system font is also the default for the MuseScore UI, but you can alter this if desired—and the font-size.
You can set the score paper/color option and the background. For visually impaired there is an “Invert score” option which inverts the score colors (white to black and vice versa)
Specify the default zoom level of the score, and the mouse zoom precision. Also how you want your score pages to scroll, and the degree of precision of mouse selection.
Here you can choose how MuseScore sounds when you click on or advance to a note. And whether you want notes outside the playback range of an instrument to be colored.
Here you can map certain keys of your external MIDI keyboard to certain actions. For example to start or stops score playback, set note-entry duration, and so on.
Customize the default order of instruments in your score.
Specify your audio and MIDI input devices.
Specify the way that MuseScore handles the import of MusicXML and MIDI files. You can supply a style file covering every aspect of the score.
See Keyboard shortcuts for more information.
By default MuseScore automatically checks for updates when online. You can turn this off by unchecking the box.
A number of specialized options can be accessed here, such as voice color, and palette behavior.
A MuseScore plugin is a small piece of software that adds extra functionality to the program. A range of plugins is installed automatically with the program: you can view these in the Home: Plugins tab.
Additional plugins can be downloaded from the MuseScore website at musescore.org→Download→Plugins. See Installing a plugin (below) for further details.
N. B.: No warranty of any kind is provided for plugins. Either download from a trusted author or double-check the code yourself.
(How to create a plugin - to be added)
Updating works the same way as installing, but remember to remove the files from the previous version to avoid duplicate plugins!
In order to not overcrowd the plugins tab, you can enable/disable specific plugins as you please.
You can run enabled plugins in the Score tab, from the 'Plugins menu. You can also set shortcuts to run specific plugins, in the Home: Plugins tab.