Measure numbering intervals starting at different measures

• May 14, 2018 - 23:33

I'm new to Musescore so I don't know if this is an amateur question, but if I want my measure numbers to have an interval of 4, but start at 1 (5, 9, 13, 17...), how would I do this? I've tried just setting the measure numbering interval to 4 while still starting at 1, but the measures that are numbered are 1, 4, 8, etc. I've also tried messing with "Add to measure number" but that just changes the number that it thinks the measure is, rather than adding the appropriate value to that number.

Is the solution right in front of me or is it really this difficult?


Comments

It seems that even if you check "Show first" i.e. 1 for the first measure, and use an intervarl, it ignores the fact that you have started with 1. It would be logical to me that it should number the measure 1, 5, 9... as you have suggested. It's probably a design decision but I don't know that I agree with it.

I agree with mike.
Having 'show first off' and interval at 4 I expect to see the numbers 4, 8, 12, 16, … just as it is now.
However switching first on, I would indeed expect 1, 5, 9, 13, … to be the result and not the current 1, 4, 8, 12, …

Please file it as an official request into the issue tracker

In reply to by jeetee

for the record, the corresponding code (for master) is at libmscore/measure.cpp, line 521-522 ff.

Actually chaning line 522 from
( ((no()+1) % score()->styleI(Sid::measureNumberInterval)) == 0 );
to
( ((no()+1) % score()->styleI(Sid::measureNumberInterval)) == score()->styleB(Sid::showMeasureNumberOne)?1:0 );
seems to fix the problem.
The corresponding code in 2.3 is in the same file at lines 580-581 and just slightly different (but probably different enough to warrant separate PRs), so the change would be in line 581 from
( ((_no+1) % score()->style(StyleIdx::measureNumberInterval).toInt()) == 0 );
to
( ((_no+1) % score()->style(StyleIdx::measureNumberInterval).toInt()) == score()->styleB(StyleIdx::showMeasureNumberOne)?1:0 );

See https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/pull/3673 (for master) and https://github.com/musescore/MuseScore/pull/3672 (for 2.3)

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

The complaint is because Show First measure number changes the numbers that follow.
The complaint is also because an interval of 5 is very standard, as is numbering measures that are multiples of 5. If I check Show First, I still want my measure numbers to be multiples of 5, don't I?
How do Finale and Sibelius handle this?

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

I understand that the fix is linguistically, semantically correct. I just don't think it's musical score correct.
The vast majority of published music that displays measure numbers by interval do it at an interval of 5, probably without the first measure number showing.
I simply want to do that same thing with the measure number showing, which I think is also standard practice.

Maybe Marc can chime in, since he is the expert on such matters.
Maybe there should be a "multiple versus interval" option.

Why does the original poster want measure numbers every 4 measures? Or is that irrelevant?
And how do the other major sheet music editors handle this? It would be good to factor that into the functionality.

My main problem is that this is shifting functionality out from under me. My existing scores now look different, and they look non-standard, incorrect.

In reply to by sideways

I've never seen Finale or Sibelius in action. If you want to see measure 1, 5, 10 then you should be able to use the Style->General->Header... and DO NOT check Show first, but set the interval at 5. This should show 5, 10, 15... Next open the measure properties in the first measure and change Measure Number Mode to Always Show. This will show the measure number 1. IMHO, there should be an easier way to do this, but this shows the flexibility of MuseScore to allow for various displays. The interval of 5 is very common, but the inclusion of the 1 is far less common.

In reply to by sideways

When I look at the bug report, it seems to me there should be an option in one of those places to always show the measure number in certain measures. I'm not sure where I would put this. I haven't started testing version 3.0 yet, I'm still concentrating on 2.2 bugs and testing version 2.3.

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