Workspaces

Updated 1 year ago

The workspace consists of several components, the main one being the palette area situated to the left of the document window.

Workspace

Each palette is a folder containing musical symbols (usually related) which can be applied to the score.

To open or close a palette: Click on the arrow next to the palette name, or double-click the palette name (in versions prior to MuseScore 3.3, click once on either the arrow or the palette name).

To view or hide the palette area of the workspace:

Press, F9; alternatively, from the menu, select View → Palettes.

MuseScore provides two preset workspaces: Basic (the default option) and Advanced (a version with more palettes and symbols). These contain symbols drawn from the various sections of the Master palette. In addition, you can create your own custom workspaces (below).

Switch between workspaces

Use one of the following methods:

Select a new workspace from the drop-down menu to the right of the Note Input Toolbar (in versions prior to 3.3. this is located at the bottom of the workspace panel).
From the menu, select View → Workspaces, and click on one of the options.

Docking/undocking

To dock or undock a workspace, see Side panels.

Create a new workspace

To create a new workspace:

Select an existing workspace (use the Switch between workspaces option if required);
Click the + button (next to the dropdown list), which displays the following dialog:

Note: this can also be opened from the menu: View→Workspace→New;
Enter a name for the new workspace;
Tick the components that you want joined to the workspace, namely:
- Toolbars: Allows you to customize the tool button display and the order in which they are displayed. Access this via View→Toolbars→Customize toolbars.
- Menu bar: Allows you to change the menus and menu items displayed in the Menu bar. NOT IMPLEMENTED YET;
- GUI components: Saves information with the workspace about the position of the GUI (Graphical user interface) components, and whether they are open or not. (e.g. Inspector, Timeline);
- GUI Preferences: Saves the preferences selected for the GUI elements in Edit→Preferences, such as Theme and Canvas settings;
Press Save. The new workspace is added to the panel.

Edit a workspace

Note: In versions prior to MuseScore 3.3, only new workspaces can be edited—the Basic and Advanced workspaces are presets only. See Create new workspace.

To change the palette display: see Palette menu.
To change the palette contents: see Custom palettes.
To change the overall workspace display: Select View→Workspace→Edit. This displays a window with the same options as the Create New Workspace dialog (above).

Save custom workspace

Any changes you make to the workspaces are automatically saved to the program (no further action required). Each custom workspace is saved as a separate file in a folder called "workspaces." Its location is as follows:

Windows: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\MuseScore\MuseScore3\(actually %LOCALAPPDATA%\MuseScore\MuseScore3)
MacOS: ~/Library/Application\ Support/MuseScore/MuseScore3/.
Linux: ${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/MuseScore/MuseScore3/.