Staff and system text

Staff Text or System Text is invaluable as general purpose text. To apply to the score, use one of the following methods:

Select a note or rest; then for Staff text, press Ctrl+T; or for System text, press Shift+Ctrl+T.
Select a note or rest; then select the desired option from Add→Text.
Select a note or rest, then click the desired text from a palette (double-click in versions prior to 3.4).
Drag the desired text from a palette onto a note or rest.

This will create an empty bounding box for text entry. Press Esc or click on an empty space outside the box to exit.

Apart from their indicative use, staff and system text also have optional playback properties: see below.

Summary of differences:

Text style	Applies to?	Playback (if applicable)	Appears in Instrument parts?
Staff text	Staff only	Staff only	Staff instrument only
System Text	All system staves	All system staves	All instruments

Staff text

Staff Text is applied to one staff (or Grand staff) in the score, and is indicative only for that staff; any playback effect associated with the text is limited in the same way. The text will appear in the corresponding instrument part.

If you choose to hide empty staves, any staff text belonging to an empty staff will also be hidden.

Staff text can, for example, be used to apply indications such as Solo or Pizzicato to one staff in a score. Depending on what the instructions of the staff text are, MIDI playback of that staff at the text location can be altered to match the instructions by right-clicking on the staff text and selecting Staff Text Properties…. See Mid-staff sound change.

Staff text properties

To access Change channel, Swing Settings, and Capo Settings, use any of the following:

Select the staff text, then click on "Properties" in the "Staff Text" section of the Inspector.
Right-click on the text and choose "Staff Text Properties," then click on the relevant tab.

System text

System text is applied to one staff in the score, but is indicative for every staff in the system. Any associated playback properties are applied to the whole system. The text will appear in all instrument parts.

System text is never hidden by the hide empty staves feature.

System text properties

To add or edit Swing:

Right-click on the text and choose System Text properties, then click on the Swing Settings tab.

External links