<<<I should probably move this to a different thread but I don't know how.>>>
Hm. If I wasn't afraid to crash the program when removing the .ms, I'd do that but I'm not technically competent.
I will use the embedded Courtesy Accidental now, though. Thanks for letting me know of it.
The Courtesy Accidental explanation says
Quote
This command toggles a courtesy accidental indicator, which is applied to an existing or new accidental. When applied to a selection, this command generally applies to selected notes that already include an accidental. An exception is made for single selected notes, which can be given a courtesy accidental by initiating this command, without first adding an accidental. A courtesy accidental can also be applied to an individual note via its right click menu.
Comments:
Since the courtesy accidental icon is not automatically added to existing customized toolbars and the courtesy accidental does not appear to be part of the Note Properties dialogue, this explanation needs to tell users they have to use the icon, where to find it and how to add it.
I'm not so sure the c.a. can be applied to an individual note through its right click menu. All I see are Cut, Copy, Paste, Clear, Repeat Last User Tool, User Tool..., Notes >, Filtered Properties and Properties.
Selecting User Tool ... then displays a User Tool menu box, and none of the Groups appear to include the courtesy accidental function.
Selecting Notes > gives 15 choices for the notes, from Beam to Stem Down.
Selecting Properties just turns up the usual Note Properties menu.
A small edit is needed to either remove the sentence or tell users how to get to the c.a. into the right mouse click context sensitive menu.
(off topic) By the way, Mike, I think you gave us the courtesy accidental object, didn't you? I've been using it a lot this weekend and it works wonderfully. Thank you.
Another tweak might be an option to add a bracketed numeral above the single bar repeat sign. Often a bar will be repeated many times, and it's customary to put (4), (, even (12) above the 3rd, 7th and 11th consecutive signs.
The user would have to select the option to show the bracketed numeral, and would select the numeral to use.
<<<edit - the numbers in parentheses are 4, 8 and 12 but the forum changed the 8 to a smiley face>>>
I was considering an option to have the object (optionally) reserve its own space via another parameter. This would eliminate the need to manually add spacers wherever the object was placed. Do you think the spacer idea makes sense? I was also going to mention that spacers probably only needed if there is a single staff being notated, or when the repeat measures are in all system measures at the same time.
The optionally reserved space would be easier on the user than spaces. Spacers or reserved space would probably be needed regardless of how many systems are visible, because when you're writing a score, you'll probably print each part separately.
The extra blank, muted notehead note would work in lieu of a stratospheric rest. Good idea.
I just noticed ties (and perhaps slurs) remain visible within a two bar repeated passage using the zero stem length method. Not so with hidden note bars, so hidden notes (and spacers) are probably the best way to go.
Spacers work in the hidden note bars, and because these signs are often used to save space, hidden notes and spacers are probably better (and more reliable) than the blank notehead method. To enhance ease of use, perhaps you could have the tool select all the contents of the affected bars except the bar lines, make them hidden, insert the symbol AND maybe a default number of spacers either side of it. The default might then be changed in the second screen that comes up when implementing the object.
Can you add a small numeral 2 above the two bar repeat sign, and give the user the option of toggling it off, please? It's not required, but is often seen.
. The object only provides the marking; the necessary notation needs to be present in the score, either as hidden notes in the current staff, or regular notation in a separate hidden staff.
A couple of observations:
It doesn't work with notes set to visibility=never (hidden notes). Since those don't take up horizontal space, the beginning and ending bar lines for those bars come together, and the sign sits in in the next bar.
I'm not sure how the object should treat repeated bars with rests, unless the rests are moved w-a-y off the staff. You can't make the rest hidden for the same reason as hidden notes, and I don't know how to make a rest the equivalent of a headless zero-stem note without moving it way up or down.
Do you see expanding the object to automate the process by highlighting all the notes and rests in the bar or two bars, changing to zero stem length, negative dot space, no leger lines and blank noteheads, and moving rests to some choosable vertical position?
I'm delighted with what you've done, it's so easy to use, but you know what they say, "Give somebody what he asks for, and he's sure to ask for more."
I should elaborate to say, this is a great tool as is, and I will be using it extensively today. Further enhancements are nice to haves, rather than being deficiencies.
To use a single measure repeat sign (available in the character map for Page Text Times New Roman and in some of Lawrie's fonts), I would normally create notes with blank noteheads, stem length zero, and no leger lines. This allows the notes to be played back without being seen, and unlike Visibiltiy=Never, allows the text symbol to be fairly accurately placed.
At the moment, this requires two separate steps. 1. Adjust the note properties with the Note Properties - Notes tab) 2. Select the blank notehead by mouse.
It occurs to me it would be more efficient if the Note Properties - Notes tab also had a choice of noteheads to select.
Not exactly a priority wish, but a nice feature to have if possible.
While I think of it, augmentation dots should be suppressed when the notes have blank noteheads.
I read Guido's question as being both about hiding the hairpins and writing them above or below staves.. I dealt with the latter, and your answer is perfect for the former.
The crescendo and decrescendo signs (a.k.a. "hairpins") are positioned by the preceding dynamic mark (f, p), etc. or text dynamic marking instruction (cresc. dim.) etc. , no matter how far it is from the hairpin.
The easiest way to change the height (vertical position) of the hairpin is to add a dynamic mark at the height you need the hairpin. As you move the dynamic mark up or down, the hairpin will move too. If you don't want the dynamic mark to show, just highlight it and make its visibility "never."
"Smart Insertion Point This checkbox is used to control how the insertion point is positioned in the score editor. When checked, the insertion point will generally track to the right side of any notes or rests on the staff. When not checked, the insertion point aligns along the transparent vertical grid that aligns all notes and rests in the current score."
When it's checked, it doesn't quite act as described. Moving from the beginning of an empty new staff to a staff above it that has notes, the cursor will sometimes go to the left of the clef and sometimes between the clef and the key signature. It doesn't end up to the right of any notes or rests, at least not in my brief test just now.
When it's unchecked, it works as described.
The Poll was ambiguous, just asked what we were set to, not what we preferred. I think I'd as soon leave it unchecked but I don't see a need to remove it from the program.
Warnings or error messages? I would think the terms are synonymous.
I agree it's very minor, but it's still a glitch. I don't think it needs to be high priority, but if tweaking something fixes it, then it should be tweaked at some time in the future.
Beta 7 does most of the correction, Eric, thank you. The cursor will now go to the clef sign, but that means you miss anything to the left of the clef such as a tempo mark or perhaps text.
You don't need three files, all this can be done in just one, using three staffs.
Simply write the notes out on one staff, add two more staffs (Control-A), copy the notes from the first to the two new staffs, add the markings to one of the new staffs and the markings plus the fingerings to the other.
When it's time to print the music, hide the staffs you don't want to print by unchecking them in the Page Setup/Contents menu.
Editing is easy enough. With all three staffs selected, you just go to what you want to change, make it, then move up and down with Page Up/Page Down and make the necessary changes in the other visible staffs.
This is perhaps a buglet report. I'm not too worried, just thought it should be reported.
The source staff is a certain seasonal tune in A major which starts with E an octave below the treble clef. It has no accidentals, double flats or double sharps.
Using 2.75a Beta 7, I transposed it into all major keys, favouring minimum sharps and flats, by copying it to 11 staffs and transposing each by +1, +2, or +3 half tones, etc., up to 11 half tones.
The +11 semitones transposition triggered the Transpose Warning error message that the E would not transpose properly. Clicking "Show Next Problem" highlighted all the notes, one at a time, as a problem, for the first 4 bars (I stopped there). When I clicked on Proceed with Transpose Anyway, the transposition worked just fine.
I tested a workaround, transposing the source staff up 12 semitones and down one, and got no error messages.
I'm not sure why the error message appeared. It could be a one-off glitch or it could be a minor bug.
Sharpeye and Niversoft's conversion of XML files to NWC files have been around for a long time. Niversoft is a free service for which I'm grateful; Sharpeye is not free but if you have a lot of sheet music to transpose in NWC, it's worth the price.
I've just found a way to use SharpEye if your sheet music is only in PDF digital form.
My PDF program (FoxIt Phantom) allows me to export the pages to several types of image files. I expect other PDF programs will too, but I haven't checked.
If I export a page at a high resolution and grey scale, I can open the image in SharpEye, available at http://www.visiv.co.uk/.
If a low resolution is used, SharpEye may not be able to detect the staff lines, so I suggest you export at 600 or more dpi.
Sharpeye will then read it and create a "music" file (extension MRO) that you can export as a MusicXML file.
I have been stymied a few times in NWC2 and its various updates and beta versions, when I try to copy and paste text. Sometimes it's copying a clip from one of the forum windows, other times it's copying text from one of my staffs to the clipboard and into Find. I've attached an illustration. I wonder what I'm doing wrong or is there a Windows 10 setting I have to tweak?
Lawrie's Swingdings font has a few that are made with lower case a, b, c, d, e, f and g. There are others that can be found in other fonts.
The marks that slope down come after the note, so for instance my text entry would be "{space}{space}{space}b" in userfont1 (Swingdings), placed before the note and set to At Next Note. It's sort of trial and error; if I get the number of spaces correct, the falling line will start just a little to the right of the notehead. If you've ever tried to copy accurately transcribed jazz solo transcriptions, you'll know there can often be quite a few such signs.
An object would be nice, but I think it would just be simpler if one day we could have the text placement I suggested as part of the native program. No hurry for it, it's only a wish.
Often trumpet and trombone notes are written with + and 0 above the notes to indicate muted or open. These are easy to insert with text until have to do lots of them to include (it happens). Then it's a lot of text clutter, and if you transpose the part, you have to adjust the heights of these symbols. Usually they appear above the staff, regardless of stem direction or vertical position of the note.
(The 0 is best represented as a small circle similar to a degree sign - you can find these in some user fonts.)
It would be nice if + and 0 could be added to the note articulation choices.
In jazz charts, you often use small straight or jagged diagonal lines to indicate lip slurs and falls. These are generally available in the user fonts, but placing the ones that follow a note is usually guesswork - I find it's best to put them ahead of the note but leave some white space before the symbol in order to clear the note head.
A fifth choice for text alignment/placement: 'after note' would take the guesswork out. You'd insert the text before the target note but the text item would print/display a fraction of a notehead width after the note.
I'll try the user tool on the next chart I do, thanks, Opagust.
I like Rick's method too. Starting at the end and going home to copy is elegant.
I'm more concerned about other users when they encounter the cursor behaviour. The cursor behaviour is simply wrong and should be fixed so other users won't encounter it.
Thanks, Mike. The way I've always done it (for 20 years now!) is create the new staff, move to the source staff (left end), use shift-end to select it all, and copy/paste back to the new staff. Now in the source staff, I have to remember to move the cursor left, before using shift-end to select the entire staff.
I think this is a new phenomenon. If I'm right, something's changed.
When you're trying to whip together some transposed parts for an imminent rehearsal, or if you're an infrequent user of the program, you don't need the distraction of having to do things differently than before. Sooner or later you get used to it, but it's a pain when you're working under pressure.
When I create a new staff that I want to copy another staff into, then page up to get the contents of the original staff, in the original staff, the cursor comes up between the key signature and the time signature. When I press Shift-end, Copy, and Paste the result into the new staff, I find the clef and key signature have not been copied, so I have to go back to the original staff to fetch them. This seems to be new.
I would prefer to have the cursor move up to the beginning of the new staff to the beginning of the source staff so I could copy the source staff all in one step.
It's not a major inconvenience for a single copying action, but today I'm copying four trumpet parts to new staffs to transpose for french horn, and copying the baritone sax and string bass parts to new staffs for a bass saxophone. I'd rather copy six times before transposing, instead of twelve.
Slope will not happen if the notes are force-changed to stem up.
I'd call this a bug.
The "sweet spot" where the slope does not take place appears to be the second leger line above OR below the staff, and the space between the second and first leger lines above or below the staff.
I agree with Bill, with one minor "extra" Since the problem seems to be a full screen, I'd set a colour for the new staff so it would be easy to see which was the original and which was the copy of each staff. When finished notation, just change the new staff colour back to the default.
But it is accepted practice in an orchestral full score (cf Dover and Boosey) to retain the orchestral bracket even when there is only one instrument in the section is playing.
I should have made it clear that my two pages were a part for a single instrument, not a score.
There are 11 visible systems on the first page. The --- is where the second staff has been collapsed. The == is where the staffs become uncollapsed. The uncollapsed section is a repeated section where the notes are different on the first and second times.
I want system 4 to be very clearly connected to system 5, same for system 6 and 7 and system 8 and 9.
------- represents collapsed sections, where only the first system will be printed. ===== represents uncollapsed sections.
I want to use both Orchestral Bracket and Bars Connected in the two system sections to make them very obviously different.
While Bars Connected is only effective in uncollapsed sections, the Orchestral Bracket starts every visible system, regardless of whether it is part of a collapsed section or not. It looks a bit incongruous.
It would be nice if either the Orchestral Bracket would disappear automatically when the systems are collapsed to one system, as happens with Grand Staff, or if the Orchestral Bracket could be toggled on and off in the midst of a piece.
Thanks, Lawrie. I use your fonts often and am grateful for them. I know how to look up the symbols I need in your fonts and the other ones I have on my system, but that's not my point.
Once a font is set up in page-setup it is easy to search it with the character map in Notation Properties/Text. That only takes a couple of seconds.
However, if they haven't been set up in the Fonts tab of Page Setup, the process takes enough extra steps to disrupt a composer's train of thought, and to be annoying when you've just opened Notation Properties/Text: 1. Select the display font. (this doesn't need to be changed) 2. Enter a character. (this doesn't need to be changed) 3. If you don't get the symbol you need, start searching each UserFont you have set up in Page Setup. That often means using the Character Map. 4. If you have neglected to set up the "right" UserFont, you have to a. escape the Notation Properties/Text dialogue b. open Page Setup/Fonts c. select the UserFont number you want to alter. d. modify it e. close the Page Setup dialogue f. return to Notation Properties/Text g. select the font that is NOW in the chosen UserFont list. h. open the character map to find the symbol you need. i. if you have not looked at a character map at step c, the font you set up may not have what you need, so it's back to step 4 a.
My request is to shortcut the process by making it possible to install a new UserFont at step 3, saving many of the inefficiencies caused by having to run step 4, sometimes more than once.
Thanks for the tip, Opagust. That will take some guesswork out. Fortunately, we have character maps native to NWC nowadays, too.
What I'm wishing for is to be able to install the userfonts "on the fly," when you suddenly find out you need one that you haven't set up yet. The current process is cumbersome and somewhat disruptive.
Sometimes I need to insert a text character that isn't in the user fonts I've set up already. Let's say I have set User1 and User2, but the character I need is in another font, so I want to configure User3. If I'm not sure which font has the character, I may have to reset User3 and explore its character map a few times before I find what I need.
Right now, you have to escape from the text entry box, open Page Setup, set User3, close the Page Setup, return to Text Entry, select User3 and explore its character map. If you can't find what you need, you repeat the process, sometimes more than a couple of times.
How nice it would be if the User fonts could be set from the Text tab of the Notation Properties window that opens when Enter Text is selected, as well as from Page Setup.
Rhythm errors within SE often indicate bars where you need to add a missing note, change a note value or change a regular note to a grace note. Yes, it's a pain, but if you've got a bunch of notes that need the same change, you can highlight them (control-click) then change them all at once.
I edit the easy things within SharpEye, then export the result, and do the rest of the editing in NWC, where it's usually fast and easy to do. If there are rhythm errors, they'll sometimes show up in NWC as very tiny, hard to see, red dots where the missing notes were. You have to delete those and replace them with the right note, so you might as well fix as many as possible within SharpEye.
You ask
Quote
is it better just to delete the tremolos in Sharpeye and put them back in in NWC--or can you suggest a better method using Sharpeye editor
. NWC doesn't have staff notation for tremolo (by which I mean slanted lines that cross note stems), so you'll have to input them as text. Why not edit the tremolos out of the image file before you have SharpEye open it, then you'll not get those particular rhythm errors. The image is just a bit map and you can edit it with Paint to replace the notes stems with tremolo marks to ordinary vertical lines representing a regular note stem. Save the result and import that to SharpEye.
Sometimes I add a staff of whole rests and bar lines to NWC, with bar lines extending to the next staff, to use as a visual check. That way if some rhythm errors get past you, the bar lines that don't line up will point you to the right bars.
Visiv's SharpEye works well. Best results seem to be with black and white bitmap files and accuracy is improved if you have fairly high resolution images. I suggest scanning at 400 dpi or more. http://www.visiv.co.uk/index.htm
If I recall correctly, you can scan within SharpEye, but I usually just scan externally and save the result as a bmp file, which I then open in SharpEye.
You can do lots of basic editing in the program, and then export the results in musicxml file format, which you then import to Noteworthy via Niversoft's xml2nwc program at https://www.niversoft.com/products/xml2nwc/#conversion
I had the pleasure of attending a concert band music reading clinic yesterday and today. Lots of fun. We were encouraged to provide feedback.
In one piece the flautists complained their parts were written divisi even though they were "a wall of black." I gather that meant multiple bars, even lines, of nothing but sixteenth notes in leger-line country.
They recommended printing separate parts rather than writing two as divisi.
If the objective is to reduce paper, it might work to use two staves and collapse them when they're unison.
Anyway, write separate staffs where notes in divisi will be hard to make out. The musicians (well, at least the flautists) will love you better.
I goofed about the visual check of key signatures in my earlier post. Eb instrumental parts have one more sharp or one less flat than parts for Bb instruments. Sorry.
So for instance, Bb major for concert pitch instruments
is written as C major for Bb instrument parts such as Bb clarinet, tenor sax, bass clarinet, Bb soprano sax, euphonium t.c. and baritone t.c.
is written as G major for Eb instrument parts such as alto clarinet, Eb contra-alto clarinet, bari sax, alto sax.
Compared to C instruments then, the Bb instruments will have two less flats or two less sharps than concert, and the Eb instruments will have three less flats or three more sharps.
No. Changing clefs isn't transposing, it's just changing the visual representation of the same note - for bass to treble clef it's 12 control-down movements, and treble to bass is 12 control-up.
So for instance, if you see an A on the top line of the bass clef, if you want the same pitch in the treble clef, you move it down 12 strokes so it appears 2 leger lines below the treble clef staff.
Once you've done that preliminary step, you can transpose. You could transpose in bass clef first and then change clefs, it doesn't matter which comes first, but they are discrete processes.
I'm not sure if you're asking about a UT for positioning the dynamics or for transposing.
For positioning the dynamics, one might be handy, but it's not that hard, thanks to the Find function. All you need to do is search for one dynamic, change it, copy it to the clipboard and press F3 F3 until you find the same dynamic later on the staff, then hit Control-V. F3 F3 again and repeat the process until you reach the end, bypassing any hit that isn't the particular dynamic you're changing. Then go back, F3 for the next dynamic type, and repeat the exercise. I think 8 passes gets you through all the dynamics [ppp pp p mp mf f ff fff] so it only takes a couple of minutes per staff.
You also have to look out for vertical positioning of hairpins, which are affected by the height of the closest preceding dynamic or dynamic variance.
For transposition, I think a user tool would be more trouble than it's worth. Once you've input the original notes and edited them for correctness, everything is easy and fast. You copy that staff into a new one, change clefs if necessary [highlight the entire staff, move it up or down 12 steps (control and up/down arrow)], then do your transposition. The transposition is a breeze as long as you know how many semitones there are between the source and target parts.
A user tool would need to be able to cope with a whole mess of variables:
which clefs was the source in? [The bassoon parts I did last week had bass and c clefs; I've seen several instances of trombone parts switching from bass clef to treble for high notes.]
is the source staff in concert pitch or transposed, and is there an octave shift involved [string bass, the lower saxes, bass clarinet, baritone t.c., etc. are written an octave higher than they sound] ?
which clefs will the target staff use?
what pitch is the instrument used for the target staff? Is an octave shift necessary?
should staff playback be shifted?
And it goes on.
I'm not opposed to a user tool, but I'm content without one.
It was just something that was fresh in my mind, Lawrie. I had just finished six pages of bassoon parts for bass clarinet, so things like the lower boundary setting, dynamic positioning and below-range notes were fresh in my mind.
And I cheated a little - I have a card on my wall telling me how many semitones are needed for Bb and Eb instruments.
Baritone sax parts are written 21 semitones above concert pitch. Bass clarinet parts are written in treble clef too, 14 semitones above concert pitch.
Just transpose the bari sax part down 7 semitones. As a visual check, the transposed bass clarinet key signature should have one more flatsharp (or one less sharp flat) than the key signature for the baritone sax. To save yourself a lot of time, let Noteworthy do the transposition. Use two staffs, and on the first one, enter the bari part as written. Then copy the result to the second staff, and transpose it "-7." Hide the bari staff.
The bari part may include an A two leger lines below the staff. I don't believe all bari saxes go that low, but some do. For bass clarinet this is D four leger lines below the staff. Not all bass clarinets play below Eb, and it's rare enough that many players will not recognize it intuitively when sight reading, so if your transposition includes the low D, you may want to add a D an octave higher as if it were a two note chord.
Since the bass clarinet part may use as many as four leger lines below the staff, you'll need to set the lower boundary of that staff to 14 or 15, and you'll want to make sure all your dynamics, dynamic variations and performance style marks are moved down to avoid colliding with the notes. I usually set the dynamics to right justify as well.
Transposing concert pitch parts for bass clarinet and baritone saxophone requires two transposition steps instead of one.
These transpositions are 14 semitones and 21 semitones respectively. Any more than 12 semitones returns an out of range message with that annoying Windows 10 "GONG!" (I know it can be disabled, but that's not my complaint.)
One day I'd like to see the 12 semitone limit removed. Transposition is already super easy in NWC, and this would make it just that much more perfect.
As I was writing a string of text with a user font today, I needed to use the character map. It occurred to me it would be nice to have an "OK" box at the top of the character map window as well as at the bottom.
This would save a few arm movements when the character map opens below the Expression box, in other words, at the bottom of the screen. Going up rather than down to accept the selected character allows the user to select OK on the way back to the Expression window, instead of mousing down first, then back up.
The fewer arm movements the better for those with sore wrists.
I know pressing Enter will accept a character, but that requires withdrawing from the mouse to hit the enter key, then returning to the mouse to position the pointer for the next character.
, even (12) above the 3rd, 7th and 11th consecutive signs. 
