I think I may have raised this before, but cannot find further information on the forum, so :
Is there a way to change the default fonts (printing fonts, that is) as a user?
I normally want to use Arial typeface, as I have found it is easier for singers to read than Times Roman. However, at the moment, when I start a new file I have to change every font to Arial. I also prefer to reduce the Page Title Text font from 24, since that takes up a lot of space on the page!
So, I would like to change the default font to, in my case, Arial, and also the font size.
I assume that there are other defaults which it would be helpful for the user to change to suit their own tastes/needs?
I've just used layering to get the lyrics placed where I wanted them, and to allow for differing rests in the different parts, but I just found something which doesn't line up:
when you layer up two staves, which include two adjacent notes (vertically), each one on a different layer (e.g. F# and G), the lower note does not automatically slip sideways, as it does if you put them both on one staff. This makes the chord difficult to read.
You can add this second note to the upper staff of the two, and, oddly, it brings the same note on the second (lower) staff with it! However, since these lower notes were semiquavers, I wanted to join them with a beam, but separately from the upper line of music (upper voice part has stems going upwards, and lower voice part has stems going down). I then came back to an earlier problem: if you add a beam to quavers which are part of chords - stems going both ways - the beam only applies to the upper line.
I've been off-line the last couple of weeks (moving house), but now I'm back with you, I'm glad I've been able to look up your replies. I appreciate the comments and suggestions, which I understand, and at which I will now have a go! The layering solution for different note lengths is one I've tried, but when this occurs only, maybe, once in a piece, it is a rather long-winded solution, as you have to insert all the other bars onto the second (layered) staff to make it fit.
In the meantime, I've found another oddity:
Measure numbers: is there a way to automatically insert these every 5 bars, rather than just at the beginning of every line?
I've not been on-line for some time, and have just now looked for answers to my questions, but don't see them. Can anyone help me find a way to do what I want (or perhaps NWC may include them in an upgrade? I think there used to be a way of suggesting such improvements direct, but I can't find it!) I'm afraid I've accumulated a number of 'wants'!
1. I'd like to put in a chord with a longer duration, say an octave on middle C, minim length, and then put shorter notes on the same start point and following it, within the same duration. At the moment I can put in a minim alongside a shorter note, but can't put the minim both above and below the shorter notes.
2. How can I print a block of bars' rest, such as might be needed by a vocal line, which does not have, or need, the full accompaniment, which fills in the gaps. If I put it in with text, it mucks up the bar count, and I can't see a way of restarting the bar count from within a piece.
3. Is it possible to alter the height of triplet marks ( ---3---)? Is it possible to replace the 3 with another number, to provide for, e.g. 5 or 7 notes to be played over the value of 2? Again, this can be achieved by text and hiding rests/notes to fill in the gaps in the other part, but it doesn't always look right, and doesn't play right.
4. The printout does not always match exactly the preview (e.g. margins, and placing of text over notes). Any way round this?
5. There appears to be no way to alter the placement of header text e.g. title, composer, so as to save space, or an option to omit them - which I've wanted to do when printing sections of a piece, e.g. because there are several voice parts in one section, but only one in the following section. If you print the second section as a separate piece of music, you have to repeat the title, composer, etc. The alternative to this problem would be an option to change the number of staves within a piece. This would be better, but perhaps is more difficult to achieve in software terms.
6. Is there a way to insert more (different) characters with Text Insert? i.e. to use extended character sets?
7. I could do with a function for Lyrics, so that a chorus/refrain only needs to appear once, but each verse can appear in full. At the moment, if the chorus comes first, you have to put something under every note of the chorus, for each verse after the first one, or the words appear in the wrong place! A full stop will do, but it looks odd. To put in the chorus words every time is fussy and unnecessary. Is there perhaps a way of hiding certain parts of text? As you can do with notes?
