Is it possible to print out music with breaks part way through a measure or bar?
I am doing scores for church music and one often sees in a hymn book where the printed line turns over to match the text lines in a hymn verse with, say, one line ending with three beats and the next line starting with one beat (assuming common times).
Can anyone offer advice?
G'day Brian,
you can... but:
How to do it is to simply place a barline where you want the break to occur and then change it's properties to be hidden and cause a system break.
Downside:
If you're using NWC1.75 it will affect the bar count. If you have NWC2, you can elect to exclude it from the bar count.
One workaround for the NWC1 problem is to exclude measure numbers, and then write them in yourself on the printed page. From there you could use a copy machine. I used to have to do this all the time, because I had certain instances in jazz where a song would have intro measures A, B, C, and D. :)
Or you could enter measure numbers in as text right in the editor. I'm not sure if that is what Bob was saying.
That's a way I would rather not go through the trouble of. What I'm saying is physically print your file (with no measure numbers), then sit down with a pen and write in the measure numbers at the beginning of each line.
Bob, you may be reprinting the music from time to time. If so, you may wish to avoid the hassle of renumbering each sheet of music each time.
Use a "conductor" staff with muted headless whole notes, and ordinary bar lines. Enter bar numbers as text, just before each bar line, justify centre, placed at next bar/note. Then you just layer that with your music.
Now you can print anytime, or print once to pdf, and make hard copy whenever.
Thank you, Lawrie.
That works fine. It makes the score easier to follow with lines cut like that.
It just means I'll have to go through a heap of arrangements and put blank bar lines in.
Much appreciated.
Brian, open this NWC1.75 file, and just copy the top staff into every score, and move it to the top. Your numbering is done for you. Just delete the bars you don't want, and insert the extra bar line with a forced system break where you need it. Change the rest in that bar to a couple of half rests or whatever.
This took less than 5 minutes to prepare and should take much less than that to use. Save yourself some work.
Umm David, 'scuse me for butting in, but I don't think Brian was actually concerned about the numbering part. It was positioning the invisible, system break barlines that will take him some time... Obviously this needs to be done individually as each hymn will be different...
Good point, but it is a lot of effort, and renders the score less editable unless bars are renumbered. But I see where you're coming from. I guess I normally print a single time and run copies of it, keeping an original tucked away somewhere safe.
Thanks David for your idea. That is even better than the normal numbering system which only numbers the measure at the beginning of each staff instead of every measure. Good one!
Lawrie, you weren't butting in and you may be right. And I thought better of my intemperate language, so edited it out.
Bob,
. I print to pdf and then print from that. I can run additonal copies any time that way. However, I use rehearsal letters and don't use bar numbering normally.
Fitz, glad it works for you.
Thanks, everyone who went to the trouble of replying. There are some good ideas in that lot.