NoteWorthy Composer Forum

WARNING: This beta has been replaced by NoteWorthy Composer 2.1 RC 1 (https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=7181.0).

NoteWorthy Software is pleased to announce the availability of a new beta test edition of NoteWorthy Composer. An installer for Version 2.1 Beta 29 is attached to this topic. This installs the latest NoteWorthy Composer 2.1 Beta test edition into your currently installed copy of NoteWorthy Composer 2. You must be a licensed user of NoteWorthy Composer 2 in order to install this test edition. The files installed in this test edition are covered by your existing NoteWorthy Composer 2 license. Your existing copy of NoteWorthy Composer 2 will not be altered by installing this test edition. You can, and should, run this test edition side by side with your current copy of NoteWorthy Composer 2. You can start testing the new features in this release by running the program icon titled "NWC Test Edition" that can be found on your computer's desktop.

What's New in Version 2.1

• New interactive piano bar, with significant editor integration
  
• New "Viewer Mode" for in place editing of the printed view of the work
  
• New cross hair for quickly finding your current location/insertion point
  
• Improved active staff boundary lines when in edit mode
  
• Color highlighting for noteheads with a new quick access tool palette
  
• New backup mechanism for handling .bak files during save
  
• New staff label taskbar in the editor, with tooltip for current clef, key, and time signature
  
• New persistent selection when changing the active staff
  
• New multiple document selector in the status bar
  
• New Layering Tool for quickly combining visible staves into layers
  
• Play/record indicator in the document selector
  
• Current clef, time signature, bar and MIDI channel are shown in the status bar
  
• A file changed indicator in the editor window's title bar and Window menu selector
  
• An origin indicator in the editor window's title bar and Window menu selector for unsaved editor windows from imported or backup sources
  
• Support for opening a file as "read-only"
  
• The undo facility now recognizes when the editor matches the originally opened version of your work
  
• New "Fake" items in user tool clip text provide reliable play context for smaller clipped sections
  
• Expand editor background color control to support full RGB palette
  
• New active staff background color while in edit mode
  
• A command line program, nwc-conv.exe, is now included for converting *.nwc files to and from various other formats
  
• New "Show/Hide Rest" option for RestChord objects
  
• New line drawing techniques to help work around buggy print drivers
  
• Tools->Windows Volume Control support in Windows 7 and Vista
  
• MIDI import safeguards when encountering null tempos
  
• Audit bar line handling of double dots at bar boundary
  
• Leger lines now always print in matching color to the staff
  
• Leger lines are drawn consistently for staves with custom number of lines
  
• Improved default folder for "Song Files" and "Auto Save/Recovery" file locations when not set by the user
  
• Improved tempo variance handling for adjacent grace notes
  
• Improved triplet bracket positioning for starting or ending rest
  
• Improved notehead alignment for split stem chords
  
• Allow larger notation from File, Page Setup, Fonts
  
• Slurs ignore hidden rests in a RestChord
  
• Accept MIDI notes down to C-1
  
• Use standard notation octave indicators (C-1 to G9) in MIDI import instructions
  
• Play/record tool show status after being clicked, and support click off
  
• Improve editor handing of Page Setup, Contents changes so that the currently active staff and editor location are retained when they remain in view
  
• Improve Score Review to better support editing parts not currently shown in the editor
  

Upon successfully installing this beta test edition, you will see an additional desktop icon titled "NWC Test Edition." You can use this icon to start up the new program. Any files that you save in this new version are backward compatible with the original NoteWorthy Composer 2 program, but you will not see any additional features that you enable from the test edition if you go back to using the original NoteWorthy Composer 2 release.

If you customize your toolbars in the beta release, any tools that you add that are specific to NWC 2.1 will be shown as unknown in the original NWC 2.0. Make sure that you do not try to customize again in NWC 2.0 or you will lose your NWC 2.1 customizations.

Support issues relating to the use of this beta should be posted in the Back Stage (https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?board=8.0) area (you must have upgraded your membership (https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=5483.0) in order to to view and post in this area).

This topic has been updated to the Beta 21 release.

Changes and additions in Beta 21:

• New active staff background color while in edit mode (not available in Viewer Mode)
• New "Layer with Next Staff" command for quickly enabling layering
• Change the active staff from the status bar's active staff name gadget using right click of the mouse
• Label panel can be disabled from the View menu
• Crosshair can be disabled from the View menu
• Reorganized the color options from Tools, Options, Color for better consistency
• Allow Layering option now controls layering while in edit mode; Viewer mode always uses layering

This topic has been updated to the Beta 22 release.

Changes and additions:

• Time signature and relative time offset into the current bar are now shown in the status bar
  The time signature at the insertion point is now shown in the status bar. As you move the insertion point into a bar, either through existing notes or by adding additional notes, the relative beat count into the bar is also shown. This should be helpful in finding bar boundaries while inputing notes.
  
  
• New active staff top and bottom boundary edge lines that replace the prior active staff focus rectangle
  This is controlled from the View, Show Active Staff Edges command. As with the active staff color, this is not available in Viewer Mode.
  
  
• Another update to the color naming scheme
  This change might cause you to lose one or more of your existing color preferences. Sorry for the inconvenience.
  
  
• Toolbar button for View, Layering in Edit Mode
  This button is not included in the factory default settings for the toolbars, but can be added manually using View, Toolbars, Customize.
  
  
• Fix the Layer with Next Staff command when working in the last layer
  
  
• Fix the Viewer Mode method for drawing layers (later layers should be on top of overlapping earlier layers)
  
  

This topic has been updated to the Beta 23 release (available at the top of this topic).

Changes and additions:

• Currently active clef is shown in the status bar
• Note chase scrolling during play back should now do a better job of keeping the played notes in view
• Fix for grand staff brace not showing in edit mode
• Fix note pitch wrapping for piano in the highest octave

This topic has been updated to the Beta 24 release (available at the top of this topic).

Changes and additions:

• Add a "Open as read-only" option to File, Open (the Open, Sample command uses this option under all circumstances)
  Note that you can open multiple instances of the same file for "read-only" access.
  
• Add play and record icons to the status area that also shows current clef
• Fix Layering in Edit Mode bug
• Fix extremely low note MIDI pitch wrapping bug (as demonstrated in the very low octaves of the piano key octave wrap)

This topic has been updated to the Beta 25 release (available at the top of this topic).

Changes include an updated augmentation dot placement method, hiding the cursor while using the computer keyboard to navigate, accepting notes from the piano only while editor input is active, and a fix for the staff label panel when changing the staff view from File, Page Setup, Contents.

This topic has been updated to the Beta 26 release (available at the top of this topic).

Changes include the return of the Allow Layering option in Page Setup, a new Layering Tool, improved handing of Score Review editing of parts that are not currently shown in the editor, and additional improvements in augmentation dot placement.

This topic has been updated to the Beta 27 release (available at the top of this topic).

Additional improvements have been made to the new Layering Tool, as well as the augmentation dot placement scheme.

This topic has been updated to the Beta 28 release (available at the top of this topic). It includes several fixes to address issues reported in beta 27.

This topic has been updated to the Beta 29 release (available at the top of this topic). It includes automatic detection for notes that should use a multi-part lower voice augmentation dot due to an earlier split stem chord.