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Topic: Editing Lyrics (Read 3799 times) previous topic - next topic

Editing Lyrics

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to directly edit your lyrics after they have been attached to the music without having to leave the score.

Unless you guys know better, the only way I can get to edit the lyrics is to have to go back into the lyric page, edit and then back into the combined score to see whether the editing has been effected in the right place.

JohnW
Scotland, UK

Re: Editing Lyrics

Reply #1 –
Lyric editing in the score would be nice, but it is difficult to achieve. A simpler improvement would be to position the cursor in the lyric editor when you enter it at the word at the insertion point you were at in the score. Add your thoughts to the wish list.

Re: Editing Lyrics

Reply #2 –
Finale has that capability (as well as a more workable sequencing capability). I wonder if Eric might be able to do something similar (wish list?) with Noteworthy, without at the same time destroying its capability of readily copying the lyrics into a wordprocessor? The latter capability is very helpful.

I'll pop off a quick wish list note.

P.S. I played around with Finale, but still much prefer Noteworthy for my purposes.

Re: Editing Lyrics

Reply #3 –
I also added it to the wish list.

For a non-trained musical person like me, NWC is brilliant and really helps me to understand some of the intricacies of music.

John

Re: Editing Lyrics

Reply #4 –
OK my bits too,

NWC very nice but in need of some major upgrade for print control, staff management/manipulation. Consider I am writing some stuff for psalms using no bars. Makes for brutal control. Finale is far superior for this kind of manipulation.
Consider open ended staff lines
Clef sign on first line only
Scaling (for output) eg based on page display size or percentage
Lyrics laid out before, middle or end of notes
Auto harmonizing
Lyric presentation control
8 count notes

Keep trying,
Gord

Re: Editing Lyrics

Reply #5 –
It should be pointed out that almost all of the previous poster's "objections" can be easily accomplished using NWC. Others, such as automatic harmonisation, are the composer's job, not the scoring program's. Also, it bears noticing that the poster used an invalid email address.

Re: Editing Lyrics

Reply #6 –
Not so fast, fred.

Lyrics presentation is truly a weak point of NWC.

I've managed to get by with 100-copy one-page runs, but I'm looking a larger lyrics-intensive project and ... NWC's inability to use the horizontal space efficiently in the lyrics layout may push me to Finale. I'm estimating that, counting bloat caused by internal fragmentation across lines and pages, I'm looking at 50% paper waste -- and I could pay for Finale 2000 with the paper savings on a 10,000 - sheet production run.

Now, I don't like Finale. It has a flat learning curve, and the NWC keyboard interface is superior. I still can't figure out how to pay for the extra time it will take to use. I'd probably still input in NWC, then export to midi and import into Finale. But Finale has two features that may be critical. Shape notes (7-note Aiken scheme, in particular) is one. The other is the way that lyrics syllables can be centered under notes, and can use the space under the measure bar lines. I know in your typical pop sheet music the syllables are seldom less than an inch apart -- but hymns are lyrics-intensive. This one feature could turn a four-line hymn into a three-line hymn about half of the time (or conversely, NWC packs a three-line hymn into four lines about half the time.)

[Aside: Note that since this forum is visible to spambots, my e-mail address is invalid -- but a human will have no trouble sending me e-mail.]

Re: Editing Lyrics

Reply #8 –
Huh?

How are email addresses visible?  Since the forum font changed, I don't see any links to email addresses in the entries.
 

Re: Editing Lyrics

Reply #9 –
I set a lot hymns andhave found layout problems are best fixed outside NWC.
NWC can set the lyrics at the beginning of notes and that make for clarity. Multi-line hyms are no problem either.
To get the systems the way they are preferred system breaks can be entered and in page setup the line length can be set to assist. If a little long the work can be scaled at the printing stage.

It is also possible to insert hidden spaces to pad out a system.
[alt 160 or in the BOXmarks font the microspace on 't'.]

It helps to think of the notation entry and the print layout as two different tasks. That enlarges the tool box. It is easy to get a NWC page into graphics and it can be cut or scaled easily to fit added to or modified.