Hidden clefs and alignment

2008-12-09 12:40 pm

When I hide clefs (along with the keysignature and time signature) in order to layer it with a visible staff for cues, trills and the like, the alignment with the corresponding visible items on other staves changes. This does not affect printing, (obviously!) but it does make the layered visible staff messy. Is there a reason for this behaviour, what are the rules it follows, and can I turn it off?

Re: Hidden clefs and alignment

Reply #1 – 2008-12-09 04:27 pm

Invisible notes/rests align with their visible counterparts on other staves, but most other invisible objects align as 'Best fit forward'. Special Endings are especially troublesome since by default, most of them are hidden.

NoteWorthy doesn't claim that its editor is WYSIWYG. Perhaps that explains why correcting these alignment problems is not a priority, but it does get messy and confusing with layered staves.

Re: Hidden clefs and alignment

Reply #2 – 2008-12-09 06:02 pm

One person's mess is another person's tool. While I sometimes get irritated by the confusing grey symbols showing through from a layered staff, it is also sometimes valuable to be able to see at a glance just what you have in the way of invisible objects on a lower staff layer. Clef and time changes, in particular, can create mysterious problems, and it's nice to have them peek out from under their visible counterparts so you can find them easily.

It isn't possible to turn this behavior off, but it is possible to alter the colors, at least in NWC2. Go to tools/options/color and reset the colors of the editor. By playing around with these, you might find a combination that is less annoying to you. You can even set invisible items to white, and thus be rid of them altogether. Be aware, though, that on an inactive layered staff with visible and invisible items on different layers, the items on the staff that is lowest in the system when you uncheck layering are the ones that will show on top when layering is turned on. This staff should be the location of your primary visible notation; otherwise, invisible items will cover visible ones on inactive staves, and your notation will develop large holes. I find this counterintuitive, but that's the way the program has been developed.

Another way to deal with the problem is to make items that are identical on all layers visible on all layers. That way they will overlay each other precisely.

All of this, by the way, is a good reason to implement a suggestion of Rick's: the ability to toggle between regular mode and Viewer Preview mode in the editor. If we could also edit in Viewer Preview mode, so much the better.

Cheers,

Bill

Re: Hidden clefs and alignment

Reply #3 – 2008-12-16 06:33 pm

Thanks, both of you - that's a lot clearer.