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Topic: Bar Lines and Insertion Points (Read 5983 times) previous topic - next topic

Bar Lines and Insertion Points

Hi. I'm evaluating NoteWorthy Composer 1.50 shareware, and
I have some questions.

First, there's this about bar lines in the Help file:

"During note entry, the bar lines will, at times, not align
with one another in different staves. After completing a
section of a song, all bar lines should line up properly.
If they do not, then there are duration differences between
common measures of the different staves of the section."

Is it sometimes not possible to align bar lines, thus
messing up print outs? Would non-aligned bar lines mess up
MIDI playback?

It's easy to enter notes on a staff using only my right hand
on the keyboard. The Tab key for entering bar lines is on
the far left side of the keyboard. That means I have to use
my left hand to enter bar lines (when I'd rather use it to
keep my place in the music I'm entering) or reach across the
keyboard with my right hand. Is it possible to assign bar
line entry to a key on the right half of the keyboard?

A lot of note entering seems to take place up against the
far right edge of the screen. I can use the mouse and
scroll bars to give myself some extra space, but when I'm
using the keyboard for note entry, always grabbing for the
mouse isn't what I had in mind. Is there a way to move the
insertion point away from the edge without using the mouse?

Regards,

Judy

Re: Bar Lines and Insertion Points

Reply #1 –
As long as the durations of the corresponding measures are
the same the bar lines will line up. If they don't, it is
an indication that the out-of-line measure has a duration
problem. If the bar lines line up they will print lined-up
and play correctly.

You do NOT need to add bar lines yourself. After you enter
the music (or a part of it) click:
Tools Audit Bar Lines (or Alt-t-b).
to provide (or verify) the bar lines for you.

As you are entering, the insertion point is generally at
the far right of the screen. But it is never off the screen.
As you enter music the screen will scroll, always keeping
the insertion point in view.
One thing I have found that temporarily gets the insertion
point to the left side of the screen is pressing "Home" and
then "End".

Re: Bar Lines and Insertion Points

Reply #2 –
This does raise the interesting point that some musical pieces do their bar lines at different spacings
(say one part is in 6/8 and another is in 2/4 and they are playing "across" each other).
Whilst NWC allows different time sigs and arbitrary bar placement, the alignment - I'd have to say - looks pretty ugly.

A

Re: Bar Lines and Insertion Points

Reply #3 –
NWC will not line up different time signatures, where one is compound time like 6/8 and another is 2/4. This is not possible in NWC. However, in the general case, the bar lines will line up provided that the time duration included in the vertically aligned bars all add up to the same duration.

As for bar lines, we added the ability to add them using the '*' key. This enables bar lines and notes to be added from the numeric keypad on the right of most keyboards, for those who prefer this technique.

Re: Bar Lines and Insertion Points

Reply #4 –
I think there is some confusion here. Sometimes people are talking about barlines aligning in the editor, and sometimes they are referring to bar lines aligning in the print out. My experience is (having not used different time signatures) that if the bar lines are aligned in the editor, then they will be aligned in the printout.

*** Would non-aligned bar lines mess up MIDI playback?

Yes. Because non-aligned barlines usually means that a bar has not got enough notes in it.

Also could Noteworthy implement a "Smart" editor so that the place you have the cursor (insertion point) is aligned where you want it? Like in a wordprocessor where you set the indentation on a ruler.

Cool.

Re: Bar Lines and Insertion Points

Reply #5 –
Thanks, for the input, guys. My new registered software
came in the mail today. Nice program.

Judy

Re: Bar Lines and Insertion Points

Reply #6 –
I tried "audit bar lines". Serious mistake. What I hoped for
was some indications of which measures were defective, so that
I could correct them. What I got was the bar lines shifted to
the middle of notes, so that it looked like I needed to painfully
recorrect all the formerly correct measures, as well as deduce
the incorrect measure by the beginning of the corruption.

Re: Bar Lines and Insertion Points

Reply #7 –
You can use the audit to find misaligned bars. Once you find them, simply Undo the changes made by the audit, then manually correct the problem bar.
 

Re: Bar Lines and Insertion Points

Reply #8 –
Stephen, you said "what I hoped for...". Do not forget to RTFM (Read The Fineprint Manual), this will save you from being deceived.
NWC is a NOT WinWord (what a chance for NWC btw!), so do not expect it to do such things that word does (for instance : "are you sure you want to replace the selection ??" or "Are you sure you want to inflate the airbag ?", Thanx µ$oft).
NWC is a performant tool that won't bother you with everlasting dialogs. It does its job quickly and fine. And as nwc-suppot says, you can use the audit to look at which measures are misaligned.

Though I use another way for this : simply use Ctrl-RightArrow (or left) and you'll go to the next bar. Very useful indeed. (I also use it in a macro that automatically remove systematic key/time signature that some midi have in them. But it'd be great that NWC does not import them when they do not change... :-))

HTH,
                MAD