Creating Staves/Texts between Staves/Text Fonts /Guitar Chords

2003-11-03 07:42 am

1. How can I create a new staff which is not connected (with a line at the left)to the preceding staff--a kind of independent staff?

2. How could I place long texts (paragraphs) between staves? I am copying Mass songs with prayers in between songs.

3. How can I change the fonts of texts?

4. Can NoteWorthy Composer create guitar chords which are placed above the staff?

Thank you very much.

Re: Creating Staves/Texts between Staves/Text Fonts /Guitar Chords

Reply #1 – 2003-11-03 08:18 am

1. Whenever you have two or more staves, NWC will connect them on the left in both the edit and print preview windows. This is correct behaviour and there's no way around it. If what you're looking for is a few grouped staves, a blank space, and more grouped staves, then you probably should create two song files, and adjust the margins to make your idea work. Something else you can try is to use the copy feature in the print preview window to create a metafile that can be pasted into the appropriate places in a word processing file. Do this with each song. I haven't had much luck, but my word processor software was designed for Win95 and I run Win98. You may have better luck with newer, more compatible software.

2. I think your solution is to use a word processor and paste images in as described in 1. above.

3. All text entries can be set to any of 12 fonts. Go to Edit/Page Setup and choose the Fonts tab. If you wish to change the font for a particular font setting, just select it and then click modify on that tab.

4. Guitar chord symbols are not supported by NWC, but you can workaround entering chord names by using a hidden layered staff and the lyric feature. Go to the staff that you want to place chord symbols on, and use F2 to set it for "layer with next staff."

Then create a new staff (Ctrl A), move it to just below the original staff. On this new staff, press {Ctrl L} to open the lyric editor. Set the Line Count to to 1, Alignment to Top, then click on the first lyric tab. Type your chord names in - leave a space between them. I recommend starting a new line whenever you are at a rehearsal letter - it's easier to find mistakes that way. Close the lyric editor ("okay").

You now have a blank staff without chord symbols showing yet. Fill the first measure with quarter rests. Hide them (highlight them, then Ctrl E, Visibility Never).Copy the entire staff ad nauseum, by highlighting it, Ctrl C, then Ctrl V until you have enough bars for your song.

Next, go to where you want the first (or next) chord symbol to appear, and replace the hidden rest with a hidden, muted quarter note (create the note, then use Ctrl E to set the note properties. Just paste this first note over top of the rests you want it to appear on.

Finally, go to File, Page Setup and toggle "allow layering." Your chord staff will be superimposed on the target staff, but since it's hidden, all that will show are the chord symbols above the staff.

Re: Creating Staves/Texts between Staves/Text Fonts /Guitar Chords

Reply #2 – 2003-11-04 12:46 am

If you want to place fretboard grids above the staffs, and maybe chord names with the usual letters, numbers, and symbols, you can do it by placing them as text items. my "FretQwik" font is free, and does the job. Find it by Internet search.