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Topic: Chord names/symbols! (Read 4322 times) previous topic - next topic

Chord names/symbols!

I consider Noteworthy composer just about the best value in any software product I own (and I own a LOT!) It's stable, well designed, and generally an absolute pleasure to use. Considering all this, the absence of support for chord information is particularly difficult to understand. For me, this makes the product all but unusable for anything requiring printed output. Yes, I know you can use the Insert|Text feature, and that would be fine if not for the fact that the inserted text can not occupy the same space as a note -- in many cases it's important to indicate that the chort is played AT a note, not before or after it.

I certainly would not mind if these did not transpose with the rest of the music -- Cakewalk's chord symbols are simply 'decorations' but are quite useful (unfortunately, Cakewalk doesn't do most anything else as well as Noteworthy!)

Re: Chord names/symbols!

Reply #1 –
I use the "insert|text" option for chords and I find it works
quite well. Two options to keep in mind:
1. Staff Postition:
try about 8 to 15 for chords above the staff
try about -8 to -15 for chords below the staff
2. Preserve width: (most important)
make sure it is NOT checked. This allows the chord to be
positioned directly above/below a note instead of before
or after it.

Re: Chord names/symbols!

Reply #2 –
Have you tried deselecting the "Preserve Width" attribute of the inserted text? This will cause the text to align itself with the note that it preceeds.

See "jingle.nwc" in the samples folder to see what I mean.

Re: Chord names/symbols!

Reply #3 –
I have to agree with Joe. I tried Noteworthy 1.3 last year
and found even that version very easy to use for my purposes
(creating fakesheets). HOWEVER, the lack of proper chord
symbol handling caused me to switch to music@passport.
My biggest problem was that when you transpose a staff
(something I do quite often, since I am a vocalist), the
chord names, being text, don't transpose. I'm certainly not
going to go back in and manually change all the chords.
I put in a request over a year ago for support for chord
symbols, and I really wonder why it has never appeard in
any subsequent release. This function is supported by
MANY other notation packages.

Re: Chord names/symbols!

Reply #4 –
This would be a big feature, meaning take a long time to do. I guess if you do chords you want this a lot, but those who do not need chords have other things they want a lot. Picking the features to do for each release is a tough balancing act. I guess the forum and wish list are the only way to guess what the (most vocal) customers really want.

Re: Chord names/symbols!

Reply #5 –
Thanks for the tip regarding 'preserve width' -- that really helps a lot. As I said in my root post, it's hard to fault Noteworthy for any omission, considering the overall quality, features, price, ease of use, etc., and I can certainly understand the juggling that software developers must do in trying to please everyone at once. I'm not sure I see how this particular feature would benefit vocal-oriented users as much as other musicians, who rely more on the chord symbols, though.