Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: Back again ..... how to select text (Read 6324 times) previous topic - next topic

Back again ..... how to select text

I can not select text after inserting.

Manual says the diamond next to text allows the text to be selected .....
when I click on the diamond the staff becomes selected.

My text is approx 4 lines below the staff, but is does not allow selection no matter where I place it.

Danna

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #1 –
Hi, Danna -

You don't want to click or double click on the little diamond.  What you want to do is to put the mouse pointer just a little to the left of the diamond, then drag the mouse of the diamond to select it (the same way you would select an individual note.  (Likewise, you could put the mouse pointer just to the left of the diamond, then hold the shift-key down and hit the right arrow to select it).  Once you have selected the diamond, then either hit CTRL-E (for edit) or right click and select Edit from the popup menu.  You can then edit the text, including it's vertical and horizontal position, font, etc.

Hope that helps.
John

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #2 –
Thanks for the reply John, but can't seem to get it.

Always wants to select the staff.

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #3 –
G'day Danna,
got a little experiment for ya...

If you lose the mouse for a while and try this with just the keyboard...

First some "How to's":
  • <Left/Right Arrow> - will move the cursor a "staff element" or "object" (like a note, a text entry anchor etc.) to the left or right.
  • <Ctrl-Left/RightArrow> - will move the cursor a bar to the left or right
  • <Up/Down Arrow> - will move the cursor up or down a "note", line to space to line etc.
  • <Ctrl-Up/Down Arrow> - will move the cursor up or down an octave
  • <Shift-Left/Right Arrow> - will highlight from the cursor position in the direction of the arrow, an object at a time.
  • <Shift-Ctrl-Left/Right Arrow> - will highlight from the cursor position in the direction of the arrow, a bar at a time.

Note that the left/right movements will do their thing regardless of the cursors vertical position.

So now for the experiment...

Using the keyboard, position the cursor to the left of any object on the staff, <Shift-Right Arrow> and see what got highlighted.  Was it what you expected?  Try again using <Shift-Left Arrow> and see what happens.  Now try <Shift-Right Arrow> 3 times, you should get 3 objects highlighted.

This should be starting to make sense now, so try to highlight your text object now.  If you cannot, it is either on another staff or is actually a "lyric".

Regardless as to whether it is a text or lyric item, it will turn blue when the correct staff is selected.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #4 –
My error again .......

I was trying to highlight/select the whole word, not just the diamond.
I see how it works now.

Thanks Lawrie

Is there a way to  ....... I may get longwinded here.

Lets say you have a song with many verses ... too many to place in the correct spot under the notes.
Short verses to where the music/notes stay the same throughout the song.

Lets say you can get all notes on 3 staffs at top of the page.

Is there a way to place all verses at the bottom of the sheet, away from the staffs ?

Thanks Lawrie, appreciate your help.

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #5 –
G'day Danna,
short answer: no.

Long answer:

You need to do some "post processing"...

For instance, I normally notate stuff for my church band - this is copyright material so you will never see it published by me.  My usual task is to reduce 3, 4 and 5 page works, usually down to 2 if they are still legible, and 3 if I must...  Don't often have to go to 3.

Anyway, one of the things I like to do is place our internal song numbers on every page.  This is fiddly to do in NWC so instead I print the music and then open a pre-formatted wordprocessing document, alter the song number in the header and overprint the music.

This way I get a song number at the top of every page along with a page number and total number of pages.  'Tis very easy and makes a neat job of things.

I suggest you do something similar...

Print your song and if it is comfortably sitting on the top of the page you can then use a wordprocessor to fill in the additional lyrics at the bottom.

Just remember to set enough blank space at the top of the page in the WP document to allow for the music.

It may be necessary for you to adjust some margins and stuff in both NWC and your WP product to get exactly what you want.

There are other methods, but this is the one I find most straight forward and least fiddly.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #6 –
Hi Lawrie

Not sure I follow ...... print then over print.

Do you pass the sheet printed from NWC through the printer again to get the WP stuff on it ?

Thanks so much for your explanations.

Danna

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #7 –
Another way you could do it, a bit more complicated:
  • To get the score into your word-processor:
    • From your file with the score, go to File-Print Preview
    • For each page:
      • Click the "Copy" button
      • Paste into Word Processor of Choice
      • Click the "Next" Button
    • Then go to the end and add lyrics as you would normally add plain text.
Note: You may need to resize the pasted sheets of music.

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #8 –
Quote from: dannac –
G'day Danna,
<snip>
Not sure I follow ...... print then over print.

Do you pass the sheet printed from NWC through the printer again to get the WP stuff on it ?

Yup - that's exactly what I do. 

Quote
Thanks so much for your explanations.

'Tis my pleasure  :)
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #9 –
Thanks  Lawrie & kahman .... with those explanations I will surely get it to print what I need.

Lawrie, with your mention of church band ......

I play trumpet with the church choir.

NWC will help me get the music on paper in a neat way that will also help me to transpose ... playing trumpet I have to play a whole step above the keyboard/organ.

I do not read music well .... I can look at the staff and tell you this is a 2nd space A or 3rd space C,
but as for playing it in real time .... not to good.
Have a problem remembering to sharp the F & C if I'm in the key of D, stuff like that.
But if my notes are written, I can fly along as normal.

The lyric editor will allow me an easy way to place the actual written note directly under the staffed note.

I may not have the music notated as written -slurs, ties, etc... but that will not matter for my purposes.

Bottom line, I will have everyone fooled into thinking I know what I'm doing.

Thanks for all the help ....

Good day to you .....

Danna


Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #10 –
G'day Danna,
trumpet huh?  Very cool!  I play trombone, and a little Flugel Horn.

I understand about wanting to have a little assistance with identifying what note to play...  I first started learning the 'bone over 30 years ago.  I was in a local town brass band in the British tradition (being an Aussie I guess that makes sense).  The music was always transposed treble clef and I was never taught bass clef.  Later when I started playing in church I would always use transposed treble parts or concert pitch lead sheets and fake something from the chords.  Eventually I became fluent at transposing concert treble "on the fly".

In fact it wasn't until about 2 years ago that I really had a need to learn bass clef.  That was when I joined a local student Big Band.  Boy, what a learning curve!

Thing is, by working at it I've become relatively fluent in bass clef too.  I say this to encourage you to put in the effort to gain fluency.  By all means use whatever works to help you, but make it a goal to learn to sight read.  You'll never regret it!

Bless ya heaps!

I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #11 –
Hi Lawrie

Trombone ...... that must take a heavy duty air flow.

I have no formal training in music/theory.
(can't tell from my writing, hunh)

You mentioned having to learn bass clef.

Is that the line trombone usually follows ?

I would be interested in learning/playing parts that get me away from the melody line.
My playing with the choir mainly consist of parts within the melody line.

Is it OK to talk about this stuff here ??

Thanks
Danna

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #12 –
G'day Danna,
can take some air... but that's OK, some of my best friends will tell you that I'm full of hot air anyway...  :)

Working with NWC and just kicking about this forum and the news group has improved my knowledge of music theory no end.  I expect it will do the same for you.

I learned trombone in a brass band where everyone, including the tubas, which we called basses, read transposed treble clef.  However trombones are traditionally scored in concert pitch bass clef.  A fact I never realised until I started doing a little research.  When I started in the big band it came home to me quite quickly... ;)

In church, when I read from lead sheets, I look at the chords being played and just fiddle around a bit 'till something works.  Often I'll play the tonic of the chord to support the bass, but then other opportunities come available as the music becomes more familiar.  I do enjoy rehearsal times!

If the music consists of a lot of minor or 7th chords I'll often play the 3rd ot the 7th, sometimes the 5th of the chord - just takes time to get familiar.  Even if there aren't any 7ths notated I'll occasionally slip one in.  Of course the rhythmic patterns I use will be different again...  Listen to the lyrics, listen to the other members of the band and highlight what they're doing.

As a trumpeter in a choir, you don't need to carry the melody, though in places you can do so with great effect.  More you are a highlight instrument.  Less is more.  Let the rhythm section (Drums, Bass, guitar and keys) do their thing and you get the fun of embellishment.  Get it right and it sounds great, get it wrong and it still often sounds fine (except to you) - just be confident, and don't get it wrong too often 'cos too many mistakes become obvious.

One thing that NWC will do for you is allow you to notate the music (learn to write out the chords as notes) and then you can fiddle with a trumpet line and hear the effects.  Create a part for yourself.  Then when you go to rehearsal and play your newly created part you'll be a star!  :)

I do this myself.  Often we get full piano scores with our music.  I'll key that into NWC, play it back a few times and the start picking out where I can "do my thing".  I often end up "picking the eye's" out of both hands and puttin 'em together.  For a trumpet the source would be a little different, mostly from the right hand part I would expect, but don't be bound by that.  "Hear" what you think belongs and put it in.  Don't be discouraged if it doesn't come straight away.  Some songs I never "hear" anything, others, it's just there.

The thing is to be sensitive to the mood of the music.  If you're playing a sweet little ballad or something, you don't want a massive fanfare in the middle of it!  Conversely, if you're playing some raucous heavy rock number, 'tis better not to be playing some quiet little harmony somewhere 'cos you won't be heard over the screamin' guitars.

As for discussing this kind of thing here, while the forum is primarily focussed on NWC, so many discussions go off topic I doubt anyone will care.

Actually, there are so many discussions about other aspects of music that this forum is a great educational resource.  I'm sure that if a discussion was considered to be getting too "out of hand" someone would pipe up and say so, at which time it could always go to personal messages or email.
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #13 –
Quote
if a discussion was considered to be getting too "out of hand" someone would pipe up and say so,

I wouldn't worry about it.  Each thread has a subject title, and people don't have to open the threads that don't interest them.  We can all learn, here.

One thing about learning bass clef, I found it helpful to copy out parts written for bass instruments, and think about the names of the note values as I do it.  I still haven't got it to a point where I could sight read in bass clef, since my instruments are all written in treble clef, but I'm more comfortable working in that clef than I used to be.

In other words, working with NWC or NWC2 can be a learning experience, big time.

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #14 –
Lawrie,

All your replys have given me new knowledge and new ideas.
What can I say ....Thanks

or in eBay language : AAAAA++++++, The Real Deal, #1, etc....

Have a great weekend.

Here's hoping all your notes grab someone's ear, but more importantly,
touch's someone's heart.

Danna

Re: Back again ..... how to select text

Reply #15 –
David

Thanks for your input ......

I'm beginning to see the advantages of using NWC and reading this forum.

Danna