Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: NWC novice - lyrics placement (Read 17534 times) previous topic - next topic

NWC novice - lyrics placement

Hi - I'm new and I've looked around for this, but I don't see a thread for my particular issue, so here it is...

In my Section 1 I have lyrics 1 and 2.  Section 2 only uses Lyric 1.  Section 3 again repeats and uses Lyric 1 and 2.

I have lyric one going across 1, 2, 3, , but I need to put a new lyric 2 into Section 3...how do I get from 1 to 3 without having lyrics appear in Section 2?

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #1 –
G'day Frank,
welcome to the group...

Quote from: Frank –
...how do I get from 1 to 3 without having lyrics appear in Section 2?

The underscore character "_" is reproduced as a space by NWC, but takes up a syllable in the lyrics, so...

If you count the number of syllables/notes in section 2 and add that many underscores (seperated by real spaces) in lyric 2 between sections 1 and 3 then that will result in section 2 having no lyrics appear for lyric 2...   Hope that makes sense...
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #2 –
I'm not sure if I understand what you're asking, Frank, but see if this attachment does what you want.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #3 –
I have a "Lyric-blank" text file made up of 9 underscores and spaces then figure 10 etc 20 etc 30 etc etc up to 600.
I just copy and paste this into the lyric editor. Then I see my lyrics need to start at, say, 34 (30 is visible + 4 notes). Back to lyric editor, enter lyrics at site 34 and they are spot on first time. Of course when all is done you have to go back and replace each number before the lyrics with an underscore, but all after the required lyrics can be deleted. Beats the eternal guesswork or counting dozens of notes and still making a blue.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #4 –
Your idea is a creative workaround, Ilucy. 

Would Version 2's Note Properties/Lyric Syllable accomplish what your method does?

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #5 –
David, it sounds to me like that method won't work because the notes that are blocked out on the 1st verse are also blocked from carrying lyrics on subsequent verses. I might be wrong about that. Haven't had time to try it out.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #6 –
I haven't tried either.  You're probably right.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #7 –

David - thank you for setting my post to music! :-) Never had that happen before.  Anyway, I found it workable enough to just use spaces and underscore to put the words where I need them to be. But boy, this interface sure is clunky.

Frank

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #8 –
Quote from: Frank –
But boy, this interface sure is clunky.
Agreed. But not likely to change any time soon.

When I need to edit lyrics significantly, I copy them to WordPad (or my program editor). There, I can change the font and use search and replace. When it looks right, a simple Ctrl+ac in WordPad followed by Ctrl+v in the lyric does the trick.

Someday, we may get a button to open the lyrics into a user definable, external editor.
Or perhaps, Save to file, load from file.

IMO, placement issues need to be addressed before editing issues.  But it would be helpful if Ctrl+a would Select All
Registered user since 1996
 

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #9 –
Better than Wordpad, Rick, is "Quicknote" freeware. Just has a marker placed on the desktop, you can site the marker anywhere, and any colour, just brush the mouse pointer past it and the Quicknote pops up, fully configurable for Font etc. and then as you said, select all, copy and paste into the NWC Lyric Editor. Esc puts the Qicknote back to sleep, but the text is still there if you need it again. Top little helper!

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Rick G. –
IMO, placement issues need to be addressed before editing issues.  But it would be helpful if Ctrl+a would Select All
I can't tell you how many times I've automatically pressed Ctrl-A trying to select all in different elements of NWC-not just the lyric editor.  One would hope it wouldn't be too hard to fix...

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #11 –
Ctrl-A is already assigned, but could be changed to Ctrl-shift-A (which does the same thing anyway).   Ctrl-D would then want to be changed to Ctrl-shift-D to be consistent.


Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #12 –
Quote from: David Palmquist –
Ctrl-A is already assigned, ...
In the main window. If no big changes are planned for lyric editing, the one small change that would help the most is assigning Ctrl+a to Select All

This would make it so much easier to transfer things to and from an external editor.

The other commonly "wished for" change to the lyric editor is to sync the cursor to the song position when Ctrl+L is pressed. A harder programming task, I would imagine.
Registered user since 1996

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #13 –
Rick, surely right-click 'Select All' in the lyric editor is easy enough, then copy - by whatever means - Control+C or right click 'Copy'.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #14 –
Quote from: Rick G. –
... it would be helpful if Ctrl+a would Select All
Quote from: kahman –
I can't tell you how many times I've automatically pressed Ctrl-A trying to select all in different elements of NWC-not just the lyric editor.  One would hope it wouldn't be too hard to fix...
I just discovered that Tab will select all the lyrics. It works just like Ctrl+a should.

To try this:
  • Open JINGLE.NWC or SAVEQUEN.nwc
  • Press: Ctrl+L to bring up Lyrics
  • Click on Lyric 1 and press: Tab

This works in Win98. It may be a function of how Windows works rather than a deliberate NoteWorthy feature.
Registered user since 1996

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #15 –
This is the way the Windows dialog controls behave.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #16 –
Quote from: NoteWorthy Online –
This is the way the Windows dialog controls behave.
Good. Some will see this as trivial, but if you use an external program to edit lyrics, it is quite a time saver.

This discussion has some history:
Quote from: user111 –
[CTRL-A] is supposed to select all the text in the lyrics editor. Why does this not work?
Quote from: NoteWorthy Online –
The lyric edit boxes are actually implemented as standard Windows controls. NWC does not implement the keyboard or mouse behavior in these controls.
Registered user since 1996

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #17 –
Well Rick, Tab does highlight the text, but it does no good (yet) because after Ctrl-L, Tab the focus is on the OK-button.
I think that you will need Tab, Shift-Tab, Ctrl-C to highlight all and copy.
Same in W98? I suppose so.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #18 –
In Win98, the focus is on the lyrics.
In WinXP, the focus is on the lyrics.

Added 2007Oct07
But as you can read below, pressing Tab shifts it to Ok
Registered user since 1996

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #19 –
Rick

Perhaps another one of those occasions where different systems do different things.

When I try this - (It would be fantastic if it worked),  I hit the tab key and I can see at the time that the lyrics are highlighted, the tiny dots surround the OK button indicating that the focus has shifted to the OK button. This means also that I cannot do a CTRL C to copy without clicking back in the lyrics pane and this needs to be done at the end of the highlighted lyrics or else the selection gets shortened.

The only other way round this (for me) is to hit the tab key 4 times - the focus is then cycled back to the lyrics.



Rich.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #20 –
Ok, now I see. The focus shift after I press Tab. I didn't check to see that the copy succeeded.
Still, Tab Tab Tab Tab Copy is not too bad once you get used to it.
Registered user since 1996

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #21 –
I suggested Tab Shift-Tab. It saves the odd keystroke, but you may find Tab Tab Tabbity Tab handier.
It's simply Tab to go forward and Shift-Tab to go back again. All is still highlighted (no surprise there) and the focus is where we want it.
Or Shift-Tab Tab. Six of one, half a dozen of another.
That gives you 3 options, Rich ;-)
cheers,
Rob.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #22 –
Spoilt for choice then.

(I go for CTRL A personally, but I guess I've had that :(  )
Rich.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #23 –
Quote from: Rob den Heijer –
I suggested Tab Shift-Tab. It saves the odd keystroke.
If you start with the cursor at the beginning of the staff, Ctrl+L followed by: Ctrl+Shift+End will select all. Another keystroke saved. This is. of course, true only if Ctrl+L opens to the verse you need.

I know that NWC sees this as a Windows problem, but perhaps some setup can be done to insure that the selection focus is on the edit sub-window after Ctrl+L is pressed.

As it is, it seems quite unnatural to me. I can only imagine how it must appear to someone new who relies on accelerator keys in other applications.
Registered user since 1996

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #24 –
What I really don't understand - and perhaps someone will enlighten me - is if Ctrl A works in all other windows and office programs because that is the windows standard, what is it that NoteWorthy does to stop it happening.

Eric writes 
Quote
This is the way the Windows dialog controls behave.
. But the windows dialog controls in all other applications use CTRL A to select all - so it must me something that NoteWorthy does to stop this action.

Is it because the key combination CTRL A is taken within the program to mean "New Staff" and this overrides the accepted windows use of this key combination?
Rich.

Re: NWC novice - lyrics placement

Reply #25 –
Quote from: Richard Woodroffe –
windows dialog controls in all other applications use CTRL A to select all - so it must me something that NoteWorthy does to stop this action.
I'd say NWC is blameless. The lyrics edit box ignores Ctrl+A in the same way that NotePad does in Win98 (and previous versions). Shift+F10 does bring up a context menu with Select All, so: Ctrl+L->Shift+F10->A->Ctrl+C will do the trick.

Quote from: Richard Woodroffe –
Is it because the key combination CTRL A is taken within the program to mean "New Staff" and this overrides the accepted windows use of this key combination?
I'd say no. Using a Resource Editor, I was able to change the Accelerator definition of Ctrl+A to a routine that does select the entire Staff:
Quote from: Rick G. "MAINMENU ACCELERATORS modification"
  "^A", 217, NOINVERT  =>     "^A", 39, NOINVERT
This had no effect on Lyric DialogBox behaviour, but it does make the change that William Ashworth advocates <here>. I concur with William, but the help file and other menu references to Add Staff would need to be changed.

Removing ES_NOHIDESEL from Dialog 556 removed the false highlighting caused when you use Tab to move from the edit window to the OK button. An improvement, I think, as it would have avoided the confusion I had <here>. But I didn't check for side effects ...

If the tab order could be changed so that the first Tab would shift the focus to the edit sub-window, Ctrl+L->Tab->Ctrl+C should work. I am not able to do this with my Resource Editor (yet).
Registered user since 1996