Stop automatic bar lines

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Stop automatic bar lines

2011-03-05 06:51 pm

Is there a way to stop NWC 2.1 from automatically inserting the bar lines based on the time signature? I prefer to insert them myself at the end. I find it much easier to input all the notes as the same value and then change them when I am finished.

Re: Stop automatic bar lines

Reply #1 – 2011-03-05 07:53 pm

Re: Stop automatic bar lines

Reply #2 – 2011-03-05 08:28 pm

Automatic bar entry happens if you use the Piano Bar Control for note entry. To suppress it, use a TimeSig of 127/1
Weird things happen in Ver 2.1 if you try to use 128/1. This has been corrected in Ver 2.5 Beta Preview 5

Re: Stop automatic bar lines

Reply #3 – 2011-03-06 08:53 am

Automatic bar lines also happen when using step-time-entry from a MIDI keyboard, a fact which I only discovered recently. I find it very useful since I do set the note durations as I go along. And it's quite magical when you enter a semibreve in a 3/4 bar and out comes a tied dotted minim, bar line, and crotchet – think of the keystrokes that saves!

There's a small 'bug'. A rest (space bar or piano keyboard) as the first item in a bar completely messes up the behaviour.

Re: Stop automatic bar lines

Reply #4 – 2011-03-06 04:19 pm

Might be this should be an option that can be turned on and off. I don't currently use either a separate MIDI keyboard or the piano bar for note entry, but if I ever do, I certainly won't want the software deciding where bars should be in my music. I sometimes write stuff with changing time sigs, and I occasionally dabble in barless scores. This would be especially true if I were improvising music that I wanted to keep a record of by using a keyboard attached to NWC. I can see myself getting very mad at the "little man in the box" telling me haughtily that I really should have put a barline there, and there. Shades of Microsoft Word (which I have mostly abandoned in favor of Open Office, for that very reason).

Re: Stop automatic bar lines

Reply #5 – 2011-03-06 10:01 pm

As it happens, I concur with William. One fo the things I particularly hate about pretty much any other notation product is automagic barlines.

Re: Stop automatic bar lines

Reply #6 – 2011-03-07 10:09 pm

To summarize, NWC does not automatically add bar lines when the input is from:

a NoteWorthy file
a standard keyboard
a mouse (via the context menu)

NWC adds automatic bar lines (based on the TimeSig) when the input is from:

or when Audit Bar Lines is invoked.

To suppress "automatic bar lines", use the Time Signature Command to make the current Time Signature: 127/1
To suppress "automatic bar lines" during MIDI import, edit the MIDI file prior to import. Remove all TimeSig(s) and insert an initial TimeSig: 127/1

I use "127/1" as an example. Other values may work as well.