Skip to main content ↑ ↓
Topic: NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 [Testing Concluded, Release Available] (Read 33860 times) previous topic - next topic

NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 [Testing Concluded, Release Available]

NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 has been released (change history). Licensed users of NoteWorthy Composer 2.5 can update everything to version 2.51 using the following procedure:

  • If you have been participating in the 2.51 test releases, then you should probably uninstall the test version. Open the NWC Test Edition, then use the Uninstall command in the Help menu.

  • You can upgrade your currently installed copy of NoteWorthy Composer 2.5 by opening it, then from within NoteWorthy Composer 2.5, select the Access NoteworthySoftware.com command in the Help menu.  You will automatically be directed to the page where you can download and install the NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 upgrade.

  • Next, you can install the latest NWC User Tool Starter Kit.

  • Next, you can install the NWC 2.51 Viewer.


The remainder of this topic tracks the development and test history for NWC Version 2.51.

NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 Development and Testing Log

Reply #1 –
NoteWorthy Composer Version 2.51 is the next scheduled release. A preview of this new version is available from this topic. You must be running the latest licensed version of NWC, which is Version 2.5.5, before you can install this new test release. This release will coexist with your current NWC 2.5.5, and you can continue to use NWC 2.5.5 even after installing this test release.

Upon successfull installation, you will see an additional icon titled "NWC Test Edition." This icon will be added to the Start menu and/or desktop if you currently have a NoteWorthy Composer 2 icon installed there. You can use this icon to start up the new version of the program. Files created and saved in this new edition should be considered incompatible with earlier NoteWorthy Composer 2.5 releases. Care should be taken when working with your existing files. When the final NWC 2.51 program is released, you can uninstall this test edition by using the Uninstall command in the test edition's Help menu.


Current test edition:
  • NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 RC 1

Major changes include:

  • Built-in support for Lua user tool scripting
  • Built-in Retrograde and Show Note Names user tools included with the program (using Lua)
  • New targeting mechanism for adding tie, accidental, glyph, and color options to individual, existing notes in a chord
  • PCRE expressions in the Find and Filtered Properties commands
  • Enhanced play back status timer with interactivity
  • Enhanced Print Preview
  • New accidental, duration, notehead, color, clef, key signature, time signature, rest, bar line, and dynamic selectors in the Toolbar
  • Enhanced Edit Find mechanism
  • Enhanced Tools->Score Review mechanism
  • Enhanced editor scrolling support
  • Built-in support for some special play related computer keyboard function keys
  • File, New, Browse function
  • New lyric syllable spacing
  • Changes for Staccato performance style
  • On-screen piano now supports over 10 point multi-touch
  • User customized command images in the toolbars
  • Miscellaneous enhancements/bug fixes (as noted here in the forum)


The NWC 2.51 help file is also available here on the web site in the NWC2 online help area.

A new companion version of the NWC2 User Tool Starter Kit is also available for use with NWC 2.51. You can find that here:

NWC2 User Tool Starter Kit Version 2.51 RC 1

The change log for the 2.51 release cycle is shown below:

Beta 1 - Released on [time]1357827178[/time][/b]
  • Initial beta private announcement and release

Beta 2 - Released on [time]1358335141[/time][/b]
  • In note properties, auto enable stem length override when length is manually changed
  • In dynamic properties, auto enable volume and velocity when values are manually changed
  • Fix for moving play back position back to start of file
  • Fill in blank user tool description after browsing for a script
  • Fix for Lua infinite loop protection misfire after askbox/msgbox
  • Enable Lua nwcut.lines() processing of compressed input

Beta 3 - Released on [time]1360470942[/time][/b]
  • Lua scripts now accept command line arguments via the standard "arg" parameter
  • Simplified Tools->Review command, which now includes warning count and integration with unassigned octave accidentals
  • Simplified Edit->Find feature, combined with Edit->Filtered Properties command
  • Fix for File->New infinite loop condition
  • Additional checks for malformed repeat loops


Beta 4 - Released on [time]1361489433[/time][/b]
  • Enhanced editor scrolling support (including touch screen flicks/gestures)
  • Built-in support for some special play related computer keyboard function keys
  • File, New, Browse function
  • Score Review support for sorting by column
  • Additional Score Review fields, which can be added and removed by right clicking on the header columns
  • Lua scripts in the NWC program's Scripts AutoUserTools folder are automatically available in the .Automatic section of User Tools
  • The ::OctaveAccidentalUnassigned find feature should not identify inbound tied notes as a potential problem


Beta 5 - Released on [time]1362919074[/time][/b]
  • Improved scrolling and mouse wheel support in Preview
  • New Score Review, Copy Full Report to Clipboard command
  • Fix for Master/Local repeat interaction bug
  • More restrictive Lua sandbox (for added user protection)


Beta 6 - Released on [time]1363222836[/time][/b]
  • Retrograde user tool (good demonstration of Lua)
  • Improved Lua run time enviroment (API docs coming soon)
  • Find missing octave accidentals no longer triggers a false positive on a muted note


Beta 8 - Released on [time]1364521573[/time][/b]
  • New lyric syllable spacing, now with less space, and less filling (spacers are now respected)
  • Lua evolving as noted here in the forum
  • Fix for crash with long tempo expressions
  • Fix for crash caused by invalid editor state information
  • Make sure rests do not acquire attributes that only apply to notes


Beta 10 - Released on [time]1364818056[/time][/b]
  • Fix for staff line printing when a staff gap is on the start of a system
  • Print Preview support for temporarily disabling page justification (F11 key)


Beta 11 - Released on [time]1366626021[/time][/b]
  • Staccato performance style is now more consistent with the Staccato note articulation
  • Vertical justification of the last printed page is now applied in the same manner as all other non-title pages


Beta 12 - Released on [time]1366992940[/time][/b]
  • Tied chord members should now be more compliant with accepted standards
  • Fixed problems with Edit, Properties with Dynamic Volume Override option


Beta 13 - Released on [time]1369162885[/time][/b]
  • Fix for false triggering of a note when play starts relative to the insertion point and a Start Countdown is enabled
  • Allow a special ending to extend across a MMR within the current printed system
  • Make sure Print preview starts at the page containing the current insertion, even if the top staff contains a large MMR


Beta 16 - Released on [time]1373630745[/time][/b]
  • a new Show Note Names user tool
  • extends the nwcut Lua library


Beta 21 - Released on [time]1377295621[/time][/b]
  • On-screen piano now supports over 10 point multi-touch
  • A new piano configuration, MultiTouch Display 1, is included in the built-in version of piano.ini. It might prove useful when trying to use your fingers with the on-screen keyboard.


Beta 25 - Released on [time]1378030735[/time][/b]
New Print Preview interface, with significant interface support for keyboard, mouse and/or touchscreen input:
  • Zoom is done via +/- keys, options menu, two finger pinch, or Ctrl+Scroll Wheel actions. Double click/tap also zooms in, and a two finger tap resets the zoom.
  • Panning is done via the arrow keys, scroll bars, left mouse press and hold, or single finger slide.
  • Page turns are done via Page Up/Down keys, tapping the left or right side of the preview window, or the left right arrow keys at lowest zoom levels.


Beta 26 - Released on [time]1378764181[/time][/b]
  • Ties extending through a hidden note will skip the hidden note when printing
  • Grace notes with attached lyric syllables will use melisma alignment consistent with their current tie/slur status
  • Second or later endings will not extend over a MMR unless it is a closed ending or is continued after the MMR
  • A user selected printer from File, Printer Setup is now remembered
  • Print Preview size and position is now remembered
  • Print Preview includes "Zoom to here" instruction
  • Print Preview mouse or touch based zoom now drills down directly into the target mouse cursor or touch position (for best results, resize the preview window to closely match the page size)
  • Print Preview zoom levels are based on the current printer resolution (dpi)
  • Print Preview zoom can now be controlled from the 1 through 8 number keys
  • Drag and drop of files now detects any file names that cannot be represented/opened in the ANSI subsystem and attempts to use the short form of the file name, if it is available


Beta 27 - Released on [time]1378812158[/time][/b]
  • spacer marks and a red boundary line when justification is turned off
  • zoom status indicator now includes the number of zoom levels


Beta 28 - Released on [time]1379063906[/time][/b]
  • preview zoom around focal point now works much better across all zoom levels
  • optional display of unprintable area boundary in preview
  • return of automatic page count to the Page Setup, Preview tab
  • Copy to clipboard function in Page Setup, Preview tab
  • Some additional flicker reduction in Preview and main editor windows


Beta 29 - Released on [time]1379110227[/time][/b]
  • the status text and navigation controls are now above the preview window
  • zoom level is maintained when sequencing through adjacent pages
  • new Jump to Last Page context menu command


Beta 30 - Released on [time]1379647173[/time][/b]
  • New color toolbar button replaces the eight individual color buttons
  • New right click context menu for individually targetted noteheads
  • Control key can be used to enable a crosshair cursor for more accurate targetting
  • In the editor and preview windows, the mouse scroll wheel direction can be controlled by cursor positioning over the horizontal and vertical scroll bars (when using the mouse wheel while hovering in the Bar Number panel, scrolling is done horizontally and in larger units of whole measures)
  • Miscellaneous fixes


Beta 31 - Released on [time]1380233702[/time][/b]
  • User customized command images in the toolbars (see the What's New section in the help file)
  • Modified Lua architecture and new sandbox mechanism (please post here if you have any possible issues)


Beta 32 - Released on [time]1380573242[/time][/b]
  • New accidental, duration, and notehead selectors for the toolbars (the A,W, and Q keyboard shortcuts are also available regardless of whether the selector buttons have been added to a toolbar)


Beta 34 - Released on [time]1382107441[/time][/b]
  • Selectors now dynamically generate their toolbar button image using the first item in the selector
  • Selectors currently utilize the ToolbarBitmaps folder to permit user customization of selectors
  • Toolbars now provide a user specified height (which replaces the Magnify options)


Beta 35 - Released on [time]1382636378[/time][/b]
  • PCRE expressions in the Find and Filtered Properties commands
  • Selectors have been abstracted into a collection of up to 16 commands which, by default, will automatically appear on the Insert toolbar (any user customization overrides this behavior)
  • Selectors can optionally establish a keyboard shortcut which will take priority in the NWC editor (prefix the shortcut with an ampersand in the score title)
  • Overall user interaction with a selector has been improved, such as highlighting when activated from a keyboard shortcut


Beta 36 - Released on [time]1383353589[/time][/b]
  • the ability to delete items from the Edit, Find history (just press Delete on any selected item)
  • check mark should now be visible for note accidental, duration, and notehead drop down selectors


Beta 37/38 - Released on [time]1384429397[/time][/b]
  • moves the custom toolbar command image files to the user's Config folder, and adds a new right click Customize action for command buttons
  • includes built-in editing support for selectors. Right click on any selector, then click Customize. This will open the selector in the editor. When you save your changes, the revised selector will automatically appear in the toolbar. You can use File, Revert to remove your custom selector and revert back to factory settings


Beta 39 - Released on [time]1385060251[/time][/b]
  • by default, all selectors are now included in the Insert toolbar
  • lower case shortcut keys are provided by default for the clef, key, time sig, note chord, dynamic, tempo variance, and sustain pedal selectors
  • a staff can be hidden from a selector by assigning it to a group named simply with an underscore (_)
  • the first staff in a selector file that is in the "_" group will be used as the button image (if no "_" group exists, then the top staff is used)
  • a selector button image defined in the "_" group will generally hide any Spacer items unless they are specifically marked with a visibility of Always
  • selectors now show their title in the tool tip
  • customizing a selector in the editor now renders each item mostly as it will appear in the editor, including Viewer mode which directly emulates the selector display mode


Beta 40/41 - Released on [time]1385168060[/time][/b]
  • changes all selectors, including the built-in accidental, duration, and notehead drop down lists, to support keyboard mnemonics. Any staff name or label that ends with ... automatically opens notation properties after the selected input has been places into the staff.


Beta 42 - Released on [time]1385939966[/time][/b]
  • a bug fix related to single item selectors
  • adds a persistent visual cue for all multi-item selectors

Beta 43 - Released on [time]1386775183[/time][/b]
  • fixes single item selectors and initial Print Preview page selection
  • visible selector indicator on toolbar buttons has been made more subtle
  • selector buttons now use a minimum height/width ratio consistent with other toolbar glyphs

Re: NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 RC 1

Reply #2 –
NWC 2.51 RC 1 is now attached at the start of this topic.

RC 1:

  • reverses the default for the MMR "Show Only Once" option
  • ignores text expressions set as Visibility=Never in selectors
  • normalizes multiple item selector inserts to the current insertion point position

Re: NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 [Testing Concluded, Release Available]

Reply #3 –
NWC 2.51 is now available.

If you are a currently licensed user of NoteWorthy Composer 2.5, you may upgrade your currently installed copy of NoteWorthy Composer 2.5 at no additional charge. From within NoteWorthy Composer 2.5, select the Access NoteworthySoftware.com command in the Help menu. You will automatically be directed to the page where you can download and install the NoteWorthy Composer 2.51 upgrade.

It is recommended that you uninstall the NWC 2.51 test files by using the Uninstall command in the test edition's Help menu.