Staff boundary discrepancies

2018-12-20 05:18 pm

Can someone please explain why the staff boundaries set on the "Visual" tab of the "Staff Properties" dialog box don't match the actual staff boundaries?

On the piano piece I'm currently working on, I have the boundaries set in "Staff Properties" at 18 above and 12 below (right hand staff) and 10 above and 18 below (left hand staff). The actual boundaries, as shown by the shaded space on the active staff and confirmed by the boundary offset figures in the "Notation Properties" box, are 14 above and 8 below (right hand) and 6 above and 14 below (left hand) - a discrepancy of four units in each case.

I suspect that the problem is that "Staff Properties" measures from the center of the staff and "Notation Properties" measures from the upper and lower staff lines. Whatever the cause, it would be nice if the two dialog boxes could be brought into conformity with each other.

Re: Staff boundary discrepancies

Reply #1 – 2018-12-20 05:54 pm

I believe your assertion is correct. I created a score with the same staff sizes as you have, and confirmed the numbers were the same as your observations. Then, just for fun, I changed the number of staff lines from 5 to 0 (without changing the upper or lower boundaries). Now, entering a Boundary Change command shows the same values as Staff Properties.

I do agree with you about the difference in values - it would be nice if they were shown in the same units of measure. However, there are backward compatibility issues to deal with. (And yes, I know that the software could "fudge" the values, but people are used to entering the values that are there currently.)