Score properties
Overview
This page describes
- the Score Properties dialog; and
- the Header and Footer feature that automatically add text to the top and the bottom area of each page respectively. To add text to certain page(s) only, use frame and text block. See Frames chapter.
Score Properties window
The Score Properties dialog contains metadata tags, editable descriptive digital data of the file. To open it,
- Open the "Full Score" or a Musescore Part. See Parts chapter;
- Open File → Score Properties.
Every score created with Musescore 3 contains the following predefined metadata tags. Some of them are empty initially, some are automatically assigned with information provided in the New Score dialog. See Create a new score chapter.
NOTE: Score created from a template may generate a top vertical frame with text inside on the first page. These frame text are also automatically assigned with information provided, but they are not linked to and thus not automatically updated with changes made to metadata tags. See Frames chapter.
- File Path: The score file's location on user's computer.
- MuseScore Version: The version of MuseScore the score was last saved with.
- Revision: The revision of MuseScore the score was last saved with.
- API-Level: The file format version.
- arranger: (empty)
- composer: This is initially set to the same text as "Composer" on the first page of the New Score Wizard.
- copyright: This is initially set to the same text as "Copyright" on the first page of the New Score Wizard (if you need a copyright symbols, copy/paste this: ©).
- creationDate: Date of the score creation. This could be empty, if the score was saved in test mode (see Command line options).
- lyricist: This is initially set to the same text as "Lyricist" on the first page of the New Score Wizard.
- originalFormat: This tag exists only if the score is imported (see file formats).
- platform: The computing platform the score was created on. This might be empty if the score was saved in test mode.
- poet: (empty)
- source: May contain a URL if the score was downloaded from or saved to MuseScore.com.
- translator: (empty)
- workNumber is the number of the larger work (e.g. 8—for "The Four Seasons," Op. 8, by Vivaldi). Not automatically filled in on a new score.
- workTitle is the title of the larger work (e.g "The Four Seasons,"). Automatically filled with the "Title" entered in the New Score dialog. Some users may find it more appropriate to input the "Title" into movementTitle instead.
- movementNumber is the number of the movement in the larger work (e.g. 3 for Autumn). Not automatically filled in on a new score.
- movementTitle is the title of the movement in the larger work (e.g.“Autumn”). Not automatically filled in on a new score.
Each Musescore Part, but not the "Full Score" (See Part chapter) has an additional tag,
- partName: The name of the part as given on part creation (which is also used to fill the corresponding part name text in the top vertical frame—be aware that later changes to one are not reflected in the other).
Editing metadata tags
- Open the "Full Score" or a Musescore Part. See Parts chapter;
- Open File → Score Properties;
- Edit the text of the various metadata tags as required.
There is no way to enter line breaks directly when editing metadata tag inside Musescore 3. To display multiline text in a header or footer (as a result of using metadata tags), use an external text editor program (e.g. Notepad for Windows, TextEdit for Mac, Nano for Linux) to create a desired text and copy it into MuseScore. An example of multiline text (feel free to copy and modify).
Words: © 2000 The Archbishops' Council. Used with permission.
Music: © 2006, 2021 The Royal School of Church Music. All Rights Reserved.
Adding new metadata tags
- Open the "Full Score" or a Musescore Part. See Parts chapter;
- Open File → Score Properties;
- Press New button, enter name and text;
- Press OK;
Accessing metadata tags in a score
The only place to add score properties (metadata tags) on to a score is by referring them in header or footer, see Header and footer section below.
Header/Footer
Use Header and Footer feature to automatically add text to the top and the bottom area of each page respectively. To add text to certain page(s) only, use frame and text block. See Frames chapter.
Adding a header or footer
- Open the "Full Score" or a Musescore Part. See Parts chapter;
- Open Format → Style → Header, Footer;
- Check the Header Text and Footer Text boxes as required.
Entering information
Open Format → Style → Header, Footer,
- The area on the top is for headers, area below it is for footers.
- Both of them are divided into two rows, labelled Odd, and Even, for content on odd and even pages respectively.
- They are also divided into three columns, labelled Left, Middle, and Right, representing the corresponding areas.
There are three kinds of valid input,
- plain text,
- placeholder text, or special symbols, that converts into information automatically, they include
- read-only information such as the current page number, and
- editable metadata, see "Using metadata" section.
Placeholder text or special symbols are case-sensitive, they must be entered letter-for-letter with the correct case. For example,
- $d converts into current date
- $D converts into creation date
- $:movementNumber: converts into "Moverment number" metadata
- $:movementnumber: is invalid because of the wrong lower case 'n'
Musescore version and revision last saved $v and $r are only available in MuseScore 3.6 and after.
The part name placeholder text, $I, $i, or $:partName: , is only available in a Musescore Part, but not the "Full Score" (See Part chapter).
To see a list of available placeholder text or special symbols, hover the mouse cursor over any text input area and wait for a popup box to appear. Shown below is the list for Musescore 3.
Using metadata
Metadata are digital information, or tags, assigned in File→Score properties, use $:[metadata tag]: syntax to add them to header and footer. See the example in "Entering information" section, and the Score Properties section above.