Changing *only* vertical setttings?
Is there a way to only alter the vertical settings of a row of Chords or Lyrics? If I select a row of chords w/Select More... and make an adjustment to the Y-Offset, whatever is set in the X-offset is also applied to all elements. I want to leave the [custom] X-Offset values as they are and only horizontally align the selected elements. I know in Sibelius there is literally a "horizontally align selections" - Does such a function or method to do this exist in MuseScore?
Thanks.
Comments
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/selection-modes#range-select
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/selection-modes#all-similar-selecti…
Then Inspector https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/inspector#categories
In reply to https://musescore.org/en… by Shoichi
Thank you, but no. When you change the Y-position, whatever is set in the X-position is applied as well. This is my issue.
If the goal is to align the chord symbols, no need to mess with the Inspector - just ask MuseScore to align them for you, by setting n appropriate "maximum shift" value in Format / Style / Chord Symbols.
That said, no, there isn't a straightforward way to adjust Y only using the Inspector, the offset is treated as a single value to be applied. But probably a plugin could be devised to apply Y offset only to a selection should a use case come up for it. And it would make a reasonable suggestion for a feature in a future version of MuseScore to support this natively.
In reply to If the goal is to align the… by Marc Sabatella
Is there a special reason (back-end logic or UX) why offset was designed as a single 2D vector, instead of two completely independent values for X & Y?
(I presume changing its type could break a lot of back-end code, but maybe at least for checking whether the value is default or has been changed, they could be treated seperately?)
This issue has created quite a bit of extra labor for me in the past when trying to get decent lyrics spacing. I need to tweak individual X offsets a lot, since Mscore currently has a few shortcomings regarding automatic horizontal placement (e.g. wasting space by keeping a lyric from extending below barlines, centering the middle of long syllables instead of just the first few letters, short melismas that look like periods, ...). I also want to do this fairly early in layouting, since the position of system breaks is often determined by whether I can fit the lyrics well.
When I then have to go back and tweak the Y for an entire line, I have to make sure I find & unselect every syllable where I changed X, then paste the desired Y to each separately. Only after that can I really judge the result visually in its entirety - if not: Rinse and repeat...
I'll look into hacking together a plugin as a workaround for now, but disconnecting X from Y would feel like an obvious and intuitively accessible solution to me.
In reply to Is there a special reason … by snieb
Probably to simplify making style settings, but I assume there is no reason that couldn't mave been made more complex in exchange for this being simpler. Just a tradeoff.
Regarding lyrics spacing, you shouldn't really need to tweak position much, it's actually counterproductive - lyrics should either be centered or left-aligned most times - not placed arbitrarily. Tweaking note spacing might occasionally improve things here and there, but then there is no Y component to worry about.
And even if you tweak X offsets on your lyrics and thus create non-standard spacing, you wouldn't normally need to also change Y offsets, since alignment should be maintained by default already. Should almost never be be any reason to ever change Y offsets for a whole line of lyrics.
So if you are encountering some unusual special case where you are seeing a need to do this, best to post the example and explain your reasoning for wanting something other than the standard positioning, and maybe we can help you find a more efficient way to achieve it.