Page Numbering
I know it is common practice that in sheet music, the left pages are even and the right pages are odd. Sometimes, in order to facilitate page turns, blank pages will be inserted. Easy enough. Sometimes a cover page is used for the same purpose. Generally it would have the basic information (title of piece, etc) followed by a left side page (page 2) that would be your standard first page with a title etc.
However, it seems to me there is no way to do this in Musescore. I know you can use page breaks to create a cover page. I also know you can adjust the page numbering so that the first page is 0, 2, or whatever.
However, if you want to have a cover page (page 1), followed by page 2 (which would have your normal title, etc), and then your normal following pages from 3 on, I don’t think it works. You wouldn’t want your page header to appear on page 2, but on page 3 on. You could have page 0 be the cover page, and page 1 be the title page, which would remove the header, but then the numbering wouldn’t be correct.
Is there a workaround I’m not aware of?
If this isn’t possible what’s the likelihood of it being available at the release of Musescore 4? This is pretty important for layout of scores, so I’d hate to have to switch to a different program just so I can do this.
Comments
apply a page break to the title frame. And add an offset to the page numbers, -1 if need be
In reply to apply a page break to the… by Jojo-Schmitz
Yes, that would work except that the displayed page numbering would be inaccurate.
In reply to Yes, that would work except… by Graham D.
What displayed page numbering?
In reply to What displayed page… by Jojo-Schmitz
It the headers. I want the pages in the score to be numbered the same as the actual pages.
In reply to It the headers. I want the… by Graham D.
Format > Page settings > Page number offset should take care of that
In reply to Format > Page settings >… by Jojo-Schmitz
Ok, thanks. I’ll try that. Thanks!
In reply to Format > Page settings >… by Jojo-Schmitz
Hmm. I don't see a place to select "Page Number Offset" only a place to select the first page. But, that doesn't do what I want. I don't want the header to appear until page 3, as it gets in the way of the title text box on page 2 (the first page of music). I can adjust the starting page to be page 2, but that doesn't allow me to have a blank page at the beginning.
In reply to Hmm. I don't see a place to… by Graham D.
That's what I mean. Set it to 0.
In reply to That's what I mean. Set it… by Jojo-Schmitz
Well, that doesn’t do what I want at all. That still makes the first page of music page one, which is not right. Also, it still makes the header appear on the first page of music, which gets in the way of the title frame.
So, I guess there just isn’t a way to do this, which is too bad. If I want to be able to set up a score this way I guess I will have to use a different program.
In reply to Well, that doesn’t do what I… by Graham D.
What is really needed is for MuseScore to accept negative values of -1 -2 -3 etc, and not to display any page numbers until its page count reaches +2. That would avoid displaying "1" on top of the Title frame, and would allow for an arbitrary number of pages (blank or populated) before the first page of music. For example for an editorial report, foreword or list of contents.
In reply to What is really needed is for… by DanielR
It does accept negative numbers, and does ommit those (negative or 0) in Header/Footer, when using like the $N, $p or $P macro there.
It does print the 1 though
In reply to What is really needed is for… by DanielR
Actually, that wouldn’t help as sometimes you don’t want to display the header until page 3. What we need is to have a place to select the page where we want the header/footer to start.
In reply to Actually, that wouldn’t help… by Graham D.
Indeed, more control within MuseScore would be nice someday. Meanwhile, for certain types of layout, it's more practical accomplish that in tools designed for page layout purposes - e.g, create the cover page and other front matter separately, and combine the PDF's or import them into a page layout / desktop publishing program. Even if more control over headers were added, there would likely still be cases where more specialized tools will be desired.
For anyone who is interested, the best workaround I have found so far is this:
1) Insert a page break after the title box.
2) Use image capture to capture the entire first page (except the footer if so desired) and save it as a PDF.
3) Undo the changes so the score is as you want it, and export that as a PDF.
4) Using Preview (or a similar program) add the PDF of the image capture to the beginning of the document.
It's not very convenient, but it isn't too bad, and allows me to get the exact formatting and fonts as I would in MuseScore. I also added a text block in the process to make a note to turn the page. This gives me what I was trying to do. After this page would come the typical first page with the same title section as this, and then the music. But, this would allow the first page of music to be page 2, so you can prevent a page turn.
You can switch which side the page number is on by going into the Header, Footer settings in Style and switching the $p to show on opposing sides, thus making the odd pages look left sided and even pages right sided.
In reply to You can switch which side… by mranonymus004
Excellent, and so simple. Thanks