Can MuseScore have an internal PDF viewer, so that we don't have to switch back and forth between programs when transcribing?
I know there are a lot of threads asking for features to import PDFs into MuseScore as sheet music.
What I am asking is, would it be possible to OPEN a PDF (or an image) in MuseScore so that I can see it open side-by-side with my score, and I don't have to keep switching to another program to read it as I transcribe it? I have a smaller screen (laptop) so it's not always an option to tile the programs side-by-side as that takes up screen real-estate, and I have to keep switching focus to scroll and zoom.
I do a bunch of transcription and arranging from IMSLP, so this would speed things up decently for me.
Comments
How do you imagine this would look/navigate?
If the PDF were opened within MuseScore, wouldn't you still have the same smaller screen issue? Or do you not expect MuseScore to also show it side by side?
While I seem some appeal in synchronized scrolling and zooming (although it would require you to match page layout, which might be a hassle in itself), I'm having trouble to understand how this would solve your main issue which is the side-by-side view on a small screen.
In reply to How do you imagine this… by jeetee
It often works better to tile vertically so that Musescore and pdf both use the full width of the screen but sit at top and bottom of the screen.
In reply to How do you imagine this… by jeetee
I should have specified - Not just side-by-side, but stacked vertically as well within MuseScore, for copying longer lines.
(For reference, the attached screenshots are taken on a desktop with more screen space)
So at the moment I use side-by-side view in Windows when I'm copying bar-by-bar from a large score. That's not terrible.
![horizontal stacking - not terrible.PNG]( "horizontal stacking - not terrible.PNG")
![vertical stacking - terrible.PNG]( "vertical stacking - terrible.PNG")
But if I want to copy a long line of (for example) a keyboard part, and see multiple bars, I'd have to stack vertically, and in vertical stacking the program toolbars take up a decent amount of space and cannot be hidden. This prevents me from zooming in as it obscures more when zoomed in.
MuseScore can already split the window horizontally and vertically, for score comparison ... so, instead of the score, display a PDF viewer.
For future functions, it could be possible to create anchor points so that scrolling could be synchronized - but that's optional. It's fine to move manually, just as long as we don't have to leave the MuseScore window.
In reply to I should have specified -… by ohnoitsalobo
Thanks for clarifying!
As an aside, at least in MuseScore you can get rid of all those toolbars (or dock them left/right) to win a sliver of extra window height.
In reply to Thanks for clarifying! As an… by jeetee
Fair enough! The screenshots are taken on my desktop, which I have not customized - on my laptop I have mostly taken off the toolbars, but the problem remains since I can't hide toolbars and window borders in other PDF programs.
So it's not a dealbreaker by any means - this is just a bit of a workflow improvement, you can see my meaning.
In reply to Fair enough! The screenshots… by ohnoitsalobo
You can hide the toolbar on Sumatra, the lightweight PDF viewer that I use.
In reply to I use Sumatra as a… by Brer Fox
Thanks, I'll check it out. You still can't hide the window borders! Every little bit counts on a laptop.
That said, the 'workflow improvement' still applies, because sometimes I like to work with MuseScore in full-screen. (Ctrl+U)
This maximizes the screen real-estate, but also makes it impossible to look at both MuseScore and a PDF at the same time.
In reply to Thanks, I'll check it out… by ohnoitsalobo
This is a hack, but maybe it could sometimes be useful:
What if you did a screenshot of the PDF, then attached that the image of an image to an otherwise empty page of a score, and displayed that in "documents side-by-side" mode?
I've never tried that before,, but I did just now, and... it doesn't completely suck. You do need to do this page by page so far from ideal, but could be worse. I suppose it might even be possible to write a plugin to automate building the pseudo-score from a series of numbered images.
In reply to This is a hack, but maybe it… by Marc Sabatella
Hack indeed! I may try that later ... but yes it would be a bit cumbersome. It looks a bit better in "Documents stacked" vertical mode, that's the view I'd prefer to use.
I'm not really a competent programmer or I'd try doing it myself. But you can see how useful it would be!
I would hope that it might be as simple as embedding a PDF viewer code 'inside' the MuseScore window display ... but then again, maybe it's not that simple! Hopefully this feature would appeal to more people than just me.
In reply to Hack indeed! I may try that… by ohnoitsalobo
I find that side-by-side vs stacked often depends on the ensemble size - for music of just one or two staves, stacked is good, but the larger the ensemble, the more side-by-side ends up being more space-efficient. Also depends on your screen aspect ratio. The machine I did that on is 16:9, which is pretty wide and I'm more often hurting for vertical space than horizontal. On my other machine that uses a 3:2 ratio, it's the other way around, so I'd more often prefer stacked.
Anyhow, I suspect you're right that it wouldn't be difficult to write the code to embed a PDF viewer natively, assuming Qt has such a thing, which it probably does.