Specify the minimum space between words
I use MuseScore to make slide shows for congregational singing. I need to make the text really large. In rhythmic songs, it causes some words to be squashed together, and others to be wide apart. In total, there is enough space for all the text, as I can move each word with the left and right arrows on the keyboard, until it looks right. But that is tedious. Is is possible to either:
Disable the automatic spacing of notes, and let the lyrics control the layout? I.e. quavers don't get double the amount of horizontal space as semiquavers.
and/or:
Set the minimum space between words, so that they won't look like one word (i'd rather be forced to use more lines than having lyrics without spaces).
I'm using MuseScore 2.1 revision 871c8ce and I couldn't find any of the above in the handbook.
Comments
Play with the "Minimum note distance" on https://musescore.org/en/handbook/general-style-measure
Not very intuitive, but works for me.
In reply to Play with the "Minimum note… by Jojo-Schmitz
OK... I decreased the minimum note distance, since I though then the notes will be as close together as possible, reducing the unnecessary space where short words are set to long notes, making space for the long words that are set to short notes. Here is my original score, with layout and stretch reset to default:
Note that there is more than enough real-estate on each line to space the words properly, but because the notes are spaced according to rhythm, some lyrics look like a single word.
After reading your comment, I tried the opposite (indeed not very intuitive), and found that minimum note distance seems to also set the minimum distance between words in a lyric line!
Problem solved for now, but I have a hunch I'll find scores for which this does not suffice. Thanks a lot.
You wrote:
...i'd rather be forced to use more lines than having lyrics without spaces.
Once you have entered all the notes and are then start adding lyrics to them, you can add spaces into the lyrics text itself using Ctrl+Space.
Normally, the spacebar moves to the next note. Using CTRL+Space will allow you to enter space(s) into the lyrics as you see fit.
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook-text/lyrics#special-characters
HTH
In reply to You wrote:… by Jm6stringer
Thanks, but that is even more tedious than just writing the lyrics by hand. Another option I considered was to use something like GIMP or PowerPoint in post-production and just skip the MuseScore Lyrics altogether.
It sounds to me like you have probably reduced the stretch in measures to fit more measures on a line. Normally, lyrics cause the measure to expand so they don't run into each other. If this doesn't help, upload a copy or the first few page of a score.
In reply to It sounds to me like you… by mike320
Thanks. However, no stretch was applied. Actually, I even increased the stretch on some pages. If you set really long syllables like scorned to short notes like semiquavers, and some short syllables like 'ah' to long notes like whole notes, you inevitable run into this problem.
Also see my reply (with images) above.