Layout
Hello, Mr.Sabatello and all.
I began to typeset my first new composition in MuseScore. I have to express my satisfaction with the way the accidentals are entered - the arrow keys are much more reasonable option that if some 3 special key combinations reserved for three types of them
I need a feature (I think everybody would embrace it) allowing fast packing into one system more measures. That is, after I made break of a system by clicking the barline and hitting Enter, sometimes the measure(s) after the breakpoint join the next system, but also, from time to time, it may result in some orphan measures and so there is a need to obtain more reasonable distribution of measures in a system. For instance, in Sibelius, there is an option - one selects the group of measures and clicks "Make into System" option. It will be great if a command like that were available in MuseScore.
Besides of that, maybe there is another way to do it fast right now?
Also, I would suggest for the team to produce more keyboard shortcuts for articulations, at least most usable ones, thus speeding up entering them, reducing the workload on the mouse and freeing it for other tasks. Maybe it is possible for this to use Shift, Ctrl, Alt or so + alphanumeric keyboard?
Some remarks on the tuplet feature. It would be even better than it is now when there will be an option to mark tuplets by fractions like some XX composers did - it brings more precision and fast grasping the sense of their notation. For instance, 5:7 means five in place of 7, 4:3 does four in place of three etc. And completely wonderful would it be if a tuplet might cross the barline as it happens in some contemporary academic music styles.
Best,
Leonid
Comments
For the layout and page-make up, the best practise is to allow MuseScore to layout the measures into systems automatically until you are all finished with your input, and have adjusted the staff scaling to suit your needs. At that point you can go through the score and add or subtract stretch from certain sections, and you can add hard (forced) line breaks at any point you think necessary. Each time you do this, of course, the program will re-do the layout based on the new situation you have presented it with, so understand that this is a process, not a one-click solution to an artistic problem. ;o)
There are already a number of keyboard shortcuts for some of the articulation marks, and those are fully user-editable. Click on Edit>Preferences in the main menu and select the "Shortcuts" tab in that dialogue.
It is also already possible to notate tuplets using ratios. Click on Notes>Tuplets>Other and choose the options you want.
Adding to Recorder485's suggestions, regarding squeezing more measures into a system, often a few taps of } with the measures selected will reduce them enough to fit.
There are shortcuts for the most common articulations, as described here: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/keyboard-shortcuts#articulations
The "Number type" property in the Inspector for any tuplet can be set to "Relation."
BTW, for the record, while I am an active participant in these discussions and indeed wrote some of the code for MuseScore, it's not primarily my program, so probably doesn't make sense to address comments to me specifically :-)
Anyhow, decreasing stretch is indeed the way to combine measures currently, assuming they will fit given your current settings for staff size and minimum note distance etc, A way to force measures into one system is theoretically possible but would very problematic - what if tried forcing more measures than could physically fit?
We do indeed hope to someday improve the ability to add articulations by keyboard.