Extra tabs in a score?
I just tried Nightly Build "4f8cdbb" on Windows XP SP3.
I had previously copied an existing score into the Scores directory under the extracted nightly build directory, so that any problems with the Nightly Build would not damage my existing score.
It so happens that this is one of the very few scores I have which has more than one instrument part (it's Albert B's transcription of My Foolish Heart, as played by the Bill Evans Trio), and it has Piano, Bass Guitar, and Drumset parts.
When I opened this score in the Nightly Build, below the main tab I expected were two 'sub' tabs (image below). One contains the entire score, the other is named Bass Part and contains a generated Bass Part. I don't know why it is doing this, and I find it VERY disturbing that the program is doing something I didn't ask it to do! ("What ELSE is it doing behind my back that I don't know about?!!")
Is this expected behaviour in v2.0? If so, will there be an option to NOT generate parts on-the-fly like this? And, how do I 'remove' the Bass Part tab (i.e. NOT display it)? It is VERY distracting and I will need at least an option to switch this feature OFF!
Or … could it be that this only happened because in v1.3 of MuseScore, I did (some time ago) generate a bass part and save it as a separate MSCZ file? Please note that I specifically did NOT copy the generated bass part MSCZ file to the Scores directory of the extracted Nightly Build.
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| Extra Part tab.png | 2.88 KB |
Comments
Linked parts are one of the most important new features of 2.0 - arguably the single most important feature. It's a huge improvement over having to generate parts manually and then needing the regerate the, or update them every time you change the score. Not sure if there will be an option to suppress automatically opening these, but how are they causing problems?
In reply to Linked parts are one of the by Marc Sabatella
It did freak me out to see those extra tabs 'suddenly' appear, because I didn't understand what was happening and wondered whether it was a bug. By the way, why didn't MuseScore also generate and display separate piano and drumset part tabs as well, if that's what's supposed to happen? Why only generate a bass part?
But let me ask you this: which dimension of your monitor is larger, width or height? Obviously it's width (unless you own one of those monitors Dell used to make which you could physically rotate from the usual landscape to portrait, with drivers which sorted that out and displayed the screen in portrait layout as well, but I digress).
One would hope (!) that software developers would therefore instinctively recognise and understand that HEIGHT is always at a premium, and that any screen object which occupies screen height is thus a Bad Thing, and to be avoided. I certainly do that when I'm writing software myself. Yet: developers in general seem to think tabs are the 'correct' way to go, instead of using the traditional Windows MDI (multiple document interface = windows within windows) system, which by comparison takes up NO vertical space, and therefore lets me see more of what I'm working on.
I should perhaps add here that my eyesight isn't so great, so suggesting that I use a higher screen resolution wouldn't help. 1280×1024 is as far as I can go without everything on the screen being just too small to be usable.
Why not give me the option to switch to MDI instead of tabs, so that I can see more of the page at once? That option would seriously be a Very Good Thing in my opinion.
I admit that most of the time, I'm only engraving scores for piano, but I hope the foregoing explains why tabs in general, and a second line of tabs taking up even MORE vertical screen space in particular, is a genuine issue/problem for me personally.
In reply to Why Tabs Are Bad by PenAndCad
I *think* it is, or is supposed to be, the case that tabs are displayed only for parts you actually generate via the File / Parts menu. I guess you ghad previously generated a bass but not piano and drum parts? If so, then that probably explains it. A newly created scoe wouldn't necessarily have those, because the parts wouldn't have been generated. so while you're initially entering notes, there is no wasted space. Only when you are done entering notes and want to start working on your parts would you generate the, and thus get the tabs. And once I've done that, I'm not likely to go back and work on the score without also wanting to look at the parts to see what effect the changes I am making are having - and to reprint the parts. So it makes sense to me, and seems it will save an enormous amount of effort with essentially no downside.
As for "Windows MDI", do remember that MuseScore is cross platform (Windows, Mac, Linux), so if you can't do it in OS-independent fashion using Qt, it's pretty much not going to happen. Still it's also open source, so if a motivated person with the necesary skills felt like tackling alernate special purpose window layouts, it could possibly happen. In general, within windows have advantages and disadvantages; I dislike working with applications that use this rather than tabs. I actually like multplie top level windows better than windows within windows - as in browsers that let you split a tab off into a totally separate windows. But everyone's needs and preferences are different.
Note also that 2.0 implements the oft-requested continuous horinztoal scrolling view, so vertical space during initial note entry really shouldn't be as big an issue it was for 1.X.
In reply to I *think* it is, or is by Marc Sabatella
Marc, thanks for your excellent reply; and apologies for my initial crankiness.
I had indeed generated a bass part (I think I mentioned that already?) in v1.3 at one point from that score, while I was first finding my way around MuseScore, and as an experiment. Looks like that 'memory' carries through to v2.0, hence my extra set of tabs. What was confusing me was that the score I opened was a copy, and I deliberately did not copy the MSCZ file of the generated bass part into the directory containing the full score.
I have since found the File, Parts… menu item, which opens a dialog box that solves my (incorrectly) perceived problems. >sigh!< I can Delete the previously-generated bass Part in there and save the full score. On re-opening, no more Parts! And yes, I now see that item in v1.3 as well. As I said earlier, I rarely use Parts, but it's still embarrassing to 'suddenly' notice that, but hey ho.
Sorry again for the rant earlier; I'm all smiles again now, and slowly getting to grips with some of the more subtle differences in v2.0. I can also return to being a MuseScore fanboi: having used both, I genuinely think MuseScore is a much better music engraving application than Finale.
In reply to Got It! by PenAndCad
Glad you're feeling better anout thigns!
Even in 1.3, MuseScore remembers which parts you've generated. Well, I should make a distinction between when the part is defined within the dialog (eg, when you name them and tell it which staves go with which parts) versus when you actually generate the part. It's the former that is remembered. And this is good, because it means you can easily regenerate parts after updating the score without the need to redefine them. For 2.0, that distnction doesn't seem so relevant, since parts are automatically updated. In 2.0, effectively, parts are either there (both defined and generated) or not there (neither defined nor generated). the half-way state where they are defined but not generated doesn't really make sense. Until a few weeks ago, i believe it was still possible to do that, but things changed recently so all defined parts are geeated automatically when you hit OK. At least that's my understanding - I still am not totally up to speed on how liked parts are supposed to work.
Ayhow, I guess what happens is that simce there is no more "defined but not generated" state, 1.X scores that have parts defined are considered to have parts both defined and generated, so if you defined a part in 1.X, it shows up as a full-fledged linked part in 2.0. It could be worth discussing whether that makes sense. A similar issue came up reently regarding scores imported from other programs. See http://musescore.org/en/node/21684
I don't know why it is doing this, and I find it VERY disturbing that the program is doing something I didn't ask it to do!
Actually, as Marc explained, you did. In MuseScore 1.3, you went to File -> Parts and create a bass part for this score. If not, MuseScore would not generated it.
About MDI, MuseScore is open source, you are a coder. You know the rest.