A serious text problem
I work with Musescore since version 1.1 after working for years with Finale. However. I have one large problem since the beginning and that is with texts.
I was accustomed to make a frontpage with title, composer, arranger, etc. each in different fonts and on different locations on the front page. Then In the header of the first page I had the usual title, etc.
This practically impossible for me. I can write a text and double clicking on selected text I can adjust the text properties( size and font). However, I'm missing the possibility to position the text anywhere within the text frame that has the size of the page.Moreover the way NLCR works is not the way I expect. It moves the cursor down and the other lines up while I expect the written lines to stay where they area and the cursor going down. Also the beginning of a line is coupled to the text type instead of an independent property.
Lastly I miss an ("invisible") grid where to place text and/or graphics.
But maybe all these have to be put on a wish list.
I have attached the .pdf score from Finale only for the text example of course.
J.L. Blom
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Allthethingsyouare.pdf | 177.39 KB |
Comments
Version 1.1?? C'mon, we're are 2.1 meanwhile.
Hmm, `since 1.1`, OK....
Anyway, this was possible ever since: just have another vertical frame, size to your needs, add your texts there and drag into place
I'm not quite sure I understand your question. Text can be positioned anywhere you like within a frame - just drag it. You can also use the Text Properties to automatically align it left, right, or center. Or, better yet, define text *styles* you can reuse between scores to ensure a consistent placement of like items (eg, always placing the "arranged by" text bottom left). And as mentioned, you can place horizontal frames *within* the frame to achieve other alignments.
As for how NLCR (newline carriage return - you mean, pressing Enter/Return?) I also don't understand what you mean. Can you describe more precisely what you are trying to do, what you expect to see happen, and what happens instead?
In reply to I'm not quite sure I by Marc Sabatella
Jojo-Smitz & Marc,
Thanks for your comment.
Of course NLCR is the standard response to the Enter key. But normally it just does that, however in a text frame it moves the line(s) one line up ( which is a feature sometimes seen in some editors).
The problem I have is that a line of text or a frame must be anchored to a measure and I haven't detected how to do it without anchoring to a specific element. Moreover, when I write several lines of text in a frame I can't move them independent of each other.
I haven't detected how to place a frame into a frame (on any place I choose).
Styles are fine as long as you use the dedicated items (Title, etc.) and of course the use of editing selected texts is OK. But I assume I missed information in the manual how to do all these things.
Apart from the text issues I'm of course very happy with Musescore which is - when you master most things - much better than Finale (I've never worked with Sibelius). I use it mostly for arranging (at the moment jazz standards and originals for 2 piano"s) but I have used it for Big Band arrangements (just as my 2 grandsons).
Maybe you can help me further.
Joep
In reply to Jojo-Smitz & Marc, Thanks for by J.L. Blom
It may do this in a vertical frame, for texts which align to the bottom of the frame, like lyricist and composer, but not the others and certainly not in a text frame
Anchoring text to a measure would be a case for horizontal frames or staff/system text
Adding a (horizontal) frame to a (vertical) frame: rightclick into a vertical frame, select 'Add horizontal frame'
In reply to Jojo-Smitz & Marc, Thanks for by J.L. Blom
In order for us to understand what you are seeing, it would help if you attached a score and described the problem with respect to specific text elements.
Some general answers: if you want to position lines of text independently, simply enter them as separate elements. To create new text styles, use the New button in the Text Style dialog. To apply a style to a text, use the Inspector.
In reply to Jojo-Smitz & Marc, Thanks for by J.L. Blom
Also, hitting Enter to add a new line will indeed move existing lines up *if* the text is set to align to the bottom of the frame. That's perfectly normal / correct - the bottom line (the new empty one) is now the one anchored to the bottom of the frame, so of course everything else has to move up to ensure this. If you don't want the text anchored to the bottom of the frame, choose a different alignment in the text properties / style.
Again, if you post your actual score and describe in more detail what you are trying to accomplish, we can help you much better.
In reply to Also, hitting Enter to add a by Marc Sabatella
Thanks for your replies.
I tried your recommendations especially the one by jojo as I hadn't discover the possibility to add a horizontal frame. However that is rather limited. I can only diminish the width but not the height and it stays anchored to the frame and I cannot move it around freely however, I found the use of nlcr (old habits!) when the text is anchored to the top of the frame as expected. Thanks for that.
As was in my attachment in my request that is my standard lay-out for a front page with the title somewhat above the centre in size 24-27, the composer, centred approx. 2 lines lower in a size 18-21 and the arranger low in size 10-12, all in letter 'comic sans'.
In this way I print it and bundle the arrangements in one book (both parts together) or in 2 books for the performers.
My way of getting the front page is to insert a vertical frame above the title frame and enlarge it to cover one page and then fill in the text.
I would love the possibility to insert an empty page before the composition but I realise that belongs to text editing not music editing. But these are small wishes.
Joep
In reply to Thanks for your replies. I by J.L. Blom
You can apply a page break to a frame, no need to increase it so it covers the whole page
In reply to You can apply a page break to by Jojo-Schmitz
Thanks Jojo. I hadn't discovered that. I still have problems with placing texts anywhere on a page. I'm accustomed to clicking - text mode - on a page and then start entering text. Isn’t that possible in Musescore?
Joep
In reply to Thanks Jojo. I hadn't by J.L. Blom
try https://musescore.org/en/handbook/staff-and-system-text
In reply to try by Shoichi
Staff or system text doesn't help for a title page
In reply to Thanks Jojo. I hadn't by J.L. Blom
Only in a text frame, click into it and start typing. In other frames right click, add one of the text options and then start typing
In reply to Thanks Jojo. I hadn't by J.L. Blom
No, MuseScore doesn't force you to eyeball everything like that - that's way too much work to get good results. Instead it provides a powerful text style facility so you can get precise and repeatable results every time. See my previous response where I attached a score with customizations to give you an almost exact facsimile of your example with zero manual adjustments or eyeballing of anything required. Just enter the title and it goes to the right place, no guesswork involved.
But if you really prefer having to manually position things, you can do that too - just drag the text wherever you like after entering it. It's just more work to have to do this every time, so it's much better to take advantage of the style facility.
In reply to Thanks for your replies. I by J.L. Blom
There is normally no need to move text frames around - you can move the *text* itself. The only reason for moving frames within frames is to created multiple column layouts, but that isn't what you are doing, so it isn't needed.
As mentioned, it would *really* help if you would attach your score so we can understand the problems you are having. Creating a title page like the one you showed is very simple and doesn't even require putting frames inside of frames, so without your score, we can't see where you are going wrong.
But again - everything you need should be accomplishable by editing the text styles to get the results you want. If you want the title centered and 2 inches from the top, simply set it that way in the text style. If you want the subtitle just below that, again, set it that way in the text style. Similarly with the composer text. And if you want the "arranged by" text left aligned at the bottom of the frame, just set it that way too. All of this is very simple to do using text styles, and if you have a lot of scores you wish to create using the same settings, simply save that style to use as your default, or create a template and use that. Again, if you post your actual score we can help you set it up exactly how you want and show you how you can use it to create future scores that look like this right out of the box.
For instance, look at the attached score. I customized the title, subtitle, and composer text to reproduce the look of your PDF. I also added a new "arranger" text style and set it up appropriately as well, although I could have just used the "lyricist" text which was already close to the right thing.
As you can see if you try deleting any of the text and then adding it back, there is no need to add frames within frames, add newlines, move things around manually, or any kludges like that. With these text style settings in place, just do Add / Title and bam, your title appears exactly how you want it. Same for subtitle and composer. For the arranger text, do Add / Text then use the Inspector to assign it the Arranger style.
If you save this score as a template, then any future scores you create from it will get these settings right off the bat, so you don't even need to do Add / Title etc. They will automatically be applied to the title and other information you specify in the Create New Score wizard.
In reply to There is normally no need to by Marc Sabatella
Marc,
Many thanks for your elaborate answer. I have a performance tonight so I can't look deeply into it but I will start tomorrow and let you know the results.
Thanks again,
Joep