PDF Loader -> How correct errors...greyed out

• Dec 5, 2022 - 18:17

I uploaded a PDF file of a sheet of music I purchased so I could convert it to bring it into Musescore. I'm working on doing an accompaniment.

But the conversion has some spacing errors, which are greyed out, and I can't delete them.

Do you have a recommended solution to this? See screen captures attached.

Below is the PDF
PDF.png

Next, below is the converted file:
Muse.png


Comments

The recommended solution to fixing mess ups is the same regardless of whether a PDF importer created an irregular measures with invisible stuff in there, or whether a user created it.

Greyed out stuff in MuseScore usually means "invisible". MuseScore instead of hiding it chooses to show the element in light grey instead. This allows you to interact with it in an easy manner.

In order to fix that specific error in that specific measure:

  1. Correcting the rest in the treble staff:
    a. Click on the "grey" rest on beat 2 of the treble staff to select it
    b. Press 'V' to toggle its visibility back on (or tick the checkbox for "visible" in the inspector(F8))
    c. Choose to half the duration of it; either by using shortcut Q (half duration) or by clicking the 1/8th duration in the toolbar, or by using the 1/8th duration shortcut (default 4)
  2. Moving the treble notes 1/8th earlier:
    a. Select the F on beat 3
    b. Hold Shift and either click on that last F in the measure OR press the right arrow key twice (whilst still holding Shift). Then release Shift.
    You now have a blue rectangle around those three notes
    c. Edit → Cut (Ctrl/Cmd+X)
    d. Click on the 2nd 1/8th rest, on beat 1 and a half. This is where the notes should start.
    e. Edit → Paste (Ctrl/Cmd+V)
  3. Move the bass 1/4th note back onto beat 3:
    a. Click on the note to move
    b. Shift+ followed by Shift+ to turn the selection into a blue rectangle one (called a range selection)
    c. Edit → Cut (Ctrl/Cmd+X)
    d. Click on the (invisible) 1/8th rest, on beat 3. This is where the notes should start.
    e. Edit → Paste (Ctrl/Cmd+V)
  4. Fix up the measure duration, which is now 1/8th too long:
    a. Click on the final 1/8th rest
    b. Tools → Remove Selected Range (Ctrl/Cmd+Del)

Remark: None of these techniques are particular to fixing up a bad import. They are all just standard tools available within MuseScore anyway. Fixing errors is often harder than writing something in correctly in the first place. Depending on the OMR tool used, it can pay off to attempt to fix some of the import errors in that tool before bringing in the result into MuseScore.
But it always pays off to get familiar with the tools and command and normal note entry in MuseScore. You might find that it can be faster to enter/transcribe manually once proficient in note entry compared to fixing import errors. Then again, getting your practice will definitely help in fixing those errors faster as well ;-)

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