pdf import offline in musescore 2.0.1

• Jul 9, 2015 - 22:19

Hello! I am able to export .pdf, from MuseScore 2.0.1 without the overly aggressive pdf reader on my Linux setup. However, when I attempt to re-import for my approach to printing, (or editing?) the .pdf files are associated with and open in the firefox browser I use. I edit the Firefox "applications" settings, useing "always ask", or reassign to musescore, or leave "use other". The .pdf still opens in the firefox browser. I am not ready to put any music scores online, so this is not "convenient" for me. When I reassign the file association to MuseScore, the program says that the file type is an unrecognized format. Also, firefox has a help section that addresses the reassignment of file associations which I find to be incomprehensible and might be double-talk which starts with the premise that
everything goes on-line, so that if we can fool people into doing that, that's what we will verbalize in a quasi-explanation.
Sincerely, Evan Mundy


Comments

I think there are some fundamental misunderstandings here. One thing that is definitely true is that MuseScore cannot open PDF files. Another thing that is true is that Firefox's settings on file associations are about what happens when you download a given file type from the internet using Firefox, and have no control at all over what happens when you opens a given file that you have on your computer—the fact that your operating system opens PDFs with Firefox is nothing to do with any setting in Firefox itself. Check your operating system's documentation, not Firefox's.

(Zach's comment)"I think there are some fundamental misunderstandings here. One thing that is definitely true is that MuseScore cannot open PDF files. Another thing that is true is that Firefox's settings on file associations are about what happens when you download a given file type from the internet using Firefox, and have no control at all over what happens when you opens a given file that you have on your computer—the fact that your operating system opens PDFs with Firefox is nothing to do with any setting in Firefox itself. Check your operating system's documentation, not Firefox's."

From Evan:
Thank you for your comment. I don't like to critisize MuseScore, but why have a file menu feature
that you can't use? Are you quite sure this is default behavior? I am able to assign a file association in Linux with .mp3 for playback with the active audio device. I probably should pursue this .pdf matter with Linux support. However, when I open a Skype file transfer section, MuseScore also opens without my initiative. I have also reassigned the .pdf file association to MuseScore and, as mentioned; I get the "unsupported file format" message on automatic MuseScore opening. That is, I click on .pdf, and MuseSCore opens with that message. Is your understanding that the only sensible thing to do is
to put up an Acrobat Reader, and open files for printing, but not text or music editing?
Sincerely, Evan Mundy

In reply to by Evan J. Mundy

I think you are confused. There is no menu feature you cannot use. I'm not even sure which menu you are referirng to. but File / Export works as intended, and so does File / Import PDF. The thing that doesn't work is attempting to open a PDF *directly* in MuseScore, but there is no menu item for that, nor should there be, because a PDF file cannot be opened directly. And that is why it does not work to set your file associations to open MuseScore for a PDF. That just doesn't make sense to do; MuseScore is *not* a PDF reader or editor. MuseScore is for editing *scores*, which is saves in its own MSCZ format.

I
To Mark:
Thanks much for your perspective. I have just explored a link on MuseScore.org which refers to an
on-line .pdf import process. I am trying to stop making inferences about the available MuseScore
processes, and use what is available, and also conforms to critereon I consider essential at this time.
I have assigned MuseScore 2.01 to a current Linux OS: "PC-Linux" KDE, which runs fairly well on my old Gateway PC. I also am running it on Vista SP2 (HomePremium, 32-bit). I hope there are no restrictions on this arrangement, where I am continuing to try to resolve to one setup.
I swear I remember using 1.3 or 2.0 and importing a .pdf on an unconnected\ off-line process, and editing the file and using playback. It probably was converted to the proprietary mscz file format. Maybe I was dreaming?? Anyway, these days those .pdfs are enmeshed in a disturbing complex, which I find counter-productive. I insist on preparing all music off-line/unconnected. Also, I will remove every music file from any partition I use before I go on-line.
So I did install a PDF Acrobat Reader on Linux, with the Linux browser and Firefox active. From that point, I tried to manage the process as I understood it, So if you must (now?) import a .pdf
to the Reader to print, or export to other computers, fine. But both of my operating systems open
.pdf files off-line in the browsers (IE8 in Vista) without an existing file association that I have assigned,
and I am unable to cause the behavior to cease and desist. I would never post any music on-line
when this level of detrimental management persists. Would one re-install one's OS when this phenomenon persists, or will the "next iteration" do exactly the same thing, without some alternate management technique?
SIncerely, Evan Mundy

In reply to by Evan J. Mundy

MuseScore 1.3 accessed the online PDF-to-MuseScore converter without opening it in a browser window using the old MuseScore Connect feature—it did not work when disconnected from the internet.

As to the general question of how to choose which programs open which types of files (so you can have PDF files open by default in a dedicated PDF program instead of a browser which happens to include the capability), since you mentioned your OS and desktop environment, this might help: https://www.maketecheasier.com/configure-file-associations-in-kde/

In reply to by Evan J. Mundy

I guarantee you never opened a PDF directly in any version of MuseScore. 1.3 did not even have the 'Import PDF" feature; that is new for 2.0. And all it really does is call an online service to attempt to convert the PDF to MusicXML (a *highly* experimental and error-prone process), and if successful, you can then open the MusicXML file.

I don't understand the issue you are talkng about. What do you see as "detrimental"? I still suspect you are musunderstanding something very fundamental here, but I can't tell exactly what. MsueScore is not doing anyhing even remotely unusual in any respect whatsoever here. I am not understanding what you are thinking it should do differently. If you don't want PDF's don't generate them. If opening a PDF via your OS opens a program you don't want it to open, change that in your OS file associations.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

It's not linked to MuseScore but I believe there is also a misunderstanding of what Online means. Firefox can open PDF even if the computer is Offline (meaning disconnected to the internet). if you open a PDF with Firefox, it will not upload it anywhere. Firefox (or any other browsers) is a document reader after all. It just that it's used quite a lot to access document on the world wide web but it can also be used offline to display local documents.

Thanks to Mark, Zach & Lasconic:
I have a quite low specification system, use an ethernet process at the present time, and am sometimes forgetful about on-line procedural restrictions that seem to go with the territory. Does anyone think that if you intend to provide others with .pdf music at least on occasion, that an Acrobat Reader should exist on a Linux partition for this purpose, as opposed to working with .pdf in Firefox off-line?
I am attributing a series of semi-disguised linkages to my recent installation and deletion of a Reader.
Maybe it would be more sensible to put a Reader on my off-line Vista MuseScore drive, or some other
.pdf capable program.
I did remove a MuseScore .pdf file association in KDE and of course, the .pdf MuseScore- export file did immediatly open to the MuseScore .pdf import on-line link in the Firefox browser. ( I was off-line).
I still object to a previous configuration which did not have an explicit file association with Firefox,
but still automatically opened. Mysteriously, the last time I clicked on a music .pdf, Firefox asked
where I wanted to open the .pdf. Currently, this would be "nowhere". If I assign the .pdf file association to Firefox I anticipate another round of "algorhythm interpolation" from God- knows- what source.
Almost resolved!
Sincerely, Evan Mundy

In reply to by Evan J. Mundy

As far as I can tell, what you are talking about has *nothing* to do with MuseScore. I don't think Adobe makes a reader for Linux, and if they do, apparently your Linux distribution doesn't include it, but that is not MuseScore's fault. How to open PDF files is between you and your OS, there is nothing MuseScore can possibly do about it.

To Mark:
Thanks again for your comment. There is an Adobe Reader on my Linux package installer that I installed, which proceded what I consider a bad process related to exporting .pdf from MuseScore, then (at least) vetting the export, and then providing music in that .pdf form to other individuals: an abstract consideration, at this point in time. Then there is the aspect of not allowing others inadvertant access
to music which is "in-process" , if you tend to be forgetful when immersed in preparing the music. So it is my own challenge to structure a computer environment without guidance in this matter, giving away
music which is the product of years of effort, to strangers who are on a momentary whim? (Sorry; as a matter of writing style, I enjoy extreme descriptions).
Sincerely, Evan Mundy

In reply to by Evan J. Mundy

The Internet tolls the death-knell of intellectual property. People work hard at inventing encrypting and protection schemes and legal warnings threatening the Götterdämmerung if you dare copy or redistribute their work, but the internet ends notions of protecting information the same way rain ends notions of hoarding water. If you want to share your work, it will be posted and copied and rearranged whether you want it or not. You have as much chance of stopping it as preventing the sea from eroding the beach. You only have a choice about sharing it.

I have posted some of my own work, into which I have poured substantial resources, including emotions. I did feel quite possessive about it, but I have decided that the merits of receiving feedback on it, having others enjoy it, or critique it, transcend the questionable merits of keeping it in a digital or paper file in the squirrel-hole of my shrinking privacy. I'm not going to reap a rock-star salary with my chorale preludes and fugues, and it's far better that they should find people who like them. That's life in the internet age. If you want your songs heard in public, they will be copied, and you should be honored.

No technical chicanery with PDF's can save you.

In reply to by [DELETED] 1831606

But, again, PDFs opening in Firefox has nothing to do with the internet. They are not uploaded anywhere, and nobody not on your computer can access them. Forget that Firefox is capable of connecting to the internet—there is not any difference in how it works from any other PDF reader when opening a PDF from your computer.

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