Master palette

Overview

The Master Palette window can be used to,

Edit and compose custom Palettes,
Create new Time Signatures or Key Signatures, and
Add (rare) text and symbol to a score directly.

To open this window, either,

Press Shift+F9 (Mac: fn+Shift+F9), or
From the menu, select View → Master Palette.

To open the Symbols category directly, press Z, which is the "Show symbol palette" keyboard shortcut.

Editing and composing custom palette

Not to be confused with editing toolbar . See Viewing and navigation: Toolbars chapter.

See the Palettes : Customize palettes chapter.

Creating new Time Signatures or Key Signatures

See the Time Signatures and the Key Signatures chapters.

Adding an item to the score directly

The Master Palette contains two distinctly different types of notation items:

Non-functional items under the Symbols category, and
Functional items under all other categories.

Hovering the mouse cursor over any item on the right pane shows a description tool tip (black on yellow background).

There are three different actions,

Adding a functional item;
Adding a non-functional item as a new Symbol type item; and
Adding a non-functional item as character inside a Text item.

Notation items are covered in the Notation types chapter.

Functional items must be added onto compatible score item. For example, items under Tremolo category cannot be added onto a rest. A popular reason to use non-functional ones is that the user need to add and position a symbol in a particular way. Note that non-functional score items' positioning are not automatically adjusted by Musescore later on.

Non-functional item added as a new Symbol type item has a pre-determined, unadjustable size. It scales with the score master scaling (Spatium (plural: Spatia) / Space / Staff Space / sp. See the Layout and formatting chapter). However, it cannot be assigned custom "Font Size" and other font settings in the Inspector.

Non-functional item added as character may align poorly with other plain text characters inside the Text object.

To search for a specific non-functional symbol, select the Symbol category on the left. Then, use the font drop down list on the bottom right of the box to specify Emmentaler-, Gonville- or Bravura-specific symbols. Then enter keywords in thesearch box at the top.

Add a functional item to the score directly

To add a functional item to the score, either:

Drag an item in the Master Palette and drop on to the score/staff/notes/rests, or
Select a note or rest and click on an item in the Master Palette.

Add a non-functional item as item

To add a non-functional item to the score as a new Symbol type item (type of the currect single selected score object is displayed on the status bar at the bottom), either:

Drag an item in the Master Palette and drop on to the score/staff/notes/rests, or
Select a note or rest and click on an item in the Master Palette.

Add a non-functional item as character

To add a non-functional item to the score as character inside a Musescore Text, either:

Select any Text on the score, for example a Staff Text and System Text.
Double clicking on it to enter Text editing mode.
Click on an item in the Master Palette.

Alternatively, use the Special Characters window. See the Text editing chapter.

Connecting multiple non-functional symbols to move together

Elements from the Symbols section can be connected to each other on the score page, so that they can be moved as one unit:

Apply first symbol to the score. Adjust position as required.
Double-click, or drag-and-drop, a second element onto the first symbol. Adjust position as required.

Draging the first element now moves the second attached element.

External links

Discussion on symbol usage