How do I assign different colors to each line of the staff?

[kewlboy_24]

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Hello again to all:

Does anybody know how I could assign different colors to each line of the grand staff in Sibelius? Also, which versions of Sibelius can this be done?

The reason I would want to colorize the lines of the staff is that I think this would be a great way to start off young kids into music-reading and piano, along with other teaching aids like piano stickers and overlays.

The reason I asked for which version of Sibelius this would be possible is because I have Sibelius 3 at the moment, although I migh consider upgrading to 6 (after I have considered all pros and cons of course).

Thanks in advance for your help!

Troy

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[Sebasian]

Does anybody know how I could assign different colors to each line of the grand staff in Sibelius?

The staff isn't a user object and can't be selected, so you can't apply colour directly.

You could overlay the staff lines with ordinary lines, and colour them (with Edit > Color or Ctrl+J). It may help make this easier if you make one line exactly on the bottom line, then copy (at the same place) with Ctrl+C Ctrl+V then use Ctrl+Up to move exactly one staff-line's distance and finally use Ctrl+J to change the colour. It takes much longer to describe than to do.

Unfortunately the coloured lines may come on top of the notes. If this is an important issue and you did upgrade to Sibelius 6, you could then overlay the staff lines with ordinary lines and colour them as before but then use a new feature called 'Custom Order' to move the coloured lines back behind the notes (as in the attachment).

[kewlboy_24]

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Thank you for your response. Not the straight-forward solution I was hoping to hear but it seems to be the next best thing. I will give it a try. How about the ledger lines, can I color them the same way? I guess I would have to color them one by one?

Troy

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[Sebasian]

How about the ledger lines, can I color them the same way?

Yes. But I hope you'll forgive me saying that if students are far enough advanced to be using more than one leger line, they're beyond the need of coloured reminders (even to the extent that such a thing was useful at an earlier stage).

[atpmstudio]

I tried to make a line and overlay it on a staff line but Sibelius adjusts it to the top above the notes or below the notes - how do you turn this function off so I can place the "line" anywhere?

Thanks!

[andyg]

Turn off Magnetic Layout for the line

[atpmstudio]

Thank you!!