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better more intutitve options for Photoscore to Sibelius

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 4:45 am
by DianaDiazSing
I would love more intuitive formatting options.

I am a new user and many of the things that I thinks should be intuitive are not. My great plan was to use Photoscore to make leadsheets. Here are some things that I think should be easy.

Edit all chord markings at once - I should be able to select all chord markings (diagrams & text) and delete all chord diagrams if I want, change the font for all chord diagrams, and increase the size of the font on all diagrams. I am making leadsheets for picky accompanists who say they do not want the guitar chord diagrams. I have spent a lot of time on this and feel like many others might enjoy this kind of feature.

Somewhere under layout it would be so kind of you as to make an easy button to control the number of bars per system. Much of vocal music is 4 bars per system, and it would be so easy for me to select this and have it just automatically work.

Make it easy to add another bar line. Right now the only thing I can add is an ossia which messes up my lyrics formatting. This is very frustrating. I opened a PDF in Phtoscore and had things the way I want. But the first 4 bars are a piano intro. I would like to be able to add the empty vocal line to this. I later have 3 staffs. When I convert to piano/vocal. the piano intro is misread as line - vocal, line 2, piano. It should be line 2 & 3 with empty vocal. There is no intuitive way for me to add a few empty measure above that piano intro and make that the vocal line.

I ask on the forum and no one seems to have answers for these questions.

Re: better more intutitve options for Photoscore to Sibelius

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 6:42 am
by MikeLyons
DianaDiazSing wrote:I would love more intuitive formatting options.
Wouldn't we all!! However, if you take the time to read both the Sibelius and PS manuals, you will find a lot of useful and, indeed, helpful information in there. Both manuals are on your computer as pdf files.
DianaDiazSing wrote:I am a new user and many of the things that I thinks should be intuitive are not. My great plan was to use Photoscore to make leadsheets. Here are some things that I think should be easy.

Edit all chord markings at once - I should be able to select all chord markings (diagrams & text) and delete all chord diagrams if I want, change the font for all chord diagrams, and increase the size of the font on all diagrams. I am making leadsheets for picky accompanists who say they do not want the guitar chord diagrams. I have spent a lot of time on this and feel like many others might enjoy this kind of feature.
In Sibelius, you can select and delete all chord diagrams using filters. If you click on the home tab of the ribbon it's about half way along and looks like a funnel. In the drop-down Chord Symbols is the second item. Filters are discussed in detail in the manual Chapter 2.9 Filters and Find
DianaDiazSing wrote:Somewhere under layout it would be so kind of you as to make an easy button to control the number of bars per system. Much of vocal music is 4 bars per system, and it would be so easy for me to select this and have it just automatically work.
This is achieved in the Layout tab (in fact 4 bars per line is sibelius' default - you may have to use Unlock format [ctrl/cmd][shift]U after importing from PS Select all ([ctrl]a) before you do this. This is covered in Chapter 7.6 Autobreaks
DianaDiazSing wrote:Make it easy to add another bar line. Right now the only thing I can add is an ossia which messes up my lyrics formatting. This is very frustrating. I opened a PDF in Phtoscore and had things the way I want. But the first 4 bars are a piano intro. I would like to be able to add the empty vocal line to this. I later have 3 staffs. When I convert to piano/vocal. the piano intro is misread as line - vocal, line 2, piano. It should be line 2 & 3 with empty vocal. There is no intuitive way for me to add a few empty measure above that piano intro and make that the vocal line.
I'm not sure what you mean by barline. Every time you add a bar ([ctrl]b or [ctrl][shift]b you automatically get a barline at the end of it. If you mean another staff, then you need to think not about staves but about Instruments. Sibelius thinks of each staff as an instrument (Press I and choose from the list) As I said before, in PS you need to assign the staves correctly BEFORE you transfer itr to Sibelius. Trying to do it after is a real PITA. I'm speaking from a whole world of bitter experience!
DianaDiazSing wrote:I ask on the forum and no one seems to have answers for these questions.
PhotoScore is not an Avid or Sibelius product. It is produced by a company called Neuratron, which I believe is a German company. Their website is here: https://www.neuratron.com/

It must be said that they are not noted for responding quickly to emails.

Re: better more intutitve options for Photoscore to Sibelius

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 3:06 am
by DianaDiazSing
I also want a pony...
And a Xanax.
:oops:

Re: better more intutitve options for Photoscore to Sibelius

Posted: Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:41 am
by MikeLyons
If I knew what a Xanax was it would help! :-D

Re: better more intutitve options for Photoscore to Sibelius

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 2:41 pm
by DianaDiazSing
MikeLyons wrote:If I knew what a Xanax was it would help! :-D
It's a common drug given for anxiety. Beer tastes a lot better. :P

Re: better more intutitve options for Photoscore to Sibelius

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 2:57 pm
by MikeLyons
Or in my case, Red Wine! :-D