Music notation and Text in one Document

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Glenviol
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Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2021 6:32 am
Sibelius Version: 2019.12
Operating System: Mac

Post by Glenviol » Thu Oct 14, 2021 6:42 am

How do I combine text and music notation in the same document? I am writing a piano book on improvisation which is full of both explanations and music notation exercises.


MikeLyons
Posts: 1631
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:20 pm
Sibelius Version: Ult. 2024.3.1/7.5
Operating System: Windows

Post by MikeLyons » Thu Oct 14, 2021 7:39 am

AFAIK, there are a few ways to go about this, depending on whether you have more text than music or specific needs. For example, if you have pages of text with no music interspersed with pages with musical examples; or if you want to have musical examples and text on the same page.

If the former, you might be better doing all the text in a word processor and all the examples in Sibelius, then use create graphic ([alt/opt]g) then [ctrl]c to copy a 'screengrab' of the music you want to copy into your text using copy/paste.

You have to be extremely careful to get the size of the screen grabs the same physical size and the same resolution. This can be both tricky and time consuming.

Another method would be to typeset the pages with music examples in Sibelius, using Sib's very limited word processing facilities. You could then export these pages as pdfs and use a pdf editor to insert them in the appropriate place in the main document. Getting the page numbers sorted out can be a real pain.

So, it's not easy, but it can be done.
Sib 6.2, 7.5 and 2023.6, Windows 11, 32GB RAM, 16TB 7200RPM Storage, 2TB SSD, Note Performer 3.3.2, EWQLSO, EWQLSC, Harmony Assistant and some others. mike@mike-lyons.co.uk

andyg
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Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:55 pm
Sibelius Version: 7.1.3 and 6.2
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Post by andyg » Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:33 am

I'd use the first method that Mike suggested. It is a bit faffy and there is the usual learning curve to be ridden, but you can eventually get good results that way. I did so for my teaching diploma thesis. Not quite a book, but not far off!

Doing things in Sibelius only really works if the text sections are small and simple. Sibelius isn't great at text handling, even after all these years.

MikeLyons
Posts: 1631
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:20 pm
Sibelius Version: Ult. 2024.3.1/7.5
Operating System: Windows

Post by MikeLyons » Thu Oct 14, 2021 2:59 pm

andyg wrote:
Thu Oct 14, 2021 8:33 am
I'd use the first method that Mike suggested. It is a bit faffy and there is the usual learning curve to be ridden, but you can eventually get good results that way. I did so for my teaching diploma thesis. Not quite a book, but not far off!

Doing things in Sibelius only really works if the text sections are small and simple. Sibelius isn't great at text handling, even after all these years.
I 100% agree with this. They've been too busy playing with their toy computers to do any serious work on text handling lately. You might try asking on the official Sibelius forum here: https://www.sibelius.com/cgi-bin/helpce ... &groupid=3, but don't expect more than platitudes and empty promises.
Sib 6.2, 7.5 and 2023.6, Windows 11, 32GB RAM, 16TB 7200RPM Storage, 2TB SSD, Note Performer 3.3.2, EWQLSO, EWQLSC, Harmony Assistant and some others. mike@mike-lyons.co.uk

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