Chord diagrams/symbols - changing formating for all?

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DianaDiazSing
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:10 am
Sibelius Version: Ultimate
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Post by DianaDiazSing » Tue Sep 18, 2018 7:32 pm

Hi,

I imported a song using Photoscore and worked out all the kinks. I'm proud of myself there. :D

But then when I extracted parts and made a vocal leadsheet, I wanted to get rid of the chord diagrams, make the chord names bigger, and change the font. I have an accompanist who just wants the chord names.

Is there a faster way to do this than manually selecting each chord/diagram and removing the chord diagram and manually increasing the font? I was never able to even change the font. I keep wondering why, oh why this is so awkward!??? Or is it just me? :oops:


bobp
Posts: 1182
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Post by bobp » Tue Sep 18, 2018 8:59 pm

When you say "chord diagrams" do you mean guitar diagrams?
If so, if so try---right click the diagram/select chord symbol/add or remove diagram. that should leave you with the name only.
Bob Porter
Sibelius 7.5, W10,i5,16 GB ram,desktop

MikeLyons
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Post by MikeLyons » Tue Sep 18, 2018 9:41 pm

Select all, Filter for chord symbols, use the ribbon button to add/remove chord diagrams (on the text tab of the ribbon.
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

DianaDiazSing
Posts: 37
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Sibelius Version: Ultimate
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Post by DianaDiazSing » Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:47 pm

MikeLyons wrote:Select all, Filter for chord symbols, use the ribbon button to add/remove chord diagrams (on the text tab of the ribbon.
Perhaps it's a glitch in either my experience or the program, but I can't figure how to select all the chord symbols. I could only go through one at a time.

By select all, do you mean select everything? I'm having a hard time with these basic things at time.

DianaDiazSing
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:10 am
Sibelius Version: Ultimate
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Post by DianaDiazSing » Tue Sep 18, 2018 10:52 pm

bobp wrote:When you say "chord diagrams" do you mean guitar diagrams?
If so, if so try---right click the diagram/select chord symbol/add or remove diagram. that should leave you with the name only.
I figured out how to do that on my own, but only one at a time. My question was how I do this for all of them at once so I don't have to go through and slect each individual diagram, click on remove diagran, and then also click somewhere else to increase the size of the font. It's quite cumbersome.

Sibelius calls guitar diagrams "chord diagrams" so I used what Sibelius called it in their interface. For some reason, the Photoscore-Sibelius export did not read text chords as chords, but as "lyrics" so then I had problems with that. I had to keep the guitar chord diagrams in there to have them read as chords at all when I exported to Sibelius. There some wacky problems with Photoscore exports. It seems very buggy.

MikeLyons
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Post by MikeLyons » Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:12 pm

If this is an import from PS, then some of the apparent chord diagrams will not be 'real' chord diagrams. I know it's a pain, but the wrong 'uns will be the ones that had no chord name in PS - ie just the grid. This is one of the things that you have to sort in PS befoe porting to Sib if you want to avoid trouble later. I learned this, like you, the hard way!

To filter as many chord symbols as possible, do [ctrl/cmd]a followed by the filter for chord symbols. Use the Text->Add/Remove Chord diagram. You may have to do this twice. If you get an error message, please tell us what it says. Sib won't let you remove both the chord text and the diagram, so you need to add the text to all diagrams and add the diagrams to all the text. Easier to do than to describe!
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

DianaDiazSing
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:10 am
Sibelius Version: Ultimate
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Post by DianaDiazSing » Wed Sep 19, 2018 4:22 pm

I did notice that issue where my chord texts were read as lyrics when there was no diagram, so I then went back to Photoscore and redid that t export it yet again. I've watched the get started videos and am just not clear on some of the commands I need such as how to select all. Gah! I guess I will get there eventually.

MikeLyons
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Post by MikeLyons » Thu Sep 20, 2018 10:58 am

There's a useful list of keyboard shortcuts in the manual.

If a chord symbol ends up with no diagram, it is often mistaken for a lyric attached to the line above. This is where your proofreading skills come to the fore BEFORE you port to Sibelius. Use the original scan view at the top of the screen to check what was actually there, as opposed to what PS has put there. Text, surprisingly, is probably one of PS's weakest areas.

Just a thought, but sometimes the results are better if you print the pdf and scan it in afresh. Certainly text seems to be recognised better - not as many 'e's and 'c's mixed up!
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

jotunes
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Post by jotunes » Thu Sep 20, 2018 6:19 pm

I know it's been explained several ways, but I do this all the time and it's simple.

If you don't want chord diagrams at all, go to Appearance -> Engraving Rules -> Chord Symbols, and select Chord Text Only, or whatever you'd like. If it were for just one part and not others you may have to extract the part, I'm not sure, I always have chord diagrams off. From this menu you can also universally adjust the text format (font, size, spacing, etc) if you click the button "Edit Text Style".

Alternatively, to select all chord symbols for changing text etc. manually, do the following.

Select all (or highlight whatever measures you want to affect), then Home -> Filters -> Chord Symbols (second one in the menu), which will leave you with just your Chord Symbols selected. You can then move them all uniformly, change text properties, etc. Great way to manually adjust the position of multiple chord symbols quickly and uniformly, change the font size on just one part or section, all kinds of good stuff.

As you get your formatting the way you like in terms of Engraving Rules, export a House Style, then you can easily and quickly apply your own custom format to other projects.

DianaDiazSing
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:10 am
Sibelius Version: Ultimate
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Post by DianaDiazSing » Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:08 pm

Oooh!!! I'm going to play with that feature!

bobp
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Joined: Thu Dec 27, 2012 12:53 am

Post by bobp » Sat Sep 29, 2018 5:17 pm

Hey Diana,
I don't know if you can use this information or not, but I'll post it anyway just in case.

Just for fun, I tried to make the first page of a Schubert vocal and piano song into a lead sheet.
PhotoScore can be a strange beast. I've seen it take a perfect looking PDF and have all kinds of errors show up. I've seen it take a PDF that looked like it was made from a poor photo, and do a fairly good job.
I had to correct some rhythms and notes that didn't show up. In Sibelius I got three treble clef lines. I changed the lower line to base and was good to go as I'm not saving most of the piano part anyway. I had asked you how you got the chord diagrams. I'm guessing PS read them and transferred them to Sibelius. My Schubert had no diagrams (how could he not like guitar). There is a routine that will analyse the music and print chord names above the line of your choice. You have to fiddle with it to do what you want, but it is very accurate. So much so that sometimes you have to simplify the names ( G#dim9omit5). I've also seen it have the correct chord name when the commercial version was wrong. Then I deleted the piano part, except for the 4 measure intro. That's as far as I went.
Maybe you can use some of this.
Bob Porter
Sibelius 7.5, W10,i5,16 GB ram,desktop

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