(Feature Request?) Adding text to pedal markings

Hi all,

I’m working on engraving an older edition that frequently incorporates text into the pedal symbols and feel like I’m having to fight a lot to get things looking right. It seems like this functionality is almost there, if I switch to using Ped. text instead of the fancy symbol, but right now, in order to keep the glyph, I’m having to create the text as a separate object and then tweak the alignment separately. I don’t know of a way to get the cool Ped. glyph outside of using the pedal lines dialog.

I want it to look like below: of particular interest would be the ability to have [Ped. glyph] una corda / tre corde as displayed, although this score uses a wide variety of other text markings attached to the glyph, too, i.e. sempre Ped., con Ped., etc.

Alternatively, is there a way to display the Ped. glyph some other way? Maybe as part of a dynamic or just plain text entry?

Thanks in advance!

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I think I’d do these as custom Playing Techniques.
Launch the Playing Technique Editor either from the Engrave menu or by clicking the pencil or plus icon at the bottom of the Playing Techniques panel in Write mode.
Add a new Playing Technique and set its Type to Glyph, then you’ll find the various pedal glyphs in the Keyboard Techniques range.
Then switch to the text tab, type your text and set it to a useful font style.
You can then set its default position to be below the stave.
Once you’ve done one of these, you can create others by duplicating the first one and modifying the duplicate, which should save you time.

Alternatively, use regular Shift-X text. Copy and paste the pedal glyph from https://w3c.github.io/smufl/gitbook/tables/keyboard-techniques.html - it’ll show up as a little rectangle (if at all), so immediately set the character style (top left corner of the text editing toolbar) to “Music Text”. Resize appropriately and then type whatever needs to come after it. Again, once you’ve got one you can Alt-click it or copy and paste it elsewhere and modify accordingly.

The benefit to using Playing Techniques is that you can Save as Default for use in future projects, and the automatic placement will be better. I find that with music glyphs within Shift-X text I pretty much always need to nudge the item in Engrave mode.

Thanks, Leo! I hadn’t found how to access the glyphs in the playing techniques editor before, that’s a huge game changer.

Out of curiosity, do you know a way to set the default alignment for my new techniques? i.e. center, left, right. I know I can edit each one in the properties panel but that’s a pain. I’m sure it’s obvious but I can’t seem to find it. Thanks again for the help!

Actually, on second thought, looks like I can’t adjust the alignment even in the properties panel…

I’m pretty sure that glyph-based playing techniques will always be centred by default. I can’t think of a good way around that (except positioning the playing technique further along the grid in Write mode).