Thougts about Engrave mode

[andgle]

After using Engrave mode quite much lately, I would like to share some thoughts. I’m sure you’re already aware of most of this.
Please ignore what has been addressed previously.

1. For some reason, I have a hard time selecting noteheads in Engrave mode when zoomed out. 90% of the time, the stem gets selected even though it does not appear to be under the pointer. This slows down the process of system dividing quite much. I wish there was a better way to select passages in engrave mode.

2. There should be a way to append page overrides to flows. Something like a «Before flow» option in the «Insert pages» dialog. I often insert blank pages to reduce page shifting. The way it works now, everything turns into a mess if I change something prior to a page override.

3. There are some serious performance issues with the master page editor in bigger project. Every single edit (or even selection) takes around 30 seconds. Seems to me as if it updates the whole project while making changes in the editor. Is this necessary?

4. When multiple frames are overlapping, it should still be possible to enter the frames for editing. Now, I have to move them apart before I do my edit. E.g the page number frame in the default layout.

5. «Reset position» should not change the character style of text objects.

6. It would be nice if copying text preserved the font style (bold/italic…). I’m aware that you have an advanced approach to font styles, so this might not be as trivial as it sounds.

7. The staff spacing tool could need some development. Personally, it isn’t often I need to move a single staff without doing anything to the others, and selecting multiple systems on a laptop-friendly zoom level is about just as clumsy as selecting noteheads. (You could learn a thing or two from the brilliant team who made Sibelius )

8. «Duplicate layout» and «Auto breaks» is really much wanted. And maybe a way to tell the castoff algorithm to aim for four bars per system.

9. Zooming with the trackpad (macbook) always throughs me far away from what I want to see. The alternative way with Cmd + 2 fingers works much better, but that’s not very 2017

10. I know that this was reported a while ago, but there’s still a bug that sometimes opens engrave mode in galley view.

11. Engrave mode is already BY FAR superior to any other notation software I’ve ever seen. Keep up the good work!

[dspreadbury]

1. For some reason, I have a hard time selecting noteheads in Engrave mode when zoomed out. 90% of the time, the stem gets selected even though it does not appear to be under the pointer. This slows down the process of system dividing quite much. I wish there was a better way to select passages in engrave mode.

In general we don’t think Engrave mode and passage selections really go together: there are not many operations that make sense on a passage selection in Engrave mode. But consider switching between Write and Engrave modes if you need to make a large selection: the selection will be maintained when you switch modes.

2. There should be a way to append page overrides to flows. Something like a «Before flow» option in the «Insert pages» dialog. I often insert blank pages to reduce page shifting. The way it works now, everything turns into a mess if I change something prior to a page override.

It shouldn’t turn into a mess, because all of the existing overrides should be shifted along by the number of pages you insert.

3. There are some serious performance issues with the master page editor in bigger project. Every single edit (or even selection) takes around 30 seconds. Seems to me as if it updates the whole project while making changes in the editor. Is this necessary?

This does need improvement, but it’s not trivial to achieve. We have a plan to improve it, but it’s not going to make it into the next update.

4. When multiple frames are overlapping, it should still be possible to enter the frames for editing. Now, I have to move them apart before I do my edit. E.g the page number frame in the default layout.

This will be improved in the next update, because it will be possible to navigate between the handles of the frames with the arrow keys.

7. The staff spacing tool could need some development. Personally, it isn’t often I need to move a single staff without doing anything to the others, and selecting multiple systems on a laptop-friendly zoom level is about just as clumsy as selecting noteheads. (You could learn a thing or two from the brilliant team who made Sibelius > > )

You can use the arrow keys to navigate between the handles, and you can hold Shift to extend the selection up and down with the arrow keys. You also don’t need to click on the handles in order to drag the staves with the mouse: you can drag anywhere along the width of the system.

8. «Duplicate layout» and «Auto breaks» is really much wanted. And maybe a way to tell the castoff algorithm to aim for four bars per system.

These will be added in due course.

9. Zooming with the trackpad (macbook) always throughs me far away from what I want to see. The alternative way with Cmd + 2 fingers works much better, but that’s not very 2017

This is not specific to Engrave mode, but we know it needs improvement.

10. I know that this was reported a while ago, but there’s still a bug that sometimes opens engrave mode in galley view.

You shouldn’t see this from the next update.

[andgle]

@Daniel at Steinberg

1. For some reason, I have a hard time selecting noteheads in Engrave mode when zoomed out. 90% of the time, the stem gets selected even though it does not appear to be under the pointer. This slows down the process of system dividing quite much. I wish there was a better way to select passages in engrave mode.

In general we don’t think Engrave mode and passage selections really go together: there are not many operations that make sense on a passage selection in Engrave mode. But consider switching between Write and Engrave modes if you need to make a large selection: the selection will be maintained when you switch modes.

At the moment, I use passage selection a lot in engrave mode for “make into system”, so it’s actually quite annoying. But I guess this will be solved with a auto break tool.

@Daniel at Steinberg

2. There should be a way to append page overrides to flows. Something like a «Before flow» option in the «Insert pages» dialog. I often insert blank pages to reduce page shifting. The way it works now, everything turns into a mess if I change something prior to a page override.

It shouldn’t turn into a mess, because all of the existing overrides should be shifted along by the number of pages you insert.

Yes, you’re right. But removing a page override, doesn’t shift along following overrides, and this can make things messy in a big project.

@Daniel at Steinberg

4. When multiple frames are overlapping, it should still be possible to enter the frames for editing. Now, I have to move them apart before I do my edit. E.g the page number frame in the default layout.

This will be improved in the next update, because it will be possible to navigate between the handles of the frames with the arrow keys.

Maybe a way to enter the frames for editing as well sometime in the future?

@Daniel at Steinberg

7. The staff spacing tool could need some development. Personally, it isn’t often I need to move a single staff without doing anything to the others, and selecting multiple systems on a laptop-friendly zoom level is about just as clumsy as selecting noteheads. (You could learn a thing or two from the brilliant team who made Sibelius )

You can use the arrow keys to navigate between the handles, and you can hold Shift to extend the selection up and down with the arrow keys. You also don’t need to click on the handles in order to drag the staves with the mouse: you can drag anywhere along the width of the system.

Thanks, this was new to me. Also - the Alt+drag function presented in this post solves all of my struggle

[andgle]

Another thing:
It seems to me as if inserting/removing pages resets following staff spacing changes. Is this a bug, or something you haven’t yet addressed?

[dspreadbury]

Staff spacing changes will be removed if the casting off changes, certainly, which could happen when you insert or delete pages, if the systems find themselves on a page with, for example, a slightly different frame size.