Staff Attributes dialog box

Staff Attributes

How to get there

Click the Staff tool $image\Staff_Tool.gif$ . Choose Edit Staff Attributes from the Staff menu. Or, double-click a staff handle, or a staff name handle.

What it does

In the Staff Attributes dialog box, you can specify several staff-specific traits for the staff whose handle you clicked, including its name and transposition.

Staff Attributes for: Arrow controls. These arrows appear to the right of the staff name drop-down listpopup menu, making it easy for you to move consecutively through the staves to select staff attributes. Click the arrows to change staves instead of choosing a new staff name from the drop-down listpopup menu.

Full Name; Abbr. Name. The full or abbreviated names you enter for the staff appear in a regular text font.

Transposition. If the instrument whose staff you’re establishing is a transposing instrument (such as a trumpet or clarinet), select a Transposition from the Transposition drop-down menu. This shows the most common transpositions that you might want to use. Make an appropriate selection from the choices. In this list, M = major, m = minor, P = Perfect, and the numbers represent intervals (for example, 6 = sixth). Choose None to have no staff transpositions.

For this instrument…	Choose this transposition
Non-transposing instrument	None
A instrument (e.g. A clarinet)	(A) Up m3, Add 3 flats
B flat instrument (e.g. clarinet, trumpet)	(Bb) Up M2, Add 2 sharps
B flat instrument-treble (e.g. tenor sax, bass clarinet)	(Bb) Up M9, Add 2 sharps
D instrument (e.g. trumpet)	(D) Down M2, Add 2 flats
E flat instrument (e.g. Eb clarinet)	(Eb) Down m3, Add 3 sharps
E flat instrument (e.g. alto sax)	(Eb) Up M6, Add 3 sharps
E flat instrument-treble (e.g. baritone sax)	(Eb treble clef) Up M6+Octave, Add 3 sharps
F instrument (e.g. French Horn)	(F) Up P5, Add 1 sharp
G instrument (e.g. alto flute)	(G) Up P4, Add 1 flat
Octave-transposing instrument (e.g. contrabass)	Up Octave
Octave-transposing instrument (e.g. piccolo)	Down Octave

Once you’ve established the transposing instruments’ staves, you can tell PrintMusic to display the full score either in its transposed form or in its untransposed (concert pitch) form. Choose Display in Concert Pitch from the Document menu to show the score untransposed.

The staves in the full score always print out exactly as they appear on the screen (whether transposed or in concert pitch); when you extract parts, however, the resultant parts are always printed in their transposed form.

For a more complete discussion of transposing instruments, see Transposing instruments.

Break barlines between staves. Normally, when you group some staves together, the barlines are drawn continuously through them (including the blank spaces between them). Select “Break Barlines Between Staves” if you want barlines—both normal and repeat barlines—not to continue through to the next staff above this one. (If this staff isn’t part of a staff group, you won’t notice any difference. You group staves by selecting their handles with the Staff tool and double-clicking one of the selected handles. See Bracket Attributes dialog box.)

Hide Staff. Select this option to hide the current staff. Use this control when you want to hide a staff you’ve created that contains playback effects such as written out trills or tremolos. The word “(hidden)” appears in Staff Lists next to the staff name for any staves that are hidden.

Display Repeat Endings and Text Repeats. This checkbox shows repeat endings on the staff. Deselect this checkbox for the lower staff of a piano staff, for example.

Display Measure Numbers. This checkbox determines whether or not PrintMusic will show measure numbers on this staff.

Alternate Notation · Select. Use this checkbox and select button to set alternate notation for the entire staff. See Alternate Notation dialog box.

OK · Cancel. Click OK (or press enter) to confirm, or Cancel to discard, the settings you’ve made in this dialog box and return to the score.