Document menu
How to get there
The Document menu is one of PrintMusic’s unchanging menus.
What it does
This menu contains the keys to PrintMusic’s notational flexibility. Each command brings up a dialog box that governs some aspect of the way PrintMusic displays the music in the active document.
- Show Active Layer Only. Each PrintMusic staff is actually four transparent layers, each of which can contain its own rhythmically independent inner voice. Only one layer can be active (frontmost) at a time, however; the active layer is always identified by the popup menu depressed button in the lower-left corner of the document window and with a check mark in Select Layers submenu of the View menu.
When this item is selected (displaying a check mark), PrintMusic hides the three inactive layers. Bear in mind that hidden layers are unaffected by almost every tool. For example, the music in a hidden layer won’t be copied, pasted, or otherwise affected by Selection tool operations—a useful fact to remember if you want to copy or paste the music of one layer only.
Choose this command a second time to make the check mark disappear (and make the other three layers reappear).
- Display in Concert Pitch. With PrintMusic, any staff that’s had a transposition applied in the Staff Attributes dialog box—a trumpet or clarinet part, for example—always prints in its transposed key when you extract parts. However, you also have the option of viewing the full score in either its transposed or concert form. Choose this command if you want PrintMusic to display the score in concert key. If you don’t select it, all staves will appear showing transposing instruments in their transposed keys. (Music you enter using the Simple or Speedy Entry tools is considered already transposed. In other words, if you play a C on the MIDI keyboard using the MIDI input feature of the Speedy Entry tool, it appears as a C on the transposed staff, even though it will play back as some other note, because you’ve just entered a written C.)
- Display Courtesy Items. If a clef, key or time signature change occurs at the end of a line (system) of music, it’s traditional to forewarn the musician by displaying the incoming clef, key or time signature at the rightmost end of the preceding system. If you want this courtesy clef, key or time signature to appear, select this menu item. A checkmark will appear when it is selected. Choose the menu item again to deselect it.
- Left Barline from Previous Measure. Select this menu item to use the barline style of the previous measure as the left barline for measures starting a new system. A checkmark will appear when it is selected. Choose the menu item again to deselect it.
- Pickup Measure. The Pickup Measure command allows you to set the first measure of the piece to a pickup measure. See Pickup Measure Dialog Box.
- Select Default Fonts. This command displays the Select Default Fonts dialog box, which lets you set the default font for Text, Lyrics and Chords. See Select Default Fonts dialog box.
- Ignore Repeats During Playback and Recording. Choose this command to tell PrintMusic to disregard repeat barlines and repeat text indications during playback and recording. See Repeats (barlines and text indications).
