SongWriter 2010 Interface Changes

SongWriter always allows you to select full or partial measures without requiring a menu selection. See Selecting music for more details.

• Double-click to expand a selection including partial measures to include full measures. Or, double click full measures or unselected measures to select a full measure stack (full measures, all staves).
• Hold down Shift and use the left and right arrow keys to expand or retract the selection note-by-note (or measure-by-measure for empty measures). Or, hold down Shift and click to expand/retract the selected region.
• Hold down Shift and press the End, Home, PageUp, or Page Down keys to expand selection to the end, beginning, top staff, or bottom staff of the score (respectfully).

In SongWriter 2007 and earlier a measure could be selected in, for example, four horn parts of an orchestral score. Inserting this music elsewhere would add the measure in all staves, filling only the target selection with the source horn music (the inserted measure in all other staves would be empty). Now, to insert full measures, the source and target must include full measures, and all staves, called stacks.

In a stack selection, highlighting extends between all staves (vertically) of a selected region. Double-click full measures to select the measure stack. For details, see Copying Music.

• Stacks can include extra measure information such as key signatures, measure widths, and barline styles.
• A stack selection is required to delete a full measure and all their attributes in all staves. Without a stack selected, the Delete key always clears music from the region.
• A stack selection is required to insert a full measure in all staves.
• A stack can only be inserted or pasted to another region that qualifies as a stack. Pasting always replaces existing music.
• Eligible regions to paste or insert a stack are indicated with a green border or insertion bar respectfully when drag-copying or drag-inserting.

In SongWriter 2007 and earlier, drag-copying either inserted or replaced entries depending on a setting under the Mass Edit Menu. Now, selected regions can be easily inserted or pasted (replacing entries) by dragging or using the clipboard (see Copying Music). All musical elements in a region, including measure-attached items, can be copied, pasted, and inserted with all methods of copying - within the same document or across documents.

 

• Clipboard-copying and pasting (e.g. Command-C/Command-V), clipboard inserting (Command-I), drag-copying, and drag-inserting now always yield identical results.
• Clipboard-copying and pasting (e.g. Command-C/Command-V) now always yields identical results to drag-copying and pasting. Press Command-I to insert material copied to the clipboard.
• SongWriter now always uses the "Copy and Replace" behavior (now called "Paste") when drag-copying unless the Insert modifier (Command) is used.

The Utilities Menu is SongWriter 2010's new unchanging menu and includes many commands that previously existed under SongWriter 2007's Mass Edit Menu. Commands that apply to the entire document, such as Update Layout, are always available. Editing commands that require a regional selection are available whenever any measure region is selected (with the Selection tool or any other tool that supports regional selection). See Utilities Menu.

 

Control-click a measure region with the Selection tool or Measure tool selected to access a new expanded context menu. Now, to insert full measures, the source and target must include full measures, and all staves, called stacks.

Cut, copy, paste, insert, and apply any command under the Edit and Utilities Menus whenever a region is selected. The following tools allow regional selection:

• Selection tool
• Staff tool
• Measure tool
• Key Signature tool
• Time Signature tool
• Clef tool
• Repeat tool

The Delete key now clears or deletes measures in the above tools.

 

Staff tool:

• To Delete Staves, the Staff handles must be selected and there must be no measure highlighting.

Repeat tool:

• To Clear Repeats, highlight the handles only and press Delete or use the Repeat context menu.

The following commands can be applied with any tool that allows regional measure selection. A single-key alternative is available for some of these commands if the Selection tool is chosen. (These are similar to previous Mass Edit keyboard shortcuts).

• Command-4 = Apply Music Spacing (Selection tool = 4)
• Command-6 thru 9 = applying transposition (Selection tool = 6-9)
• Keystrokes for fixed view percentages (Ctrl-4 for 400%, Ctrl-5 for 50%, Ctrl-7 for 75%) have been removed (except for Ctrl-0 for "Other") in favor of user definable Custom Zoom Keystrokes: Command-1, Command-2 and Command-3.

• Edit Menu > Add Measures(previously required Measure tool selection).
• Utilities Menu > Apply Music Spacing (previously required Mass Edit tool selection)
• Utilities Menu > Fit Measures (previously called "Fit Music" and required Mass Edit tool/Page Layout tool selection)
• Edit Menu > Multimeasure Rests > Break/Create (previously required Measure tool selection)

 

SongWriter 2007 Menu Command Name	SongWriter 2007 Menu	SongWriter 2010 Menu	SongWriter 2010 Menu Command Name
Clear Entries and Smart Shapes	Mass Edit	Edit	Clear All Items
Add	Measure	Edit	Add Measures
Insert	Measure	Edit	Insert Measure Stack
Delete	Measure	Edit	Delete Measure Stack
-	-	Edit	*Multimeasure Rest (submenu)
-	-	Edit/Multimeasure Rest	*Break
-	-	Edit/Multimeasure Rest	*Create
-	-	Edit	*Move/Copy Layers
-	-	Edit	*Paste Multiple
-	-	Edit	*Edit Measure Attributes
-	-	*Utilities	-
Transpose	Mass Edit	Utilities	""
Clear Entries and Smart Shapes	Mass Edit	-	-
Remove Manual Slur Adjustments	Mass Edit	- (SmartShape context menu)	- (see Smart Shape tool)
Add Slash Notation	Mass Edit	-	- (see Alternate Notation)
Remove Slash Notation	Mass Edit	-	- (see Alternate Notation)
Fit Music	Mass Edit	Utilities	Fit Measures
-	-	Utilities	*Apply Music Spacing
-	-	Utilities	*Update Layout
-	-	Utilities	*Update Smart Word Extensions and Hyphens
-		*Utilities	*Apply Articulation
Fill with Rests	Mass Edit	Utilities/Check Notation	""
Remove Manual Slur Adjustments	Mass Edit	Utilities/Check Notation	""
Add Drum Grove	Mass Edit	Utilities	""
Apply Band-in-a-Box Auto Harmonizing	Mass Edit	Utilities	""
Create Coda System	Mass Edit	Utilities	""
-	-	Utilities	*Score System Divider
-	-	View	*Page View
-	-	View	*Scroll View
Scale View To	View	""	Zoom
-	View	""	*Show Rulers
-	View	""	*Hide Page Layout Icons
-	View	""	*Hide Display Colors
-	-	Document	*Show Active Layer Only
-	-	Document	*Display Courtesy Items
-	-	Document	*Left Barline from Previous Measure
-	-	Document	*Ignore Repeats During Playback and Recording
-	-	MIDI	*Click and Countoff
MIDI/Internal Speaker Playback	MIDI	MIDI/Device Setup	""
MIDI/Open Audio MIDI Playback	MIDI	MIDI/Device Setup	""
MIDI Thru	MIDI	MIDI/Device Setup	""
-	-	Window	Mixer
-	-	Window	New Window
Save as Audio File	File	File	Export Audio File
-	-	Window	New Window
-	-	Staff menu	Staff menu
-	Lyrics	""	*Type Into Score
-	Lyrics	""	*Adjust Syllables
-	Lyrics	""	*Edit Word Extensions
-	Lyrics	""	*Use Smart Hyphens and Word Extensions
-	Lyrics	*SmartShape	*Shape Direction (submenu)
Help	Table of Contents	""	User Manual
Help	Maestro Character Sets	""	Character Sets
Repeat	-	""	*Create Ending
Repeat	-	""	*Create Forward Repeat Bar
Repeat	-	""	*Create Backward Repeat Bar
Repeat	-	""	*Display Endings and Text Repeats on Top Staff
Repeat	-	""	*Display Endings and Text Repeats on All Staves
Repeat	-	""	*Reset Bracket Position
-	-	Page Layout	*Page Layout menu