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Brackets: Staves

You use the Staff tool to place staff brackets (including “curly braces” on piano staves) into the score. Drag the top or the bottom handles of a bracket to stretch it, or to change its distance from the staves. To create nested brackets (one bracket within another), select each set of staves that you want the brackets to enclose. Staves can belong to more than one group.

To place a bracket

If you want to place more than one bracket, see To create additional (nested) brackets, below.

  1. Click the Staff tool  image\Staff_Tool.gif. The Staff Menu appears.
  2. Select all the staves you want included, then choose Staff > Add Bracket. The Bracket Attributes dialog box appears.
  3. Select staves from the Staff and Through popup menus to set the starting and ending staves. All staves in between will also be included.
  4. Click one of the bracket styles in the Bracket Attributes dialog box to select the style you want to use for the group.
  5. Click OK to add the bracket and return to the score.

To move or stretch a bracket

  1. Click the Staff tool  image\Staff_Tool.gif. Handles appear on every group bracket in the score.
  2. Drag the bottom handle up or down. Drag the top handle left, right, up, or down. When you drag the top handle horizontally, the entire bracket moves. When you drag either handle vertically, you can make it appear to enclose other staves.
  3. Select a bracket handle and press CLEAR to revert a bracket to its default length (so it encloses the staves).

To delete a bracket

  1. Click the Staff tool  image\Staff_Tool.gif.
  2. To delete a bracket on-screen, click a bracket handle, then press DELETE.

To create additional (nested) brackets

SongWriter allows you to define only one bracket at a time using the Bracket Attributes dialog box. However, you can still place more than one bracket on staves. Simply create additional brackets for the same staves, choosing a different bracket style for each group. This has the advantage that each bracket is automatically sized to match its corresponding group.

 

 

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