Measures

See also Measure layout. 

To add blank measures at the end of the document

1. From the Edit Menu, choose Add Measures.The Add Measures dialog box appears.
2. Enter the desired number of measures. Click OK (or press return). You can also add a single measure at the end of the score double-clicking the Measure tool.)

To insert blank measures within a document

1. Choose any tool that allows regional selection. See Selecting music. 
2. Select the measure after the point of insertion. Even if there is more than one staff, click a single measure. SongWriter will add a blank measure in every staff.
3. From the Measure Menu, choose Insert Measure Stack or, if the Measure tool is selected, you can control-click on the top measure handle and choose Insert Measure Stack. A dialog box appears, asking how many measures you want to insert.
4. Enter the desired number of measures. Click OK (or press return).

To erase or remove measures

1. Choose any tool that allows regional selection. See Selecting music. 
2. Double-click a measure to select the full measure stack. Highlighting should extend between the staves (or above and below the staff if there is only a single staff).
3. Press the Delete key, or, from the Edit Menu, choose Delete Measure Stack. This removes the selected measures from every staff. The result: your score contains fewer measures.

To delete a measure from a single staff

In general, when you remove a measure from the score, SongWriter removes the measure in question from every staff in the score. Using the following technique, however, you can remove a measure from a single staff (in effect) by sliding the subsequent measures one measure to the left.

1. Click the Selection tool  , and click the next measure after the measure you want to delete.
2. Shift-click the last measure in the piece.
3. Drag the first selected measure to the left, so that it’s superimposed on the measure you want to delete. SongWriter asks you how many times you want the selected music copied. The default value, once, is what you want.
4. Click OK (or press return). SongWriter moves the music you selected one measure to the left, in effect eliminating the measure you wanted to remove. There may now be an extra measure at the end of the staff; just erase or remove it (see To erase or remove measures).

To change one measure’s width

1. Click the Measure tool  . A handle appears on each barline.
2. Drag the right barline of the measure in question to the right or left.

To adjust measure widths in a system

It’s useful to remember that you can adjust the relative widths of the measures in any particular system.

1. Go to Page View, if you’re not already there. You change views by choosing Page View from the View Menu.
2. Choose Update Layout from the Edit Menu.
3. Click the Measure tool  . A handle appears on every barline.
4. Drag the handle of any measure to the right or left. As you make one measure wider, the one to its right becomes narrower. (You can adjust all measures in a system except the last one with this method.)

To arrange measures on the page

See Measure layout.

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