Staff tool

When you click the Staff tool, the Staff Menu appears, and handles appear on each staff and on staff-related items in the score. Select a handle then choose a menu command, or use the shortcuts listed below. The shortcuts are arranged by what the handle controls: staff handles and staves, group handles (includes the group name), staff name handles and bracket handles. 

Staff handles and staves:

Staff handles always appear on staves in the score, even on staves that are hidden.

• Click the Staff tool to display the Staff Menu. Handles appear on each staff and staff-related item in the score.
• Click a staff or a staff handle, or drag-enclose staff handles to select a staff (or staves).
• Shift-click a staff or a staff handle to add the staff to the selection. If a staff is already selected, Shift-click to remove the staff from the selection.
• Double-click a staff or a staff handle or right-click a staff handle and choose Edit Staff Attributes to edit the staff's attributes.
• Ctrl-Shift-click a staff or staff handle in one or more selected staves(or right-click the handle and select Add Bracket from the contextual menu) to create a new group for the selected staves.
• Press delete for selected staves, or right-click the handle and select Delete Staves from the contextual menu to delete the selected staves without repositioning the remaining staves.
• Drag a staff handle in Scroll View. Adjust the staff’s position.
• Drag a staff handle in Page View. Note: If two handles appear on a staff, drag the top handle. Adjust the staff’s position in every staff system in Page View and Scroll View. When the top staff is adjusted, SongWriter adjusts the distance between staves, as well as staff systems.
• Drag the bottom staff handle in Page View. Note: If Allow Individual Staff Spacing has been turned on in the Page Layout tool, two handles will appear on each staff to adjust the staff’s position only in the current staff system (drag the top handle to adjust the position of the staff in all staff systems in Page View).
• Select the bottom staff handle or handles in Page View and press delete for selected staves, or right-click the handle and select Delete Staves from the contextual menu to delete the selected staves for that system only without repositioning the remaining staves.
• Select the bottom staff handle or handles in Page View and press shift-delete for selected staves, or right-click the handle and select Delete Staves from the contextual menu to delete the selected staves for that system only and reposition the remaining staves.

Note: If two handles appear on a staff, drag the top handle

• Drag the bottom staff handle in Page View to Adjust the staff’s position only in the current staff system (drag the top handle to adjust the position of the staff in all staff systems in Page View).

Staff name handles:

Staff name handles appear on existing staves in the score only if you have entered a staff name, or if SongWriter's default staff name appears for an unnamed staff.

• Staff name handles appear on existing staves in the score only if you have entered a staff name, or if SongWriter's default staff name appears for an unnamed staff.
• Click a staff name handle, or drag-enclose staff name handles to select a staff name (or names).
• Shift-click a full or abbreviated staff name handle to add the staff name to the selection.
• Shift-click to remove the staff name from the selection.
• Double-click a full or abbreviated staff name handle to edit the staff's attributes.
• Press Backspace to revert the position of the selected full or abbreviated staff name to its default position.
• Drag a full or abbreviated staff name handle to adjust the position of the selected staff name.

Bracket handles:

Two bracket handles appear on each bracket on a group, even if you did not enter a group name.

Click a bracket handle, or drag-enclose several bracket handles to select a bracket (or brackets).

• Click a bracket handle, or drag-enclose several bracket handles to select a bracket (or brackets).
• Shift-click a bracket handle to add the bracket to the selection. If a bracket is already selected, Shift-click to remove the bracket from the selection.
• Double-click a bracket handle, or right-click the handle and select Edit Group Attributes from the contextual menu to edit a group. The Bracket Attributes dialog box appears.
• Press delete for selected brackets, or right-click the handle and select Delete Bracket from the contextual menu to remove the selected brackets of the selected group definition.
• Press backspaceclear for selected brackets to revert the selected brackets to their default length.
• Drag a bracket handle vertically to make a bracket taller or shorter.
• Drag a bracket handle horizontally to move a bracket closer to or away from bracketed staves.

Contextual menus are reached by right-clicking on the handle of an object. A contextual menu will be displayed where you can select various items.