To mask a portion of a staff

1. Click the Expression Tool  , and click a note or a measure in the staff you want to mask. Click a note at the appropriate end of the staff. The Expression Selection dialog box appears.
2. Click Shape. Proceeding through the dialog boxes, click as follows: Create; Select; Create. You arrive in the Shape Designer. You’re about to draw a mask that’s the height of a standard staff and two inches wide.

The following instructions give measurements in points (1/72 inch). If you’ve been working in different units, choose Rulers and Grid from the Shape Designer menu and select Points.

3. Click the Rectangle Tool . Note the origin, the small white circle.
4. Click the origin; without releasing the mouse, drag up and to the right, until the number in the “H:” box is 144 and the “V:” box is 28. You’ve just drawn a rectangle.
5. Click the Selection Tool   , and select the rectangle. From the Shape Designer menu, choose Fill, and then White. The inside of the rectangle turns white, but the outline is still black.
6. From the Line Thickness submenu of the Shape Designer menu, choose None. The black line goes away.
7. Command-click the OK button (or press return five times). The shape appears in the score as a whited-out rectangle.

The technique: if you want to cover up everything, attach the expression to a subsequent note. In the following illustration, you can see the difference.

At left, the Expression was attached to the first eighth note, as indicated by the arrow. As a result, the shape only covers up the staff lines. If the shape is attached to a following note (right), the mask covers everything.

If your shape is an expression, however, the white rectangle will always cover everything, including the notes.

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