Staves

This entry contains information on adding, moving, deleting, hiding, and recovering staves. See also: Staff names;  Bracket Attributes dialog box;  Staff size.  

When selecting a staff, you can either click the staff’s handle or the body of the staff itself (to the right of the clef, time and key signature). Drag-enclose or shift-click to select as many staff handles as you want. (You can also shift-click selected staves to remove them from the selection.)

To add or insert a single staff

1. Choose Window > ScoreManager.
2. Click Add Instrument, and select the desired Instrument (or blank staff) from the list.
3. The new Instrument appears in the appropriate position based on the selected score order (chosen under the adjacent Score Order drop-down menu). If Custom is selected, the new Instrument appears below the selected Instrument.

To move staves

1. Click the Staff Tool . The Staff menu appears and handles appear on every staff.
2. Click a staff handle and drag to move the staff in that system only. Measures in that system are selected automatically. Or, once the staff is selected, use the up and down arrow keys to nudge the staff up and down.
3. Double-click a staff handle and drag to move the staff in all systems. All measures of the staff are selected automatically when you double-click a staff handle.

When you drag, SongWriter displays the distance from the top of the staff you are moving to the top of the previous staff. The units are whatever you’ve selected using the Measurement Units commands of the Edit.You can also select the measures of all staves in all systems you want to move, and then click and drag or use the arrow keys to nudge the staves vertically. Whenever you drag staves, subsequent staves in the system retain their spacing and move uniformly.

To delete staves

1. Click the Staff tool  . The Staff Menu appears and handles appear on every staff.
2. Select the handles of the staff or staves to be deleted.
3. To remove selected staves, choose Delete Staves from the Staff Menu, or press delete. SongWriter deletes the selected staves, and places the top staff of the remaining staves in the former position of the top staff that was deleted, followed by any other staves.
4. To restore the deleted staves, immediately choose Undo from the Edit Menu.

To reorder Instrument staves

1. Choose Window > ScoreManager.
2. Click the icon of the Instrument you would like to reorder and drag it into place. Note that when you do this, the Score Order changes to "Custom." (With "Custom" selected, future Instrument additions are added beneath the selected Instrument. You can choose a score order to instantly update the order of Instruments at any time.)

To hide staves

See Hiding staves.

To set the attributes for a staff

1. Click the Staff tool  . The Staff Menu appears.
2. Select a staff handle, then choose Edit Staff Attributes from the Staff Menu. (Or, double-click a staff handle, or a staff name.) Or, choose Edit Staff Attributes from the Staff Menu without selecting a staff. The Staff Attributes dialog box appears. If you didn’t select a staff before entering this dialog box, choose a staff from the Staff Attributes for drop-down list. (Or, use the arrow controls to select a staff from the Staff Attributes for drop-downlist.)
3. Change settings in the Staff Attributes dialog box to define the staff’s characteristics. For details, see Staff Attributes dialog box.
4. Click OK to confirm your settings and return to the score.

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