User manual

575
Working with symbols
Crescendo and diminuendo (decrescendo)
In the Dynamics tab, there are three kinds of crescendo
symbols: regular crescendo, regular diminuendo and a
“double” crescendo (diminuendo–crescendo).
• To insert a crescendo (<) or diminuendo (>), select the corre-
sponding symbol from the tab and drag from left to right.
• If you draw a crescendo symbol from right to left, the result will
be a diminuendo symbol, and vice versa.
• To insert a crescendo-diminuendo (<>) symbol, select the
double crescendo symbol from the tab and drag from left to
right.
• To insert a diminuendo-crescendo (><) symbol, select the dou-
ble crescendo symbol from the tab and drag from right to left.
• When you have inserted a crescendo or diminuendo
symbol, you can move it and resize it by dragging its
handles.
• The “dynamic crescendo/diminuendo” symbol (p < f) is
special in that it actually affects the velocity of the notes as
they are played back.
This is described in the section “Dynamic crescendo symbols” on page
625.
• If the option “Keep Crescendo Symbols ‘Horizontal’” is
activated in the Preferences dialog (Scores-Editing page),
crescendo/diminuendo symbols will never be slanted
when you draw them, but stay horizontal.
Also, this option prevents you from accidentally dragging an endpoint up
or down when moving the symbol.
• It’s also possible to “flip” crescendo symbols, by select-
ing the option in the context menu or by clicking the Flip
button on the extended toolbar.
Aligning dynamics
There is a special command for aligning dynamic symbols
(including crescendos) horizontally. Unlike the regular align
function (see “Alignment” on page 573), aligning dynamics
takes the “baseline” of the dynamic letters into account,
aligning them as text rather than as graphic symbols.
1. Select the dynamic symbols you want to align, e.g. pp
and a crescendo.
2. Right-click on a selected symbol and select the
“Align” function in the context menu that appears.
This aligns all selected dynamics (except slurs and beziers) horizontally.
You can also align the dynamic objects by pulling down
the Scores menu and selecting “Dynamics” from the Align
Elements submenu.
The “Line/Trill” tab
Octave symbols
The octave symbols (8va and 15va) act as a “local display
transpose” (see “Transposing instruments” on page 500)
– they shift the display of the score one/two octaves
down.
• By dragging the end of the dotted line, you can specify
exactly which notes should be affected by the octave sym-
bol.
Only notes beneath the dotted line are display transposed.
Tuplet group symbols
These are “graphical” tuplet group symbols, as opposed
to the “real” tuplets.
• After inserting a tuplet group symbol, you can double-
click on its number and enter any number from 2 to 32.