Composer 2->NWC2 Help  [ Contents | What's New | Commands | Keyboard Shortcuts]

What's New in NoteWorthy Composer 2

• Support for user selectable notation font
• Hear notes as you add them to the staff
• Hairpin/graphic crescendo/diminuendo note properties
• X noteheads for percussion notes
• Diamond noteheads for other non-pitched and harmonic notes
• A blank notehead for unusual circumstances
• Percussion Clef
• A new Instrument Tree mechanism
• New Bi-directional Clipboard Text
• New user tool mechanism for scripting clip text processing
• Lyricist field (in addition to the existing Author/Composer field)
• User control over note stems
• Slurs are now drawn to the contour of the enclosing notes
• Default beam placement and slant have been completely redesigned
• Grace note scaling is now more consistent with standard conventions
• Accidentals and other note symbols are now scaled on grace notes
• Grace notes are slurred independently from primary notes
• Grace note stems default to up when their stem direction is not set
• Text expressions now show typeface, style, and size for font selection
• A new anchor symbol for expressions (a replacement for the diamond)
• Optional support for underscores in your lyrics (shut off translation to spaces)
• Staff labels, which are separate from the staff name
• Staff labels can optionally be shown in the editor
• New "Use stem for articulations" option for selected notes
• Inverted fermata is now automatic when placed below the center of the staff
• Automatic handling of accidentals for tied notes across bar lines
• Hidden items show in active and inactive colors for quicker identification
• New note alignment algorithm (the notation alignment scheme has been totally redesigned)
• Accidental placement within chords has been totally redesigned, making them more consistent with prevailing notation guidelines
• Bar lines can optionally be excluded from the built-in measure counter
• Improved expression placement options
• Improved rendering of Grand Staff and Orchestral Staff braces
• Copy Special and Print Preview Copy now use the Windows Enhanced Metafile format (EMF)
• Staff notation limits increased to 32000 items (an almost 300% increase)
• New top and bottom margins in the score editor
• Wheel mouse can now be used for vertical scrolling
• More highlight colors (7 highlight colors, double the version 1 highlights)
• Direct entry of Multi-point Controller values via Edit boxes
• Toolbar data is now stored in the Config Files folder, and is named "nwc2toolbars.dat"
• When run on Windows XP, the selected display theme is supported in dialogs and windows
• File Open/Save now support new Windows 2000/XP/Vista favorites section on the left side of the dialog
• Mouse pointer in editor uses system cursor when run on a Windows XP/Vista system
• New Justify printed systems vertically option for controlling whether printed systems are justified vertically when printing

Some version 2.0 features explained in more detail:

• User selectable notation font
  The staff notation typeface can now be specified by the user. This is done from File, Page Setup, Fonts (tab). The Staff Size option from version 1 is also found on this tab (moved from the File, Page Setup, Options tab).
  
  
• Crescendo and Diminuendo Attributes for Selected Notes
  Graphic crescendo and diminuendo can now be added as easily as slurs are applied to notes. Simply select the notes that are included in the volume swell or fade, then press the < key for a crescendo symbol, or the > key for the diminuendo symbol. The hairpins are placed on the staff consistent with the preceding Dynamic mark that you should already have inserted into the staff.
  
  Note that the shortcut for adding a note accent has been moved to the exclamation point (!).
  
  
• X noteheads for percussion notes
  You can add new notes that use the X notehead by first selecting the X Notehead tool, then adding notes as normal. The only difference is that the notes will now show up with an X as their notehead. The easiest way to change noteheads during note entry is to use the Q key to cycle through the available notehead styles.
  
  The notehead of existing notes can also be changed by selecting them first, then pressing the X Notehead tool button.
  
  
• Diamond noteheads for other non-pitched and harmonic notes
  The procedure for inserting diamond notes or changing notes to use the diamond shape is the same as for X noteheads described above, except that the Diamond Notehead tool is selected instead.
  
  
• Percussion Clef
  The percussion clef can be added quickly using the new quick insert tool button shown. It can also be adding using the conventional Insert | Clef command. Note that the percussion clef is treated just like a bass clef for MIDI input, play back, and key signature support. Technically, a percussion clef has no concept of pitch, but in the MIDI domain, a means of determining pitch is still necessary. Defaulting to Bass Clef seems to be a good default choice. You can use the Staff Properties Transpose value to alter this behavior as needed.
  
  
• A new Instrument Tree mechanism
  The NTWPATCH.INI mechanism from version 1 has been removed. A new instrument tree mechanism has been added in its place. User customizable instrument trees are used to create and select predefined instruments, with full control over all instrument properties, including bank select, transpose, and default dynamic note velocities. New Instrument Tree files are added to a dedicated folder that is controlled from Tools|Options|Folders, so you can override the default location of these files. Instrument changes in the staff can now show a custom, user assigned name. Default MIDI note velocities for Dynamics are now under user control via Instrument Properties.
  
  
• NWC Clipboard Text
  The Find text introduced in version 1 has been extended to support full textual Copy and Paste operations to and from the clipboard. You can now copy and paste large selections of staff notation in the Find text format. This enables you to edit the Find text in a text editor, and then paste it back into the program. The mechanism is automatic. Simply copy notation as normal, but now you can paste the data into any text edit window, such as Windows' Notepad.
  
  You can see most of the Find text format by simply copying single items from the program into a text editor. When copying single items, more text details are shown than the shorter format used when copying multiple items at once.
  
  A User Tool mechanism is provided which enables prewritten scripts to applied against selected notation.
  
  You can now also paste simple text into the staff. It is automatically pasted as a text expression.
  
  
• User control of note stems
  By default, the program tries to make note stem lengths more consistent with conventional notation practices. When necessary, the length of a note stem is now under user control. The stem length can be adjusted, as well as completely hidden.
  
  
• New Lyricist field (in addition to the existing Author/Composer field)
  File | Info now has a field for Lyricist. This is printed on the left side of the title page at the same vertical position as the Author/Composer field.
  
  
• Optional support for underscores in your lyrics (shut off translation to spaces)
  The Configuration tab of Edit | Lyrics now has a new option called "Underscore shown as space" which can be unchecked to disable the underscore translation to space feature.
  
  
• New staff labels

A staff can now be named and labeled separately. Each staff must have a unique name, but the label is not subject to this restriction. A grand staff label can now be controlled by the first staff in the grand staff brace by simply assigning the other staves to a blank label.

A new option is added to Tools | Options that controls whether staff labels will be shown in the editor. This new option is separate from the Page Setup options that control whether staff labels appear when printing.


• Hidden items show in active and inactive colors for quicker identification
  You can set the exact color scheme that is used in the editor from the Tools | Options | Color area. Make sure that you have a score edit window open before going to this area.
  
  
• A new anchor symbol
  A new anchor symbol for expressions that do not preserve width.
  
  
• Staff notation limits increased to 32000 items
  Any staff can now have up to 32000 items in it. Each note, rest, chord, bar line, or other object on the staff counts as one item. The old version 1.* limit was 12000 items.
  
  
• More highlight colors
  You now have access to seven different highlight colors for drawing special attention to some areas of your work. This is more than double the number of highlights that were available in version 1.
  
  
• Direct entry of Multi-point Controller values
  You no longer are required to use the data entry sliders for those small adjustments to your Multi-point Controller settings. New edit boxes for each control point allow you to quickly modify your settings. The sliders are still available for use and reference, and they even update as you change the values in the edit boxes.
  
  
• Windows XP enhancements
  If you are using Windows XP, several enhancements will be automatically available in this new version. This new version is more aware of the themes feature that is controlled from the Display applet of the Control Panel. Your selected theme and more of the controls in the program interface will be consistent with your selected theme. Windows XP also allows user control over the hand cursor, and this new version utilizes this system cursor. Lastly, the File Open and Save dialogs include extra options that are only available on Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista systems.