Dmitry,
I have pasted in several text files from the Sibelius Tips and Tricks
collection I've compiled. These files below are each separated by a ***** to
indicate a new file. Some of the information may be duplicated, and they are
from different sources. These should help you once you read through and take
some notes. If you want the entire collection of the Tips and Tricks files,
reply to me directly and I'll send you a zip file. dgcarlson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*****
Document Layout Explained...
Tabbing around in the Sibelius layout > Document Setup Dialog
this can be confusing until you understand the arrangement and the impact of
selecting some of the button choices. The
names of the edit fields do not always correspond correctly and so you must
keep track of where you are at all times.
Use the following process to learn what's here:
1. When you enter the dialog, you are first placed on a set of radio
buttons for mm, inches, or point. This works fine.
2. Shift-Tab and you land on a checkboxk called "After 1st page". this is
also correct. If checked, you will be later
presented with staff margins to edit for pages other than the first page.
3. Okay now let's tab twice to land on the page size combo box, which is
correct. Choose what you want.
4. Next tab is the portrait/landscape radio buttons, also okay.
5. Tab again and you can edit the page width.
6. Tab again and you can edit the page height.
7. Tab again to adjust the staff height (top line to bottom line).
8. Tab again to a set of radio buttons, which are also correct. select your
choice to have page margins to be the same,
mirrored, or different.
9. Tab again and you will hear "left pages:", and that will be all the clue
you get for any of these following possibilities,
and here's where the dialog starts to lead us astray, because all we hear is
"edit":
9.1 Same - Next 4 edit boxes are top, left, right, bottom margins for both
pages.
9.2. mirrored - next 4 edit boxes are top, outer, inner, bottom. (this I
need someone sighted to confirm; not absolutely
sure of the outer/inner order)
9.3. different - next 6 edit boxes are top, left page left margin, left page
right margin, right page left margin, right page
right margin, bottom.
NOTE: top and bottom margins are always the same for left/right pages; they
cannot be set differently in this dialog)
10. So far, so good. I guess we all think the whole dialog is just fine,
don't we?
11. Tab out of the page margin edit boxes and you hear: Full names:". This
is wrong, wrong, wrong! Naughty Sibelius.
12. You are actually in a grouping titled: "Staff Margins". Additional text
says: "this is the default distance of the staves
inside the page margins".
13. This first edit field should really be called "Staff Margin top, 1st
page". This is the amount of space above the top
staff, separating it from the top margin. this is where you can give the
title and other stuff some more room.
14. The next three edit fields are correctly labeled - the Amount of space
for the presence of instrument names - Full,
Short, or No Names, which appear left of the staff. I'll leave these to the
student as an exercise.
15. After the "No names" edit, tab again and you will again hear "No names".
this is wrong.
16. This should actually be saying: "Staff Margin Bottom, 1st page". this
sets the amount of space between the bottom
staff and the bottom margin, to allow room for things like a copyright.
17. If you tab and hear "greater" or "less" don't press this. It just
changes a graphical representation of the pages, that some of us can't see.
18. tab again to hear cancel, and tab again to hear OK. Stop! Do not press
OK yet. There's possibly more lurking here.
19. If you did check the checkbox "After 1st page" (remember step 2 above?)
then you will hear "Full Names:".
19.1. Drat! Wrong label again. This should have said: "Staff Margin top,
after 1st page". This allows you to have a
different spacing above the top staff on any page other than the 1st page.
19.2. Almost done. Tab again and if you do have another edit box it will be
the staff margin bottom for the other pages.
20. Now you can shift-tab back to OK and press the button to save.
In general it appears that the edit boxes after the staff size are arranged
in the dialog approximately where they would
appear on the left and right pages. this is why they jump around so much
when we tab through them. See how simple
*****
Understanding margins in Sibelius
by Daniel Spreadbury on March 22, 2010 ·
1 comment
in
Tutorials
margins
In order to produce a good, consistent and attractive layout, there are many
factors you have to consider. First you have to determine page size and
staff
size, and then from there you need to work out how to ensure there is
sufficient white space around the edges of the page, and sufficient
distances between
staves, to make the layout as clear as possible.
In Sibelius, you set page size, staff size and margins via the Layout >
Document Setup dialog, and you set distances between staves using the Staves
page
of House Style > Engraving Rules.
But if you look at either or both of these dialogs, there are a lot of
numbers to tweak. What do they all mean? Read on to find out.
Take a look at the
PDF below:
The blue arrows in the PDF show the effect of the values in Layout >
Document Setup. A, B, C and D are the page margins, which define the area
around the
edge of the page into which Sibelius will not by default allow staves to be
drawn. These page margins aren't necessarily the same as your printer's
printable
area: there's no direct relationship between the values in Document Setup
and what you'll see when you print.
E and F are, respectively, the top and bottom staff margins for the first
page. The top staff margins is the distance between the top page margin and
the
top staff line of the top staff of the first system on the page, and the
bottom staff margin is the distance between the bottom staff line of the
bottom
staff of the last system on the page. Set your staff margins such that you
have enough room above the top staff for whatever text needs to appear there
(e.g. the title at the top of the first page, the copyright text at the
bottom of the first page, lyrics below the bottom staff on each page, etc.)
without
requiring you to drag the top staff on the page downwards.
G and H are the top and bottom staff margins for subsequent pages. These are
typically set to smaller values than the staff margins on the first page.
All of the values in Layout > Document Setup are absolute measurements: if
you set the page margins to, say, 15mm, those are the margins you'll get.
The green arrows in the PDF correspond to the various settings on the Staves
page of House Style > Engraving Rules. Unlike the values in Document Setup,
these values can be changed as a result of vertical justification, which
spreads the staves out to fill the full height of the page. As a result, the
actual
distances in the score may end up larger than the distances you specify in
Engraving Rules.
Here's a close-up of part of the picture:
margins_close-up
The distances correspond as follows: 1 is the default distance between
staves; 2 is an extra distance between groups of instruments (notice how in
the full
picture, the vocal staves are bracketed together, and the piano reduction
staves are braced together); 3 is an extra distance below a vocal staff (to
make
room for lyrics); and 4 is an extra distance above staves on which system
object positions appear (the tempo instruction appears both above the top
vocal
staff and the right-hand piano staff). 5 is the distance between systems,
which, as you can see from the picture, is the distance most affected by
justification.
For further information about layout and formatting in Sibelius, take a look
at
this earlier post.
Tagged as:
formatting,
layout,
sibelius,
tip,
Tips,
tutorial
*****
Tutorial: Layout and formatting in Sibelius 5
by Daniel Spreadbury on October 14, 2008 ·
1 comment
in
Tutorials
One of the most misunderstood feature areas in Sibelius is layout and
formatting, which includes things like page and staff size, the distances
between
staves, and things like system and page breaks. After the jump, I'll clear
up those misunderstandings.
As an example, look no further than these
top page layout tips
from educator and author Dr Tom Rudolph. Tom is the author of many books on
using technology in music education (including one on Sibelius), and he's an
accomplished user of both Sibelius and Finale, but I would disagree with a
couple of his tips.
block quote
1. Open House Style > Engraving Rules and click on the Staves tab. Set the
distance between staves and systems for the entire piece. I also change the
justify
amount to 95% for most scores. Do this before dragging staves manually. If a
staff is manually adjusted, the Engraving Rules settings are ignored.
block quote end
This is actually almost completely great advice. Using Engraving Rules to
set the distances between staves and systems is the most important step in
achieving
good page layout. However, I strongly disagree with setting Justify staves
when page is n% full to a high number like 80% or above, though if you asked
10 users about layout in Sibelius, there's a good chance more than one of
them would recommend the same thing.
So why the disparity? The Justify staves. option controls staff
justification, where Sibelius expands the space between staves in order to
fill the page
up vertically (between the top and bottom staff margins). If you don't know
about the way to set up default staff spacing in Engraving Rules, then you're
going to start dragging staves up and down to try and space the staves how
you want them. And if Sibelius always tries to redistribute the space
between
staves down the whole height of the page, you'll start experiencing some
curious "rubber-band" effects, with staves bouncing closer together
unexpectedly.
So you search for a way to stop this "rubber-banding", find the Justify
staves. option, and disable it - all the while missing the correct way to
change
the space between staves and systems.
(An aside: I often wonder whether we were right to make changing vertical
staff spacing by dragging the staves up and down so easy. On the one hand,
it's
very simple and immediate, which is very much in keeping with the way
Sibelius is designed; but on the other, it's much easier to discover than
the better
way to change staff spacing, via Engraving Rules, with the consequence that
users may discover how to drag staves around very early in their experience
of using Sibelius, but never find the proper way. I imagine there are
hundreds, if not thousands, of Sibelius users out there frustrated with the
clumsy
way the program appears to handle staff spacing. Would we make the same
decision today?)
Staff justification is actually a super-useful feature, and helps to produce
clean, consistent and pleasing page layouts in Sibelius. So don't turn it
off!
If you're not sure how to make it work for you, watch my detailed layout and
formatting tutorial - read on.
block quote
2. Set the number of bars per line using Plug-ins > Other > Make Layout
Uniform.
block quote end
For me, a better way of achieving this would be to use Layout > Auto Layout,
switching on Use auto system breaks and setting Sibelius to produce system
breaks every (say) 4 bars.
Tom's other recommendations are all sound enough.
A few months ago I delivered an
in-depth video tutorial
about layout and formatting in Sibelius 5. It lasts for about 40 minutes,
and contains detailed explanations about:
list of 5 items
. How the Document Setup dialog works
. The differences between page and staff margins, and what they're for
. How to understand the effects of vertical justification and have it work
for you, not against you
. How to adjust staff spacing for a more pleasing page layout
. Three simple steps to better layout
list end
I'll put you out of your misery and reveal my three simple steps to better
layout here (though I strongly recommend you watch the rest of the tutorial
anyway):
list of 3 items
1. First, select your whole score, do Layout > Format > Unlock Format, then
Layout > Reset Space Below Staff and Reset Space Above Staff
2. Change the default staff and system spacing on the Staves page of House
Style > Engraving Rules
3. Change the staff size in Layout > Document Setup.
*****
Information from Dan Rugman on Manual Positioning of text in the upper
area...
Manual Positioning of Text in the Title Area
I must point out that there is a lot of approximation going on, and the
complexity of the thing should make it clear just how much room for error
there is. In short, get someone with eyes to do this, it's much easier.
There are a lot of things to do and they're spread out across several
different dialogs. There is a certain logic to it, but it isn't immediately
apparent.
1. In the document set up dialog, move the top staff margin to make room
before you start.
This is the distance between the top line of the top most staff and the top
page margin. Increasing it pushes the top staff down, and all the other
staves with it. It is measured in millimetres, inches, or points, depending
on which radio button you choose. For what you're about to do, it is best to
choose points. All will become clear. Before going on, set the top staff
margin to a far bigger number than is necessary. This will make sure that
you've got room to move everything around. You then reset it at the end to
move everything up into the ideal position. For now, set it to 144 points (2
inches).
2. Calculate the space height
The positions of text items is stated as the number of spaces away from the
centre line of the staff. A space is the distance between two adjacent lines
on the staff. Since the staff height refers to a five line staff, which has
four spaces in it, the space height can be calculated by dividing the staff
height by 4. A typical space height is 5pt, this is with a staff height of
20pt (7mm).
3. Vertically position the text items
Tempo text has a default position of 3 spaces above the middle line. This is
set in the default positions dialog (not the edit text style dialog as you
might expect). If there is nothing above the top line of the top staff, this
will be fine. However, if there was a note of C6 (second line above), the
tempo text will need moving up to a higher position. A safe place would be 6
spaces away from the middle. You can do this by selecting the tempo text and
pressing Ctrl+UpArrow three times. Unfortunately, you will not be told the
vertical off-set because the properties is only displaying 0 in the y
coordinate box.
4. Top edge of text
Before positioning the composers name you need to know where the top edge of
the tempo text is. You do this by converting the point size of the tempo
text font into line spaces and adding it to the vertical off-set of the
tempo text.
The font size is found in the edit text style dialog. Select tempo and then
press edit. The first page of the dialog that opens shows the point size.
The first size box is for the full size and the second for the parts.
If the space is 5pt and the font size is 13pt, the size in spaces is 13/5 =
2.6. So, the top of the tempo text is the vertical off-set + the height in
spaces. 6 + 2.6 = 8.6.
Add a line space for good clearance and this gives you the vertical off-set
of the composer text. You can either change the default position or find the
existing default position and use the arrow keys to push it up to the new
position. In this case, 10 spaces should be safe.
You now have to repeat the process for the title text. In brief.
(a) Composer text is 11pt. 11 / 5 == 2.2 spaces.
(b) Top of composer text is 10 + 2.2 = 12.2.
(c) Position title text at 13 spaces (0.8 spaces for clearance.
5. Fix the top staff margin.
The top staff margin has to be set so that there is enough room for all of
the above. The title text was positioned at 13 spaces above the middle line.
This is 11 spaces above the top line of the top staff (2 spaces for the
fourth and fifth lines). However, the title text is 22pt (4.4 spaces) and
this needs to be considered. So finally, the top of the title is 11+4.4 =
15.4 spaces above the top line of the top staff. For safety, let's call it
16 spaces.
The top staff margin is stated in points so we need to convert it. 16 *5 =
80pt.
If you think this looks like a lot, 80 pt is about 1.1 inches.
Simple isn't it!
Dan Rugman
*****
Information from the Sibelius User Manual
Changing the page settings
Choose Layout > Document Setup (shortcut Ctrl+D or XD). You can then adjust
the page size,
page shape and staff size, as detailed below.
The preview shows how the first page will look with the settings you've
chosen; click the arrows to
look through subsequent pages.
When you click OK, the score will be instantly reformatted using the new
measurements. (If you
don't like how it ends up, just choose Edit > Undo!)
Paper sizes
The Paper size list includes the following US and European paper sizes
(although you can specify
any width or height you like):
Letter 8.5 x 11" 216 x 279mm
Tabloid 11 x 17" 279 x 432mm (sometimes known as "B" size)
A5 5.9 x 8.3" 149 x 210mm (A4 folded in half)
B5 6.9 x 9.8" 177 x 250mm
A4 8.3 x 11.7" 210 x 297mm
B4 9.8 x 13.9" 250 x 354mm
A3 11.7 x 16.5" 297 x 420mm (twice as big as A4)
Band 5 x 7" 127 x 178mm (usually landscape format)
Statement 5.5 x 8.5" 140 x 216mm
Hymn 5.75" x 8.25" 146 x 205mm
Octavo 6.75 x 10.5" 171 x 267mm
Executive 7.25 x 10.5" 184 x 266mm
Quarto 8.5 x 10.8" 215 x 275mm
Concert 9 x 12" 229 x 305mm
Folio 8.5 x 13" 216 x 330mm
Legal 8.5 x 14" 216 x 356mm
Part 9.5 x 12.5" 241 x 317mm
Part 10 x 13" 254 x 330mm
(The terms "Octavo" and "Quarto" refer to various other paper sizes too.)
You can switch between inches, millimeters and points using the buttons
provided. 1 inch =
25.4mm (absolutely exactly), 1mm = 0.0397 inches (almost exactly), and 1
point = exactly 1/72
inch = 0.353mm (approximately).
Here are some recommended paper and staff sizes:
* Keyboard, songs, solo instrument: Letter/A4, 0.25-0.3"/6-7mm staves
* Orchestral/band scores: Letter/Tabloid/A4/A3, 0.1-0.2"/3-5mm staves
* Parts: Letter/Concert/A4/B4, 0.25-0.3"/6-7mm staves
* Choral music: Letter/A4 or smaller, 0.2"/5mm staves
* Books for beginners: Letter/A4, 0.3-0.4"/8-10mm staves
All these page sizes are portrait format; landscape format is seldom used,
except for organ, marching band and brass band music. You'll find that
published music often doesn't correspond exactly
to any standard paper size.
Document Setup
Staff size
The staff size is the distance from the center of the top staff line to the
center of the bottom staff
line. Everything in a score is scaled to be in proportion to the staff
size - notes, clefs, text, etc.
You can either type in a staff size or click the little arrows to change it
in small steps. Click and
hold the little arrows and watch the preview to see the effect of the staves
growing and shrinking.
Although staff sizes vary considerably, you should take care to set one
appropriate to the kind of
music you are writing. In general, if you set the staff size too small the
performers will feel uncomfortable without necessarily knowing quite why.
See above for recommended paper and staff sizes.
Sibelius won't change the staff size without your permission, so with lots
of instruments on a
small page the staves may have to squash very close together (or even
overlap!). To alleviate this,
simply pick a smaller staff size (or a larger page size).
Page margins
You can also set the page margins on the Layout > Document Setup dialog.
Music can go right
up to the page margins, but not outside.
To make these margins visible in the score (as dashed blue lines), choose
View > Page Margins.
Your score can have the Same margins on left- and right-facing pages
(recommended for single-
sided printing), Mirrored margins (sometimes called "inside" and "outside"
margins), or Different
margins on left- and right-facing pages. The top and bottom margins are
always identical on
left- and right-facing pages.
Specifically, the margins are defined as follows (if Same is chosen):
* Top margin: where the top of the page number normally goes, if it's at the
top of the page
* Bottom margin: where the bottom of the page number normally goes, if it's
at the bottom of the
page
* Left margin: the left-hand side of the leftmost instrument name
* Right margin: the right-hand end of the staves.
Staff margins
Staff margins control the distance between the top and bottom staves on a
page and the top and
bottom page margins, and also the distance between the left-hand page margin
and the left-hand
side of the system. This allows you to set the default position of the
staves on the page.
It is common to require different top and bottom staff margins on the first
page of a score, to
accommodate things like the title and the name of the composer at the top,
and copyright or publisher details at the bottom. Fortunately this is easily
done:
Type the staff margins you want to use for the first page of music in the
score into the boxes on the
left, then switch on After first page and type the values you want to use
for subsequent pages into
the boxes underneath the checkbox.
For the left-hand margin there are three different values, depending on
whether the staves have
full instrument names, short instrument names (e.g. after the first page) or
no instrument names.
(Settings for instrument names may be found on the Instruments page of the
House Style >
Engraving Rules dialog
These values update automatically if you change the staff size or change the
length of the instrument names themselves (e.g. by editing an existing name,
adding new instruments, or creating an
instrument change). You can't specify these separately for different pages
in the score, as they
update based on the width of the longest instrument name used in the entire
score.
Changing Document Setup partway through a score
You cannot change the page size, orientation or staff size partway through a
score, but you can
change the page and staff margins at any point using special page breaks
System objects
Some objects apply to all the staves in a system, not any particular staff,
and are called "system
objects." System objects are colored purple when you select them. Typical
examples of system
objects are titles, tempo marks, rehearsal marks and 1st and 2nd endings
(1st-/2nd-time bars).
Although these objects appear at the top of a system (and are sometimes
duplicated lower down as
well), they really refer to every staff in the system. For instance, they
should go into every instrumental part, not just the instrument at the top
of the score.
Some menus and dialogs distinguish between staff and system objects. For
instance, on the
Create > Text menu, the text styles that are system objects are listed below
the staff objects.
To adjust which staves system objects appear above, see System Object
Positions in
b 7.11 Default Positions.
Putting objects in weird places
Occasionally you may want to put a piece of text or other object somewhere
far from the music,
such as off into a margin. It is fine to do this so long as you bear in mind
that all objects are
attached to the music, rather than being fixed to a particular point on the
paper. For example, staff
objects in the margin are usually attached to the nearest bar in the nearest
staff, and will stay a
fixed distance from that bar.
If the music reformats, the bar will move somewhere else and so the object
could end up in an
even weirder place than you anticipated. So you may want to lock the format
of the system or page
to stop it from reformatting;
House StyleT
Exactly how a printed score looks is defined by its house style; different
publishers have their own
house styles, and Sibelius allows you to modify the house style of your
scores to an almost unlimited degree.
Aspects of a house style include:
* Engraving Rules options - see below
* Text styles
* Symbol fonts and designs
* Notehead designs
* Instrument definitions and ensembles
* Line designs
* Object positions
* Note spacing rule
* Document setup (e.g. page and staff size)
* Playback dictionary words
* Default Multiple Part Appearance settings
Most of these may be edited from the House Style menu.
Predefined house styles
When creating a new score or importing a house style (see below), you can
choose from a list of
ready-made house styles depending on the type of music and the overall look
you want to give the
score.
Each house style name says the type of music it's for (e.g. jazz), the music
font used (Opus, Helsinki, Reprise or Inkpen2) and optionally the text font
(Times, Georgia or Arial). Opus is a standard-
looking music font, Helsinki is more traditional, and Reprise and Inkpen2
are handwritten.
Times is a very standard text font, Georgia is a less common (and perhaps
more traditional-looking) serif font, and Arial (also called Helvetica) is a
modern sans serif font, for a much more contemporary
(and perhaps less elegant) look. The Reprise house styles all use Reprise
for the text as
well as the music; similarly, Inkpen2 house styles all use Inkpen2 for the
text too.
The types of music are as follows:
* Standard - the style used by the Blank manuscript paper; suitable for most
kinds of music
* Jazz - as Standard but with winged repeat barlines and all articulations
above the staff, as used
in jazz music
* Keyboard - for solo keyboard music. Same as Standard but with dynamics
exactly between the
hands, no instruments names, no staff justification.
* Larger notes - as Standard but with an alternative notehead shape that
follows the design recommendations of the US Music Publishers Association
* Lead sheet - same as Jazz but with initial barlines drawn on single-line
systems
* Vocal - for vocal and choral music. Same as Standard but with dynamics
above the staff, no
system separators, centered instrument names.
We recommend you make a note of the Layout > Document Setup (page size,
staff size and margins) settings of your score before importing them into
existing scores. Then import the house
style including the Engraving Rules and Document Setup settings; this will
set your score to use
A4 paper and 6mm staves, so after importing, change the Layout > Document
Setup settings
back to how they were previously.
Reprise and Inkpen2 house styles
The Reprise house styles have a lot of special settings. For example,
rehearsal marks appear boxed
with a drop shadow, titles use a special rubber stamp font called Reprise
Title (in which all the
characters are capitals, but typing lower and upper case produces the same
letter form with different imperfections), while the instrument names at the
top left-hand corner of the first page of
dynamic parts use another rubber stamp font called Reprise Stamp. You can
also add special
curved brackets to text instructions above or below the staff - see Add
Brackets to Reprise
Script on page 426.
The Inkpen2 house styles aren't quite as dramatic as Reprise, but you may
prefer the slightly
thicker characters in Inkpen2 over the characters of Reprise, which look
like they were drawn with
a thinner nib. Other lines, such as staff lines, barlines, slurs and so on,
are also thicker in general
in the Inkpen2 house styles than in the Reprise house styles.
When using one of the Reprise or Inkpen2 handwritten house styles, to get a
really authentic look
as you work on your score, why not change the paper texture to Paper, white
crumpled on the
Textures page in File > Preferences (in the Sibelius menu on Mac).
For keyboard music, try printing with Substitute Braces switched off in the
File > Print dialog
(shortcut Ctrl+P or XP), to make braces look hand-drawn (as they do on the
screen). However,
this won't work with some printers.
Similarly, for parts, try switching on Draw H-bar using a symbol on the Bar
Rests page of
House Style > Engraving Rules (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+E or xXE) to make
multirests look hand-
drawn, though some printer drivers have bugs in which may prevent this
printing correctly (and
in extreme cases may even cause a crash).
Dave
Oregonian, woodworker, Engineer, Musician, and Pioneer
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dmitry Budnikov" <6021635@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <sib-access@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2017 08:24
Subject: [sib-access] decreasing the top margin and increasing distance
between staves
Hello all!
I have two small problems in which I need your help.
First, I need to decrease the top margin of the pages in my score in order
to provide more place on the paper for laying out the music. I suppose that
it is somewhere around in the document setup dialog but for some unknown
reason Jaws refuses to tell me names of most edit fields in that dialog, so
I cannot workaround what exactly I need to change. Could someone tell me
which edit field corresponds to which margin?
The second problem is that in my orchestral score some items of the harp
staff collide with ones on the first violins. This problem occurs quite
often throughout the score, so I want to try to change the distance between
harp and violins globally in whole score. I am currently looking throught
Sibelius user guide but still didnâ?Tt find a solution. Could somebody point
me in the right direction?
Many thanks.
Dmitry
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