The Options menu

Items followed by an ellipsis (...) lead to dialog windows with further information. For all others, options with a checkmark are "on" - choosing a menu item toggles its setting on or off.

Sound options.

Sound and MIDI Settings.. Not needed unless you need to make some adjustments to a MIDI setup.

Set Tempo... Or, press command-T (Crtl-t on Windows) to use the tempo dialog.

Set Temperament... Temperaments are ways of dividing up the octave. The modern standard is Equal Temperament, in which the octave is divided into twelve equal steps. These can be used only with the sampled instruments. The pipe organ probably is the best one for hearing the subtle differences in tuning.

Metronome channel/instrument/volume Normally you don't need to change this. On a standard "General MIDI" device the percussion channel is 10 and the metronome sounds are already chosen appropriately when the program is first installed. But this does let you change those settings if you have a non standard device of some kind.

Use applause at level finish if requested by activity. If an activity designer has set the "play applause at pass" feature for a particular activity you can still keep the applause from sounding if this option is checkmarked. Most of the current activities don't use applause, which on certain Windows computers can sometimes keep playing until you quit.

Use ding sound at level finish if requested by activity. Another option that can be set by an activity designer is to play a "ding" when a level is passed. This option would disable that, too, if you really want silence.

Use "error" and "correct" sounds if requested by activity. In certain activities the designer may have requested that the program make a sound when an answer is correct and another when it is not. The "correct" sound is a light cymbal tap, the error is a "whoop" - both of these are part of the standard MIDI percussive sounds. But you can disable them if you wish.

Set chord volume... If you are writing a composition that uses audible chord symbols you can use this command to adjust the sound level of all the chords at once. Another way to do it is to individually select chords and press command-i (ctrl-i on Windows) to see the information window for the chord, each of which has an independent volume control.

Set staff note volume... Use this to set the volume of all or selected notes in the currently active staff, or alternatively to set the volume for all staves at once, including the default volume setting for new staves.

Keyboard options.

Plain piano.Display the standard piano keys. The comma and period keys can be used to lower or raise its range by an octave, and the small yellow triangle above the keys tells you the location of middle C.

Guitar fretboard. Replaces the piano with a representation of a guitar fretboard. To play open strings, click on the string to the right of the last fret (just past the double-dot octave marker).

Enharmonic keyboard. This is very convenient if you like to enter music using the mouse and screen piano. Each clave is divided so that you can explicitly choose, say, D# instead of Eb, or E# instead of F.

Labeled keys. Puts names to the keys!

Staff keyboard. Draws a staff running across the keyboard, with the note displayed for each clave.

Set keyboard volume. Adjust the volume of the live keyboard. This is really "MIDI attack velocity" if you're using QuickTime or synthesizer or MIDI output. MIDI attack volume is not the same thing as a volume knob - it refers to the speed with which a pianist's fingers strike the keys. On most MIDI devices a higher MIDI attack velocity will produce a harsher tone as well as louder sound. If all you want is more volume, it's better to use an external speaker that has an amplifier volume knob.

Display and menu options.

Hide desktop. If you were using the program on a computer with a very large screen an then went to a smaller one and can't find the keyboard this will put it back in its normal position. But you can move it anywhere by using the arrow tool to drag the window by its upper edge. Remember also that you can hide the keyboard with command-k (crtl-k on Windows) and the same command will make it appear again if hidden.

Include subfolders in activity menu. Normally the activity menu will display the complete structure of your Activities folder. That is, there will be popup menu for each folder inside the activity folder, and further popup menus for any folders within those folders, and so on. This option is normally on so that you have easy access to every activity contained in the activity folder. But if you turn it off the program will launch faster on slow older computers.

Hide desktop.(Mac only). Having the desktop hidden makes it easier to avoid accidentally clicking out of the program. On Windows computers you can show the desktop by minimizing the program's main window (the one holding the menu bar).

Display Tool Tips. With this option checked, holding the mouse over a tool on the screen piano or the editing window will produce a small text box that identifies the tool and its purpose. If you know how everything works you can turn this off.

Listening options.

Scroll as smoothly as possible during play. This is really the best, and looks good, particularly on a Macintosh computer (scrolling on PCs will also look good with this setting, but the glide is not quite as smooth). There is a limit, though, in the computer's ability to smoothly scroll a very long file. If your file passes that length limit the program will switch this setting to "scroll a screen at a time".

Scroll a screen at a time during play. The screen will jump when the play position gets near the right side of the window.

Observe repeats and first/second endings.For just proofing your piece you may not want to observe repeats. But for playing along with it you'll want this to be on.

Tick a bar-for-nothing at the start of play You'll need this if you want to play along with the piece - gets you into the tempo before it begins.

Student file options.

Remember keyboard position. That is, remember where you last placed the onscreen piano. Next time you start the program the piano will move back to that position.

Remember last adjusted window size. If you've been resizing the music window for some reason of your own, this will make new windows appear the same way next time you start the program.

Remember last activity folder location Normally would be "on," especially if you're using an activity folder outside the Practica Musica folder. But the program will in any case use the Activities folder that's in the Practica Musica folder if this is not set.

Enter or change WebStudents account name.WebStudents is Ars Nova's online backup servive for student files, which enables professors to find your report at the Ars Nova site even if you've been using the program in various different locations at home and at school. For example, you can use the program on a laptop while on the train, and next time you use it with an internet connection Practica Musica will fetch your file at WebStudents and combine it with the report on your laptop so that nothing is lost and the one at WebStudents is up-to-date. Since version 5.021 students can also save music files in their personal area at WebStudents for later viewing by an instructor. More information is at Ars Nova's WebStudents page..

Include Skill Graphs in progress reports. The new Skill Graphs in version 5 add to the usefulness of the progress report, particularly in cases where an activity has a small number of points required but sets you back considerably at any error. The Skill Graph gives you an idea of how your performance has been changing over time, based on the percentage of correct answers relative to the number of problems attempted. A rising graph will generally indicate increasing skill, though you can expect some "bumps in the road" if the activity is one that introduces more difficult material as your score gets higher. The Skill Graph also includes the date of first use of that activity, together with the date of the most recent work.

Music editing options.These options are available only when in a writing activity.

Autoposition staff items. Almost always should be left "on." The only time you'd turn this off is if you were editing a very large music file and found that editing was getting slow because of the time taken to reposition staff items after each change.

Justify right (normally off during editing). This is normally off because with justify "on" you will find that every now and then staff symbols will jump to the right as a measure gets "bumped" down to the next line, which can be distracting. If you forget to turn it back on before printing, the program will remind you.

Remain in chosen track. If writing multiple voices on one staff you might find it convenient to turn this on as you enter a secondary voice, just so that the program won't automatically switch to a different voice as you pass the end of the previously-written music. See the above link for more information on multiple voices in one staff - usually in Practica Musica you'll just write one melody on each staff, but you can do more if desired.

Instructor options.These options are accessible in the Standard and Site Editions but only if you are signed in as the instructor.

Create or Edit an activity You can create new learning activities or alter almost anything about an existing one.

View individual student reports This displays a progress report window for the selected student - the same type of report window the student sees when viewing a progress report. You'll be asked to choose which student files to view.

Print individual student reports. Prints the same reports you see with the above command.

Prepare class report. This kind of report includes the work of every student in a chosen student folder, and goes into more detail. Each group report covers specifically one chosen level of one chosen activity, and for each student reports the scores, times, and error counts for each of the six "sublevels" in the activity. If an activity is set up so that each sublevel contains different types of material, you can see from this which material is giving the most trouble.

An option in the Class Report window allows you to export report data to a spreadsheet or a database program such as FileMaker. You can see the format of that data here.

Clear student passwords. Because students will sometimes forget them. This clears the password of selected files.

Set server location. This is useful if you have the program installed on multiple workstations and want to keep just the student files on a central fileserver. It also can be used on campus-wide networks if students have personal "Student Edition CDs" and you'd like to direct the program to keep their student files on a central networked server. For more details please see Organizing student files.

Create new student files. You'll be asked to enter an authorization number (or nothing if you only need the 4 files provided with the Standard Edition) and then you'll be asked to open any file in the destination folder. The usual file dialog will appear, and you should navigate to the desired Practica Musica Students folder, whereever it happens to be, select any file it contains, and press the Open button. This of course requires that you initially have a file already present in the student folder - typically this will be the instructor file, or the visitor file if this is a site license, or any other student file that's already present. The program will then know to place the newly created files in the same place as the one you chose. More information is here.

Enter or change WebStudents account. If you have a WebStudents account you can enter one in this window and then use the "Save settings for all students" command to automatically enter that account in all the student files using this copy of Practica Musica.

Display "paused" alert after period of inactivity. In a school lab it may happen that a student will leave a computer with the program still running and his or her student file still "signed in." This option will help to warn the next student that a previous one is still signed in, so that the new student will know to sign in under the correct name. The "paused" alert displays a button with the name of the signed-in student and another that one can use to change to a new student. If you are using the program in a private setting this option is not needed.

Save current option and account settings for all students. This saves the current settings to the Practica Musica Preferences file in the Practica Musica Folder, and also instructs the program to override the personal preferences of every student using this copy of the program. The next time a student launches this copy of Practica Musica that student's personal file will adopt the settings you have chosen, including the WebStudents account name if any. Thereafter the student can again modify personal preferences as desired, but this is a good way to get everyone on the same page.

View music saved by students at WebStudents. If your students have access to a class WebStudents account they can save music files there for you to view and hear with this command. This is useful if you've given them a writing assignment of some kind. When viewing a file you can also save a copy of it locally if you wish. When you use this command you'll see a list that gives the name of each student file whose owner has saved one or more music files, and you can pick the one you want to check. When you do that the program will display the files contained in that student's personal area. If no students have saved music files you'll see the message "There are no music files in that account." You are not allowed to delete music files with this command, but students can delete them any time they wish. You can also manage these files when you access WebStudents via a web browser.

Save these settings for all students. Your settings are automatically saved in your personal student file, but this command can be used to give those same settings to all other students using the same copy of the program. This command can be used only by the person signed in as "instructor" but we placed it here so it would be easy to see.

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