New. Create a new Songworks music file.
The File menu
New. Create a new Songworks music file.
Open music stored locally... Open a Songworks music file.
Open music at Ars Nova's online library... Open a Songworks music file stored online at Ars Nova. This
gives you direct access to Ars Nova's online library - you don't have to use a browser to download the file and expand it, just open it with this command.
If you want to you can save the file on your local computer after you open it.
Import MIDI file... Use this to open a MIDI file exported
from any notation program that exports music as a MIDI file. Some caveats: files that work well are those
exported from notation programs, especially if they are of the type that puts the music of each staff into a
separate MIDI "track." Songworks will create a separate staff for each MIDI track in the file. MIDI files created
by recording a "live" performance will not work well for input because they will not have an even tempo.
Import ABC Notation... ABC is a text-based notation system. For a full
explanation see ABC Notation.
Window. Displays a list of music windows currently
open. You can choose from among these if you have many windows open and want to bring a particular one
forward.
Close. Close the frontmost music window.
Save. Save the frontmost music window.
Save as... Save the frontmost music window under a different name (creates a
new file under the new name).
Set or change file password. Normally you won't need this, but
with a password you can keep a file from being opened by someone else, or optionally from being changed by someone else.
Export MIDI file... This will create a "standard MIDI file" of the current
music window's contents. A MIDI file is not a substitute for a Songworks notation file - MIDI files contain only note lists and note times, and
do not contain your notation, lyrics, etc. But many programs can read a MIDI file and interpret the notes to create a version of the notation. You can
also use this command as the first step in creating an MP3 file of your music.
Export picture file... Exports a series of PICTs (Macintosh) or "enhanced metafiles" (Windows)
that can be imported into a page layout program for publishing purposes. One image is created for each staff system on the printed page. The images
are similar to those created by the Take a Picture command (Score menu) except that instead of covering just a selected area they include the
entire piece. You might ask: why not just use the computer's built-in feature of taking a screen image of the music? The answer is that a "screen
shot" picture from the computer will be a "bit image" - which means it is composed of dots each about 1/72" square. But a Macintosh PICT or a Windows
"meta file" (!) is a series of recorded drawing commands rather than a collection of dots - an image of this type can print at the highest
resolution of your printer. Curved items will be smooth rather than chunky.
Export sound file (AIFF format)... This will produce a file that contains actual 16-bit sound data.
A file of this type can be imported into something like Apple's iTunes and burned to a CD, creating a disc that will play in a standard CD player. The
hitch is that the sounds can only be those of the sampled instruments. Now that both Windows and Macintosh computers have
easily available methods to convert MIDI files to MP3 or other sound formats, most often you'll want to export a MIDI file instead and follow our
instructions for creating an mp3 file.
Page setup... Needed before any print or print preview.
Print... Prints the current music. You should first use the page preview command to see what the
layout will be, and then adjust the music as necessary. In particular you might want to use the Score Height Control to adjust spacing of staff systems.
Page preview... See what your music will look like in printed form. You can leave a preview window open
while making changes in the edit window.
Quit. Does just what you think.