Sibelius - the leading music composition and notation software

Some musicians have asked whether I can highlight their repeat marks in yellow? When I try, Sibelius (Ultimate, not 8.x) chooses the first or last beat in the bar to highlight, and dragging it outside does not allow it.

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Bob Zawalich - 16 May 03:37PM

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There was a bug involving highlighting in the early 2018 versions, and I believe it was fixed in 2018.4. So I would make sure I had 2018.4.1 if possible.

If you have that, could you show a screenshot explaining exactly what is happening?

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Bob

An experienced user of Sibelius. Sib 1.2 - 8, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, 32 G RAM. Year 2018.
For plugin lookup and categories see https://www.nycmusicservices.com/musicresources
For manual plugin installation see http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugins/index.html?help=install

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Robin Walker - 16 May 03:45PM

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I think the issue might be that you can only highlight a passage-selection, and a repeat-mark, being a barline, cannot of itself constitute a passage.

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Sibelius 2018.4.1/7.5.1/7.1.3/6.2/5.2.5, PhotoScore Ult 8.8.2, Dolet 6.6 for Sibelius, Windows 10 64-bit 16GB. Desktop, and Microsoft Surface Book.

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Pete Shaw - 16 May 03:58PM

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Blast. I shall have to tell them to do it on their own scores with a highlighter pen.

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Bob Zawalich - 16 May 08:36PM

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If it is start/repeat/end repeat barlines you are interested in, you can at least color them. You can use the Filter Other plugin to filter either all special barlines, or separately the start and end repeat barlines, and Special Barline objects can be colored, as was recently pointed out in this post: http://www.rpmseattle.com/of_note/how-to-create-colored-barlines-in-sibelius/

There it is pointed out that while you cannot color a normal "default" barline, you can color Special Barline objects, and Start/Repeat objects are always Special Barlines. Colored barlines stand out pretty well in a dark color. Red is great, Yellow is poor.

--
Bob

An experienced user of Sibelius. Sib 1.2 - 8, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, 32 G RAM. Year 2018.
For plugin lookup and categories see https://www.nycmusicservices.com/musicresources
For manual plugin installation see http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugins/index.html?help=install

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snap1.png (45K)

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Pete Shaw - 16 May 09:21PM

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Just the ticket, thanks!

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Nigel Gray - 18 May 03:29PM (edited 18 May 03:32PM)

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The colouring bar lines procedure can be achieved in Sib 6.2 if that is the version you have (the Blog link given states that you need Sib 7).

Download the ‘Barline Tool’ plug-in from the Avid website and then choose the option to change all the bar lines in the score to ‘Normal’. The user can then select any individual bar line type that requires colouring by using the Ctrl J (Cmd J) operator.

Admittedly, all the bar lines in your score are now ‘Special Barlines’, but if that doesn’t cause an issue in your arrangement then it works fine.
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Sibelius 7.1.3. Sibelius 6.2 Photoscore Ultimate 5.5.1 Acer laptop i7 Quad Core 2.2GHz - Windows 7, 8GB Ram.

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Bob Zawalich - 19 May 01:49AM

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Prior to 8.7, Normal Special Barlines, like any other special barline, break multirests and are likely to disrupt parts. Use this very carefully.

We have probably been able to color special barlines since Sib version 1, or even earlier.
--
Bob

An experienced user of Sibelius. Sib 1.2 - 8, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, 32 G RAM. Year 2018.
For plugin lookup and categories see https://www.nycmusicservices.com/musicresources
For manual plugin installation see http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugins/index.html?help=install

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Bob Zawalich - 17 May 01:21AM

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A totally meaningless inquiry into how to make a passage selection of a special barline is presented as a screenshot...

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Bob

An experienced user of Sibelius. Sib 1.2 - 8, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, 32 G RAM. Year 2018.
For plugin lookup and categories see https://www.nycmusicservices.com/musicresources
For manual plugin installation see http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugins/index.html?help=install

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snap1.png (62K)

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Pete Shaw - 17 May 06:59AM

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It may be meaningless to you, Bob, but when you have a shedload of finicky musicians to care for, Ctrl J is just the answer. Thanks, as usual.

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Bob Zawalich - 17 May 09:39AM

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No, no, I did not mean at all that what you wanted to do was meaningless, and I am glad you have something that works. Sorry you read it that way.

What I was describing as meaningless was my attempt to figure out how to highlight a barline, since Robin said it could not be done ;)

So you actually can force a passage selection onto a barline and then add a highlight, but it appears to have a negative duration, thus the effect is meaningless.

Sorry to sow confusion.

--
Bob

An experienced user of Sibelius. Sib 1.2 - 8, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, 32 G RAM. Year 2018.
For plugin lookup and categories see https://www.nycmusicservices.com/musicresources
For manual plugin installation see http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugins/index.html?help=install

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Pete Shaw - 17 May 11:32AM

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No probs - it made me laugh.

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Nigel Gray - 19 May 11:04AM

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What Sib really needs to do is allow the user to filter for repeat bars only throughout the whole score and then place a colour highlighted rectangle behind it - just as it would be if you’d used a highlighter pen.

I transfer a lot of Sib scores to ForScore and I have to use the Annotations function in that program to give me what I actually require.

I’m sure this is not beyond the realms of the Sib programmers.

Question for Bob Z - Is this capability out of scope for a plugin?

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Sibelius 7.1.3. Sibelius 6.2 Photoscore Ultimate 5.5.1 Acer laptop i7 Quad Core 2.2GHz - Windows 7, 8GB Ram.

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Bob Zawalich - 19 May 05:05PM

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It is really tricky to put objects near barlines. They tend to change size depending on context and at the ends of systems they tend to pop over into the next bar.

Try making a passage selection of the notes right before and after a barline and then drag it around and change its size. Even if you get it right once, changes in formatting can throw it off. Adding or removing notes in a bar can affect the highlight, for example.

Coloring is really much more reliable. Is it not visible enough?

Once can certainly filer special barlines. Filter Other and Filter Objects in Bar can do it, for example. The trick is placing an object like a highlight or a box line and having it stay in a good place.

--
Bob

An experienced user of Sibelius. Sib 1.2 - 8, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, 32 G RAM. Year 2018.
For plugin lookup and categories see https://www.nycmusicservices.com/musicresources
For manual plugin installation see http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugins/index.html?help=install

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Bob Zawalich - 19 May 05:48PM

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Turns out you can do a pretty good job if you create a custom vertical line that is pretty wide, like 3 spaces.

The screenshot shows the process of adding the line to the score,
passage selecting bars that contain the special barlines, running Add Fake Barlines to Bar with the custom line, then while the lines are selected coloring them and sending them back in order.

A bit laborious and not fully automatable in a plugin because it can't create a custom line, and you may need to tinker with the positioning depending on the barine type, but it sort of works.

--
Bob

An experienced user of Sibelius. Sib 1.2 - 8, Windows 10 Pro 64 bit, 32 G RAM. Year 2018.
For plugin lookup and categories see https://www.nycmusicservices.com/musicresources
For manual plugin installation see http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugins/index.html?help=install

Attachment

Highlight special barlines.png (84K)

Re: Highlighting repeat marks
Posted by Nigel Gray - 19 May 07:31PM

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Very industrious of you Bob to fathom out that solution, but as you say, it’s a bit laborious, so until the Sib programmers realise that a lot of musicians like to do this sort of thing, I’ll continue to do it the way I do it now - because it’s quick and easy!

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Sibelius 7.1.3. Sibelius 6.2 Photoscore Ultimate 5.5.1 Acer laptop i7 Quad Core 2.2GHz - Windows 7, 8GB Ram.

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Messages in this thread

Highlighting repeat marks - Pete Shaw, 16 May 02:15PM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Bob Zawalich, 16 May 03:37PM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Robin Walker, 16 May 03:45PM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Pete Shaw, 16 May 03:58PM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Bob Zawalich, 16 May 08:36PM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Pete Shaw, 16 May 09:21PM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Nigel Gray, 18 May 03:29PM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Bob Zawalich, 19 May 01:49AM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Bob Zawalich, 17 May 01:21AM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Pete Shaw, 17 May 06:59AM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Bob Zawalich, 17 May 09:39AM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Pete Shaw, 17 May 11:32AM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Nigel Gray, 19 May 11:04AM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Bob Zawalich, 19 May 05:05PM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Bob Zawalich, 19 May 05:48PM

Re: Highlighting repeat marks - Nigel Gray, 19 May 07:31PM