459: Bugs fixed in Sibelius 4

The following problems from earlier versions of Sibelius have been fixed in Sibelius 4:

Arrange

• Arrange no longer adds dynamics to staves to which it adds no notes.

Articulations

• It's now possible to drag articulations above rests independently of the rests themselves (this does not apply to bar rests).

Barlines

• Start repeat barlines at the start of the system are now spaced correctly and do not collide with key signatures etc.

Beams

• Sibelius is now able to correctly determine the stem direction of all notes under a beam, enabling improvements in note spacing (in particular, in cases where Sibelius does not allow enough space because it expects the stem is pointing in the opposite direction to that in which it would point if it were unbeamed), ties (which no longer appear to flip over page breaks as you drag the score around), and magnetic slurs (which no longer flip over page breaks).
• Except in extreme circumstances, the angle of a beam will no longer change as the spacing expands and contracts.
• Beamed dotted rhythms on the same pitch (e.g. dotted eighth followed by sixteenth) will now always produce flat beams.
• Dragging the left-hand end of the beam now drags the entire beam.
• One of the improvements of Optical beam positions is that cross-staff beams now use flat beams by default.
• Deleting a rest at the start of a bar that begins with a group of beamed notes no longer causes Sibelius to beam the notes to a beamed group at the end of the previous bar.

Chord diagrams

• It's now possible to switch off the Use custom chord symbol option when editing a chord diagram.

Document Setup

• Page numbers no longer appear justified to the wrong edge of the page in the preview window of the Layout > Document Setup dialog.

Edit Staff Types

• Clicking a note in the Percussion page of Edit Staff Type now plays it back through the chosen playback device.
• The enharmonic spelling chosen for the Tuning / Key signature option for guitar tab staff types is now correctly saved, and will not change when the score is re-opened.
• Renaming an existing staff type or creating a new one now correctly updates the Create > Other > Staff Type Change menus as appropriate.

Edit Text Styles

• The list of text styles in House Style > Edit Text Styles now correctly shows the last-edited text style when finishing editing a text style, rather than showing the very top of the list.
• Switching on Draw at top/bottom of page on the Vertical Posn tab of Edit Text Style now correctly disables the Multiple positions checkboxes immediately, rather than requiring you to re-open the dialog.

Exporting audio

• Sibelius no longer crashes when entering a long pathname or filename in File > Export > Audio (Mac only).

Exporting MIDI files

• MIDI files exported from scores that use Rubato no longer exhibit all kinds of bizarre effects, e.g. missing notes, hundreds of extra bars, etc.
• When exporting MIDI files, if user has written any system text items that change the Rhythmic feel settings, the resulting MIDI file no longer ignores the initial Rhythmic feel setting chosen in Play > Performance.
• Some scores would cause Sibelius to crash or hang indefinitely when exporting a MIDI file, due to a problem whereby the tempo was not being correctly initialized for each track; this is now fixed.

Files

• The error message Sibelius cannot find the file that appears when launching Sibelius by double-clicking a score in Windows Explorer in Windows XP SP2 no longer occurs.
• Switching to a score (via the Window menu) that has been minimized to the Dock no longer causes all the floating windows and the toolbar to stop responding (Mac only).
• Scores recovered by auto-save now retain their original filename, rather than opening as Untitled.
• Numerous bugs with auto-save fixed.
• Sibelius now fully complies with Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for the use of file extensions when saving and exporting files.
• Canceling File > Quit with multiple files with unsaved changes open no longer causes Sibelius to close, losing the changes in the remaining open files.
• Trying to save a file that has the Read-only attribute set no longer causes that file to be deleted (Windows only).
• If a manuscript paper uses a custom page size, it is now created at the correct size from the File > New Score dialog.
• A problem with exporting Sibelius 2 files that would prevent Sibelius 2 from opening the exported files has now been fixed.
• Sibelius should no longer crash if the user tries to force it to do something while it is auto-saving in the background.

Flexi-time

• USB-connected MIDI keyboards (including several manufactured by Yamaha) no longer produce erratic results with Flexi-time input.
• When starting Flexi-time from the middle of a bar, the introductory click is no longer played at the wrong speed.

Graphics files

• The second half of a tie after a page break will no longer appear flipped in exported EPS files.
• Adobe Illustrator has a limit on the distance between two characters in the same text string. When opening EPS files created by Sibelius, it often interprets discrete items at the same Y position as being in the same text string, and if the distance between these items is greater than its maximum allowed distance, it truncates the distance at the limit, thus changing the appearance of the EPS file (e.g. bar rests in widely-spaced music may appear off-center as a result). EPS files saved from Sibelius 4 are now encoded in such a way that Illustrator will no longer interpret items at the same Y position as being in the same text string.

Guitar tab

• Tab numbers on small guitar tab staves are now correctly centered.
• Sibelius no longer crashes when pressing the left arrow key after inputting a note/chord in the last beat of the last bar of any system in a tab staff.

Hiding objects

• It is now possible to hide "fragments" of notes (e.g. accidentals, flags) correctly using the Hide/Show combo box on the General panel of Properties.

Keypad

• The flat button on the first Keypad layout (shortcut F8) now "illuminates" correctly when inputting a note with a flat following a rest.
• When switching between scores, the Keypad now updates to show the current selection.
• Changing the voice of a selected passage via the buttons at the bottom of the Keypad now works correctly, and no longer causes Sibelius to hang or crash.

Key signatures

• Atonal/Open key key signatures no longer cause spacing problems after special barlines (e.g. final barlines at the ends of movements).

Kontakt Player

• If user moves the mouse while Kontakt Player is loading a sound, the "mouse down" no longer gets trapped, resulting in things being dragged all over the place by accident.
• When using MIDI thru to trigger sounds in Kontakt Player, Kontakt Player now uses the correct sounds.
• Changes to Mixer volume faders now apply to all slots associated with that staff, where more than one slot is required (e.g. for pizz./arco sounds).
• Setting Reverb to Dry in Play > Performance, then adjusting the Reverb knob in the Kontakt Player window no longer causes a crash.
• If a staff contains a program change MIDI message (e.g. ~P24), subsequent volume controller messages (e.g. ~C7,64) are no longer ignored.
• If reverb is set for a given staff in Sibelius, that reverb level is now used by all Kontakt Player slots associated with that staff.
• When Use same slot for identical sounds is switched off in Kontakt Player Options, selecting a staff in the Mixer no longer selects the wrong slot in the Kontakt Player window.
• When running Sibelius for the first time after upgrading Kontakt Player Silver to Kontakt Player Gold, Kontakt Player no longer gives the error This patch is incompatible with this program version when you try to play back your score.
• Kontakt Player can now play continuous glissandos (i.e. with pitch bend).
• Kontakt Player no longer crashes if it receives MIDI data while it's loading sounds.
• Sibelius no longer hangs if you start playback in a score using Kontakt Player where you have manually set two staves to use the same sound (Mac only).
• Numerous improvements to sounds in the Kontakt Player Silver and Gold sample libraries.
• The Output Routing feature in Kontakt Player now works correctly.
• Kontakt Player no longer crashes when accessing the ASIO Config dialog from the Audio Setup dialog (Windows only).

Lines

• Line styles that are in use in the score can no longer be deleted in the House Style > Edit Lines dialog.
• Lines that start with symbols (e.g. Ped., 8va) or text (e.g. rit./accel.) no longer have a large gap between the symbol and the start of the line when used on small staves.
• Text on lines (e.g. gliss.) on small staves no longer disappears before the line is to short to accommodate it.
• Lines that span more than one system or page break no longer disappear at high zoom levels.
• Lines that cross a page break that coincide with a clef change at the end of the page now draw correctly on both pages.
• When a system line (e.g. a 1st- or 2nd-ending line) starts at the end of the final bar of a system or page, it is now possible to drag the tiny fragment of the line at the end of the system onto the following system.

Lyrics

• Lyric syllables which are forced to be centered (because they are followed by hyphens) are now correcly treated as centered by the spacing code, not left-aligned as before, so hyphens will now appear correctly centered in this situation.
• Lyric items consisting of a single character no longer ever disappear when the user hits Space while editing (Mac only).
• Typing ' (apostrophe) no longer causes the lyric entry point to jump forward through the score (Mac only).
• When pasting lyrics from the clipboard, there’s no longer any need to hit - (hyphen) or Space twice inbetween pasting each syllable (Mac only).
• Lyric hyphens are now correctly centered when using Layout > Reset Position.
• Lyric hyphens are now correctly centered when a passage is selected and Layout > Reset Note Spacing is invoked.

ManuScript language

• Trying to access a NoteStyle that does not exist in the current score no longer causes a crash.
• Ordered comparisons on characters in ManuScript now work correctly.

Manuscript papers

• When using File > Export > Manuscript Paper, Sibelius will now warn you if you export a manuscript paper with the same name as an existing one.

Menus and Shortcuts

• Sibelius no longer crashes if the user types a shortcut for e.g. a text style that does not exist in the open score: instead, it gives a helpful error message.

MIDI devices

• Sibelius should no longer get stuck in the taskbar if another application tries to take ownership of the MIDI devices when Sibelius is in the background (Windows only).
• If the user chooses Apple's built-in IAC Bus as their default playback device on the Playback Devices page of Play > Playback and Input Devices, the IAC Bus cannot be selected as the input device on the Input Devices page of the dialog. This prevents creating a MIDI feedback loop (routing MIDI output and input to the same port) that crashes Sibelius (Mac only).

Mixer

• Deleting staves from the score now correctly updates the Mixer.
• When closing the Mixer, the focus is now always returned to the document window rather than remaining in an active text field in the Mixer (Mac only).
• Resizing the Mixer should never now make the control panel at the right-hand side of the window show the information for a fader other than the selected one.

Multirests

• Staff type changes no longer cause multirests to split. If a staff type change occurs after the first bar of the multirest, it takes effect immediately after the multirest.
• Transposition changes no longer split multirests if they are hidden, or if they are at the very end of the multirest, or if it doesn't change the prevailing key signature (e.g. if it transposes by an octave).
• Multirests are now ended by the end of a line, so that (e.g.) 2nd-ending lines that start at the start of a multirest will always be drawn. This prevents Sibelius from "swallowing" lines within multirests. Additionally, hidden system lines no longer cause multirests to split.

Music fonts

• Problem with the Inkpen2 Script font fixed, whereby the lower-case letters did not appear in exported EPS files.

Note input

• When changing the note value of a note causes the score to reformat, Sibelius now keeps the selected note in view.
• Extending a passage selection with the keyboard no longer causes the screen to move unnecessarily.
• End now always scrolls to the right-hand side of the final page, regardless of zoom level.
• When inputting notes with the mouse, Sibelius now scrolls the screen if the next input position is out of view.
• The order of deletion when using Backspace to delete the notes in a bar during note input is now improved, i.e. Sibelius only deletes notes in the current voice rather than switching between notes in every used voice.
• Inputting a note on top of a deleted rest no longer causes all other notes/rests earlier in the bar to be deleted.

Note spacing

• Deleting a clef no longer makes a mess of the note spacing in the clef's previous location.
• Adding a note to a chord using the numbers on the main keyboard now force spacing to be recalculated, in the same way that adding notes to a chord using Shift-letter does.

Opening MIDI files

• Tracks in MIDI files whose instrument cannot be identified when opening them in Sibelius no longer tend erroneously towards the bass clef.
• Tracks in MIDI files that use channel 10 are no longer always imported as a drum staff: if the MIDI file uses this sound set option is switched on, Sibelius will create a drum staff if the track is on the chosen sound set's default drum channel or matches the appropriate entry in the sound set; if MIDI file uses this sound set is switched off, Sibelius won't create a drum staff for tracks on channel 10, instead creating a default staff.
• Opening MIDI files is now substantially faster on Mac than in Sibelius 3.
• The quantization of tuplets has been substantially improved.
• The Play using this device menu now works correctly in the Open MIDI File dialog
• Lyrics in MIDI Type 0 files are now imported correctly.

Percussion

• It is now possible to input two different notehead types simultaneously on a percussion staff using step-time input.

Playback

• The playback line is now taller and so more easily visible when the only visible staff has fewer than 5 lines.
• Tied unisons (e.g. two notes of the same pitch notated in different voices) now play back correctly again.
• Switching off the Affect adjacent staff option in Play > Performance now works correctly.
• Sibelius no longer resets all channels in the score to 1 after changing from Kontakt Player to another playback device (Mac only).

Playback dictionary

• When creating a word in the Play > Dictionary dialog that uses a Named sound, Sibelius will now always store the chosen instrument.
• Sibelius no longer crashes when using the Move Up/Move Down buttons in the Play > Dictionary dialog to change the order of the words at the very bottom of the list.

Plug-ins

• Plug-ins > Accidentals > Add Cautionary Accidentals no longer gives a misleading error message about choosing a passage in a single key.
• Plug-ins > Notes and Rests > Make Pitches Constant no longer incorrectly changes the notehead type of notes in all voices.
• Plug-ins > Text > Add Tonic Sol-Fa no longer adds rhythmic markings even when Add rhythmic markings is switched off.
• Plug-ins > Notes and Rests > Color Pitches no longer produces incorrect colors.
• Plug-ins > Notes and Rests > Remove Rests no longer removes Live Playback data.
• Various improvements to the Check for Parallel 5ths/8ves plug-in.
• The radio buttons in the Add Tonic Sol-Fa dialog no longer "stick."
• Compare Staves now ignores all text hidden with a tilde (~).
• Various improvements to the Save Folder of Scores as Web Pages plug-in, including supporting the Allow printing and saving option for Scorch.
• Find and Replace Text now works on system text and lyrics (though note that it will only work on single syllables of lyrics: it cannot recombine words that have been split by hyphens, etc.).
• Improved the wording in the Cresc./Dim. Playback plug-in dialog.
• Problems with the "custom mapping" feature of the Change Dynamics plug-in have been fixed.
• Add Chord Symbols can now add chord symbols every dotted quarter note (dotted crotchet).

Printing

• The Spreads printing option has been improved and now always prints the correct pages.
• Printing has been substantially revamped on Mac OS X, solving problems in earlier versions of slow speed and incompatibilities with certain printers.

Registering Sibelius

• Help > Register Sibelius and Help > Unregister Sibelius now give a message informing the user that registration is disabled for copies of Sibelius authorized over the network.
• Network site license copies of Sibelius no longer say UNREGISTERED COPY on the splash screen.

Repeats

• It is now possible to use a final barline at a "Fine" and have Sibelius play back the score correctly.
• Sibelius will no longer treat text objects consisting of the letter D in the Rehearsal marks text style as da capo instructions, resulting in incorrect repeats playback.

Scanning

A number of problems concerning the transfer of .opt files from PhotoScore to Sibelius have been fixed, including:

• Text blocks are now better positioned in the resulting Sibelius file
• Block lyrics are no longer positioned on top of each other in the resulting Sibelius file
• Time signatures no longer appear in the wrong bar in the resulting Sibelius file
• Bar rests in voice 2 in PhotoScore files no longer cause Sibelius to create unnecessary empty bars.
• Slurs are no longer all imported into voice 1 and at the same position from PhotoScore.
• The stem directions of notes in the resulting Sibelius file should now more closely resemble the stem directions in the original .opt file.

Selections and passages

• When moving objects with the arrow keys, Sibelius no longer occasionally moves them in the wrong direction.
• Sibelius no longer creates duplicate notehead types when copying a passage from one staff to another in scores that have multiple noteheads with identical names.

Slurs

• Magnetic slurs no longer flip over page breaks. It is no longer possible to flip the second half of a slur (i.e. after the page break) independently of the first half (i.e. before the page break).
• The position of slurs that span a page break no longer change depending on whether the page on which the slurs begin is in view.
• Using the up/down arrow keys to adjust the curvature of slurs now works somewhat more reliably.
• Dashed slurs now draw much faster than they did in Sibelius 3.

Symbols

• The symbols on the Ornaments row of the Create > Symbol dialog are now correctly named in new scores.

Text

• The width of text at different zoom levels no longer appears to vary depending on the chosen zoom level. The appearance of text on the score at all zoom levels is now much closer to true WYSIWYG. (On Windows, this requires that the new Precise text positioning option on the Display page of File > Preferences be switched on.)
• Instrument names on small staves are now correctly aligned.
• Improvements to editing and appearance of text, e.g. line spacing is now correct at all point sizes; formatting of text is more reliable when editing; the position of the text editor does not jump wildly when starting to edit text.
• Hitting Return to insert a new line in a text object after a formatting change (e.g. making some text bold or underlined) no longer causes Sibelius to revert back to the default font formatting for the text style (and therefore losing the e.g. chosen bold or underlined formatting)
• It is now possible, should you wish to, to edit text at zoom levels of greater than 800% without problems.
• Numerous problems with figured bass (including inconsistent line spacing, incorrectly-sized accidentals, editing problems, etc.) have been solved by the new Opus Figured Bass font.

Ties

• In situations where ties on notes in beamed groups were previously drawn with their curvature in the wrong direction because Sibelius wasn’t aware of the stem directions of other notes in the beamed group, Sibelius now draws the ties correctly.
• Ties now flip correctly.

Timecode

• Sibelius now correctly displays timecode for scores of durations greater than 35 minutes.

Time signatures

• The display of time signatures on small staves (in particular the alignment of the numerator when scaling small staves to less than 65% the size of a normal staff) is improved.
• It's now possible to create pick-up (upbeat) bars of dotted note values (Mac only).
• Choosing a "preset" time signature no longer updates the values in the Other fields of the Create > Time Signature dialog

Transposing

• Transposing a system selection that begins with a key signature now transposes the key signature correctly.
• Transposition changes no longer show a new key signature unless it is required (e.g. transposition changes of one or more octaves will not show a new key signature).

Triplets and other tuplets

• The tuplet number is now correctly centered in the middle of the bracket when tuplets are drawn on small staves.
• When changing the number format of a tuplet after creating it, changing it to Ratio + note now shows the note correctly, rather than as a plain text character.

View menu

• View > Staff Names and Bar Numbers text now disappears as soon as the right-hand systemic barline of the page is no longer in view.

Voices

• It's now possible to change the voice of a rest in the same way as changing the voice of a note.
• It is now substantially more difficult to confuse Sibelius sufficiently when changing the voices of notes and rests that it will show two rests (or a note and a rest) in the same voice at the same rhythmic position.

Zoom

• The zoom control on the toolbar now correctly responds to the Backspace character on the keyboard, and returns the focus to the document window when you hit Return.