682: Changes and improvements in Sibelius 7.0.3

Installation

  • Sibelius is now always correctly registered as a ReWire device when first installed (Mac only).
  • The Sibelius installer now correctly overwrites the files that specify the location of the Sibelius application package for the purposes of ReWire, so if you reinstall Sibelius to a different location, ReWire will now work correctly without first having to click Repair in Audio Engine Options (Mac only).

Quick Start

  • Typing the shortcut Ctrl+N or Command-N to show the New Score page of Quick Start now correctly ensures the Quick Start window is brought to the front.
  • The manuscript paper chosen on the New Score page of Quick Start is now correctly remembered between sessions.
  • Switching on Start with bar of length on the New Score page of Quick Start now correctly puts the focus into the duration control.
  • A time signature is now always chosen on the New Score page of Quick Start, which ensures that if you also choose to create a pick-up (upbeat) bar using Start with bar of length, the pick-up is created correctly.
  • If you use Save As to save an open score under a new name, the original score now appears in the Recent tab of the Quick Start as well as the new score created by using Save As.
  • Text entered in the Other information field on the New Score page of Quick Start is now correctly saved in the resulting score (i.e. so you can see it in File > Info).
  • Thumbnails for the Recent page of Quick Start are now captured when the score is saved, not when it is closed.

Playback

  • Sibelius now attempts to detect when it is running low on memory while loading sounds in the Sibelius Player to avoid the application becoming unstable or crashing due to running out of memory. When around 400MB of your total system memory is available, Sibelius will show a warning dialog and offer to switch to a less memory-intensive playback configuration (e.g. switching to Sibelius 7 Sounds (Lite) or Sibelius 6 Essentials if available) or reduce the number of slots, or to continue loading. When only around 200MB of your total system memory is available, Sibelius will show an error dialog and will not load any further sounds, and requires you to choose a different playback configuration or reduce the number of slots to use.
  • New Sibelius 7 Sounds (Lite) default playback configuration. This uses cut-down patches that both load more quickly and consume less RAM than the full patches. If you are running a 32-bit system or experience very long load times, you are recommended to use this playback configuration instead of the other default Sibelius 7 Sounds configurations.
  • The Sibelius Player’s memory management has been improved by reducing memory fragmentation. This significantly improves the number of sounds that can be loaded simultaneously on a 32-bit system., and on some systems will also reduce the time taken to load sounds.
  • Changing the playback configuration while sounds are still loading no longer causes a crash.
  • Deactivating a playback device that is still loading sounds while editing a playback configuration in Playback Devices no longer causes a crash.
  • When changing playback configuration after opening a score, the output levels for the virtual instruments used by the score are now correctly reset.
  • Playback of an attached MP3 file no longer stutters or has irregular timing when using a DirectSound audio interface (Windows only).
  • Playback via an external MIDI device (e.g. a sound module) no longer suffers from irregular timing when using a DirectSound audio interface (Windows only).
  • The Sound ID substitution rule for variant sounds (those whose sound IDs end with e.g. .2) has been improved in the case where the sound ID elements preceding the variant element are not prioritised, i.e. they are not specifically known to Sibelius. This fixes a problem whereby some switches to variant sounds would not work correctly.
  • Changing the Timecode of first bar value in Play > Video > Timecode now works correctly for the 23.97 frame rate.
  • The [ and ] shortcuts for fast-forward and rewind now work correctly, and playback reliably returns to the normal speed when the key is released.
  • Dismissing the Loading Sounds dialog immediately after it appears no longer prevents Sibelius from continuing to load sounds.
  • Drawing of the Mixer has been optimized, reducing CPU usage when the Mixer is showing during playback; this is especially beneficial on Mac.
  • It is now once again possible to type [reset] into the Sound ID change combo box in Play > Interpretation > Dictionary.
  • File > Export > Audio now shows a warning if you have a passage selection in the score to remind you that only the selected staves will be exported; likewise, if the active view in the score is a dynamic part, Sibelius warns you that only the staves in the current part will be exported.

Printing

  • When saving a PDF via the PDF button in the native Mac OS X Print dialog, the filename of the PDF now correctly defaults to the filename of the current score, rather than untitled (Mac only).
  • When printing a series of parts using the PDF > Save as PDF option in the native Mac OS X Print dialog, the filename of each PDF now correctly includes the part name once more, so that each PDF saved does not automatically overwrite the previous one (Mac only).
  • Choosing to save a PostScript file via the native Mac OS X Print dialog now correctly saves a PostScript file, rather than a PDF file with the incorrect file extension (Mac only).
  • Exotic paper sizes chosen in Page Setup are now correctly remembered when you return to the Page Setup dialog.
  • Sibelius now remembers the chosen printer to ensure that the paper size chosen in Page Setup can also be remembered, as the list of paper sizes that appears in Page Setup is dependent on the chosen printer (Mac only).
  • Changing the orientation of the score using Layout > Document Setup now correctly updates the orientation in Page Setup.
  • If you choose to print a selection of (or all) parts, any part set to print zero copies is now correctly not printed.
  • When opening scores created in earlier versions of Sibelius, the printing options saved in those scores are ignored, thus fixing problems where Sibelius 7 will default to printing, say, odd or even pages only, with no obvious way to return to the default settings.
  • Printing the current page only now works correctly.
  • Changing the output resolution in the printer driver settings no longer incorrectly changes the scale factor of the printed output, causing the music to appear too large or too small on the page.
  • Choosing to print two pages per sheet now correctly updates the scale factor for the pages to be printed such that they fit on the paper.
  • Repeatedly changing page orientation in the File > Print page no longer sometimes causes Sibelius to crash (Windows only).
  • When printing a selection of (or all) parts, the controls in the File > Print page now always correctly reflect the print settings saved in the selected part, or in the first part in the selection if multiple parts are selected.
  • Part-specific changes to pagination (e.g. booklets, spreads, etc.) are now correctly saved and restored.
  • Manual duplexing is no longer automatically switched on when you choose to print Spreads or 2-up.
  • The Orientation control in the File > Print page is now always set correctly when first creating a score.
  • A new command has been added to the File tab category in the Keyboard Shortcuts page of Preferences called OS Print dialog, which allows you to specify a keyboard shortcut to go directly to the native Mac OS X Print dialog if you wish (Mac only).
  • The Scale combo in File > Print is now initialized correctly.
  • Switching off Print in color in File > Print now correctly updates the print preview.
  • Clicking Page Setup in the Document Setup dialog no longer causes Sibelius to crash if you have not previously visited File > Print (Mac only).
  • Page Setup settings are now defaulted appropriately based on the page size and orientation specified when you create your score.
  • When the saved page size for the score or parts is not available on the currently-chosen printer, Sibelius attempts to find the nearest available size automatically, first by checking the saved dimensions and choosing a page size that matches by dimensions (e.g. Tabloid paper is called 11” x 17” on some printers, but it’s the same size), and if it can’t find a page size with the same dimensions, it falls back on the best available default.
  • Fit to paper is now switched on by default in File > Print, as it used to be in previous versions of Sibelius.
  • Booklet printing has been overhauled substantially, improving the imposition rules so that booklets with irregular numbers of pages not divisible by four are handled more sensibly. When you choose to print a booklet, Sibelius disables the other options on the File > Print page, so you cannot disable collation, manual duplexing (Manually Print Both Sides) or change the orientation or page range to be printed. If your printer supports automatic duplexing, don’t use Sibelius’s built-in booklet printing mode, and instead use your printer driver options to achieve this.
  • Printing of spreads has been improved, ensuring that the first page is correctly printed on the left- or right-hand side based on the initial page number.
  • Leaving the File > Print page by hitting Esc after having accessed it using screen tips now works as expected.
  • Print ranges where no last page is specified (e.g. 2–, to print from page 2 to the end of the score) are now handled correctly.
  • The state of the Date and time footer option in File > Print is now saved on a per-score basis.
  • Printing multiple parts with differing page size/orientation settings in a single job now works reliably once more.
  • Choice of page size, orientation and other printing preferences for dynamic parts – either via the Page Setup buttons in Document Setup or Multiple Part Appearance, or directly in File > Print after choosing Parts > Print > Print All Parts – now correctly persists in the score. Two new columns in the table that appears at the top of File > Print when printing parts show the saved page size and orientation for each part.
  • Changes to print settings (in Page Setup or File > Print) are now fully undoable.
  • Scores and parts that are set to use a custom page size (i.e. one defined via the Manage Custom Sizes dialog, accessed via Page Setup) now have that custom size saved and restored correctly (Mac only).
  • The Page Setup dialog now shows the correct values when first visited via Document Setup or Multiple Part Appearance before File > Print has been visited for the first time.
  • The Print in color option on File > Print no longer appears on Mac: Sibelius will print in color if your printer supports it. To prevent printing in color, change your printer’s settings.
  • Sibelius now sets the default Page Setup page size and orientation for the full score and the dynamic parts based on the page size and orientation set in Document Setup. If you change the page size or orientation in Document Setup, Sibelius will also automatically update the Page Setup settings to match, provided you had not already changed the Page Setup settings such that they no longer match the Document Setup settings in the meantime.

Ideas

  • Clefs and key signatures are no longer missing from previews shown in the compact view of the Ideas window.
  • The context menu (right-click on Windows or Control-click on Mac) now works correctly in the Ideas window.
  • The combo box used for filtering ideas now works correctly in both the compact and detailed views of the Ideas window.
  • The detailed view of the Ideas window now always scrolls the list of ideas to ensure the selected idea is visible in the list.
  • Typing into the filter combo box in the detailed view of the Ideas window no longer causes a crash.
  • The preview in the detailed view of the Ideas window now always matches the selected idea.
  • The preview in the compact view of the Ideas window now correctly shows L in the corner of the preview when the idea is saved to the library.
  • Ideas are now sorted by name by default in the detailed view of the Ideas window, and you can re-sort the list by clicking on any of the column headings.
  • The detailed view of the Ideas window now correctly only lists ideas from the current score when multiple scores are open.
  • The behaviour of the compact and detailed views of the Ideas window has been rationalised when multiple scores are open: each score window can have its own Ideas window showing the compact view, but there is only one detailed view for the whole application. When any score window’s Ideas window is set to detailed view, the compact view windows in other score windows are closed. Toggling the detailed view back to compact view will only re-open the Ideas window for the current foreground score window.
  • The Edit button in the detailed view of the Ideas window now works correctly for score ideas as well as library ideas.
  • The compact view of the Ideas window now always shows a scroll bar, improving its appearance.
  • The chosen filter (as typed into the combo box) is now correctly maintained when toggling between showing Score, Library or All ideas.
  • Previewing of ideas in the compact view of the Ideas window now works more consistently, whether you click and hold the mouse button or press and hold the Space bar.
  • The compact view of the Ideas window now correctly only allows a single idea to be selected.
  • When the detailed view of the Ideas window is open, but no score windows are open, only Library ideas are visible.
  • The appearance and resizing behaviour of the Edit Idea Info dialog has been improved.
  • The graphical display of the selected idea in the detailed view of the Ideas window is now always correctly centered.
  • Ideas that are duplicated in the library and the current score can now correctly be opened when the Score button is chosen in the compact view of the Ideas window.
  • The Return key now more reliably closes the drop-down list in the Ideas window and performs a search, without requiring you to hit Return a second time.

Importing graphics

  • Sibelius now reliably imports graphics at any bit depth; previously it assumed that bitmap graphics always used 24-bit depth, which could result in strange effects when e.g. manipulating the color of imported graphics or flipping them.

Exporting graphics

  • The Monochrome option is now correctly enabled and disabled for the appropriate graphics formats in File > Export > Graphics.
  • When Use smallest bounding box is switched on, the bounding box for PDF and EPS files exported via File > Export > Graphics is no longer too small, so the edges of the graphics are no longer incorrectly clipped.
  • A problem whereby some standard glyphs in fonts were embedded in EPS files using a generic Unicode descriptor rather than the standard Adobe glyph list descriptor has been fixed. This means that characters in symbol fonts such as the rhythm dot in Opus Special Std now appear correctly when an EPS file exported from Sibelius is opened in e.g. Adobe Illustrator.
  • Fonts that use extended styles (e.g. Condensed, Semibold, etc.) are now exported using the correct style/weight when using File > Export > PDF (Mac only).
  • The appearance of imported SVG graphics has been significantly improved when exporting to PDF (and when printing on some printers).

Text

  • Text that changes back from the Music text character style to the regular font of a text style is now exported correctly to a previous version of Sibelius.
  • The Gap after paragraph control on the Font page of Edit Text Style is now scaled correctly in points.
  • Selecting a word from a word menu using the mouse now works correctly once more.
  • The Keep absolute option for text styles now works correctly for text on small staves once more.
  • Text that is set to appear at an absolute size (via Keep absolute) is no longer the wrong size when you first create a new dynamic part.
  • Typing accented characters by holding down Ctrl+Alt or AltGr and typing a letter key, as used in Polish text, now works correctly once more (Windows only).
  • Lyric input using the Icelandic keyboard layout now works correctly once more (Windows only).
  • The Å key no longer incorrectly produces a hyphen during lyrics input on a Swedish keyboard.
  • Keyboard shortcuts in word menus now work correctly when the keyboard layout is set to Dvorak in the input source menu (Mac only).
  • Symbols that map onto empty glyphs in a font no longer fall back on showing a character from the “last resort” font, and instead appear blank as they did in previous versions of Sibelius (Mac only).
  • The text editor now remembers fonts that have been substituted when it is first opened, and reinstates these fonts for their substitutes when it is dismissed. This works in a similar way to how it did in Sibelius 6, in that multiple fonts that are substituted by the same font will all end up as the same font when the editor is closed, and any explicit font switches to a font that has been used as a substitute will be replaced with the substituted font, regardless of whether you really wanted that font.
  • Further improvements to the font name matching rules used by the Missing Fonts dialog in order to try and come up with the best possible suggestion for the new font family automatically.
  • Shortcuts for accidentals in the word menus used by legacy chord symbols have been fixed.
  • The Chord symbol text style in the contextual “create” menu (i.e. right-click with no selection, then choose Text > Special Text > Chord symbol) no longer shows a spurious shortcut.
  • Font families and style names are now localised to the current language of the operating system, which is not necessarily the language in which Sibelius itself is running. This means that choosing Japanese on the Language page of Preferences on a Mac running Mac OS X in English will still display the English font names. The Japanese translations will only appear if Mac OS X itself is running in Japanese. However, as a special case, when Sibelius is set to run in English but the OS is set to run in another language, the English names will appear. The localised font and style names are used everywhere in Sibelius that font names are shown to the user, including the Missing Fonts, Edit All Fonts and Edit Text Style dialogs, the Text > Format combo boxes on the ribbon, and the Text display on the status bar (Mac only).

Chord symbols

  • The Choose Chord Diagram dialog (accessed by clicking Choose Preferred in Edit Chord Symbols) now displays correctly when it is first opened, without requiring the user to resize it to force a redraw.
  • Sibelius no longer crashes when inputting chord symbols near the end of the score in Panorama.

Plug-ins

  • New File > Plug-ins > Install Plug-ins dialog, which lists all of the plug-ins available for download from the Sibelius web site and allows you to install any of them with a single click.
  • The File > Plug-ins > Edit Plug-ins dialog has been revamped and now allows the user to specify on which ribbon tab each subfolder (or category) of plug-ins should appear. You can even make plug-ins appear on ribbon tabs that do not have a Plug-ins gallery by default.
  • Keyboard shortcuts assigned to ManuScript plug-ins no longer end up out of step if you install or remove additional plug-ins.
  • New Home > Plug-ins > Batch Processing > Export Folder of Scores as MusicXML plug-in, allowing you to export a folder of Sibelius scores as either compressed or uncompressed MusicXML files.
  • Running Note Input > Transformations > Double Note Values in Panorama no longer causes a crash.
  • Home > Plug-ins > Batch Processing > Rehearsal Recordings no longer crashes if the Transport window is open (Mac OS X 10.7 Lion only).
  • Note Input > Transformations > Halve Note Values now works correctly in all language versions of Sibelus.
  • Note Input > Plug-ins > Copy Articulations and Slurs no longer crashes when it is run in a dynamic part.
  • The Circled numbers preset now works correctly again in Text > Plug-ins > Add Fingerings to Notes.
  • Home > Plug-ins > Batch Processing > Convert Folder of Scores to MIDI no longer fails if the folder on which it is run contains files other than Sibelius scores (Mac only).
  • Text > Plug-ins > Change Dynamics has been updated to make it clearer how to use it to convert Expression text in the default text style font into the correct music text font, e.g. Opus Text.
  • Home > Clipboard > Paste > Paste Into Voice now retains the color of pasted objects.

ManuScript language

  • Calling the Close() ManuScript method on a window containing a read-only version of a score no longer causes Sibelius to crash.
  • Creating a symbol at Cue grace note size via ManuScript now works correctly.
  • New Score.RemoveVideo() ManuScript method that removes an attached video from the current score.
  • The Plug-in Trace Window has been improved: there is now just one window for the whole application, rather than one for each Sibelius document window, so the trace window does not close when a score window closes.
  • It is once again possible to click in the Plug-in Trace Window while a plug-in dialog is showing (Windows only).
  • The ColorGreen and ColorBlue bar object variables now work correctly again.
  • The ExtractParts() method now has an extra optional Boolean parameter to determine whether or not Sibelius should open the extracted parts upon extraction (defaults to true).
  • New Folder.FileCountAllTypes read-only variable that returns the total of files of all types (not just Sibelius scores) in the given folder.
  • Score.SaveAs() no longer incorrectly changes the name of the open score to the name of the exported file (e.g. filename.sib would previously have become filename.xml when specifying the MusicXML format).
  • The Sibelius.New() ManuScript method can now find manuscript papers that are located within categories/subfolders. You can either specify the manuscript paper name on its own (in which case Sibelius will look in all available subfolders to find it), or appended after the name of the category/subfolder in which it is located.

Inspector

  • It is once again possible to open the Inspector during text input by clicking its button on the Home tab of the ribbon.
  • The General panel of the Inspector can be opened correctly once more (French-language only).

Ribbon

  • The focus no longer seems to disappear when moving around the Clef and Barline galleries with the arrow keys (Mac only).

Exporting

  • The various File > Export pages no longer incorrectly default to a filename that ends with .sib rather than the correct file extension for the chosen export format (Windows only).
  • Unbeamed notes are no longer exported to MusicXML with erroneous beam elements.
  • In addition to being able to specify bit-depth, it is now possible to specify the sample rate to be used when exporting an audio file.
  • Exporting scores to previous versions of Sibelius has been optimized, now works reliably with large scores, and no longer appears to hang.
  • File > Export > Audio is now correctly disabled when Sibelius is running in ReWire mode.

Stability

  • Opening several files at once from Windows Explorer now correctly only starts one instance of Sibelius (Windows only).
  • If Sibelius crashes, and Windows Restart and Recovery attempts to restart the application, Sibelius now restarts correctly.
  • Sibelius will no longer automatically re-launch if it is running when you log out or restart your Mac with the Reopen windows when logging back in option set. This avoids a problem whereby Sibelius is unable to reliably open or save files after having been relaunched automatically, caused by a bug in the operating system (Mac OS X 10.7 Lion only).

Other improvements

  • New Draw old style multirests up to 9 bars option on the Bar Rests page of Appearance > House Style > Engraving Rules. When this option is switched on, and Appearance is set to Old style, Sibelius will start drawing H-bar multirests after 9 bars, instead of after 7 bars, to support a convention used by several European publishers.
  • New Notehead type gallery shortcut in the Notations tab category in Keyboard Shortcuts in Preferences to open the Notations > Noteheads > Type gallery directly.
  • New Export PDF shortcut in the File tab category in Keyboard Shortcuts in Preferences to go directly to the File > Export > PDF page.
  • The Instrument Change dialog now always creates the correct instrument change if you simply open and then confirm the dialog by clicking OK.
  • Creating an Open key/Atonal key signature in a dynamic part via the Key Signature dialog (rather than the gallery) now works correctly.
  • Changes to page margins set in special page breaks now always draw correctly, regardless of which pages are in view.
  • It is now once again possible to resize a score window by dragging its top right or top left corner (Windows only).
  • The drawing of lyric hyphens has been optimized and is now considerably faster.
  • The speed of Layout > Magnetic Layout > Freeze has been significantly improved.
  • Sibelius no longer crashes when closing a score when the video window is open (Windows only).
  • Sibelius no longer crashes when importing a house style created in Sibelius 3 or earlier.
  • Quitting Sibelius from the Dock while a dialog is open no longer causes a crash (Mac only).
  • Sibelius no longer sometimes crashes when a ribbon gallery menu closes (Mac only).
  • Sibelius’s GDI resource usage has been substantially reduced, so it is possible to open many more (five times as many) Sibelius windows before the per-process resource limit is reached, resulting in a crash (Windows only).
  • The Home > Edit > Go To Bar dialog now allows input of bar numbers with two or more digits, as it should (French-language only).
  • Sticky lines no longer have a small but accumulating error in their length when input over a series of tuplets.
  • Operations that show a progress dialog now also display progress in the Sibelius window’s button on the Windows taskbar (Windows 7 only).
  • Closing a score now correctly deletes the auto-saved version from the AutoSave folder, so that Sibelius does not incorrectly present you with files that were successfully saved and closed in the event of the application crashing and offering to recover auto-saved scores.
  • The state of View > Invisibles > Hidden Objects is now remembered correctly when opening and closing scores.
  • The View > Panels > Keypad checkbox no longer incorrectly shows as being switched on when opening a score and the Use custom size and position option is chosen on the Display page of Preferences, having been saved with the Keypad window not showing.
  • The resolution of the Quick Look preview has been improved (Mac only).
  • Sibelius no longer crashes when editing a selected page number change.
  • Moving the selection to the staff above or below during step-time or alphabetic note input with a sticky line active now correctly stops the sticky line on the original staff.
  • Starting a crescendo or diminuendo hairpin during step-time or alphabetic note input while a hairpin is already active now correctly stops the original hairpin.
  • The position of the line following text at the start of a line (e.g. rit./accel. lines) is now correct when the line is attached to a small staff.
  • Hitting Esc to move the focus from a spin control (e.g. the font size control in Text > Format) back to the score while the text editor is open now works correctly.
  • The status bar now includes a read-out of the instrument belonging to the staff on which the current selection resides, as the General panel of Properties did in Sibelius 6 and earlier versions, in between the total number of bars in the score and the selected bar(s). If multiple staves are selected, it reads Multiple staves; if the system (e.g. initial barline) is selected, it reads System.
  • The various Export… commands in the File tab category in Keyboard Shortcuts in Preferences now open the appropriate page in the File tab, rather than showing the deprecated dialogs used in Sibelius 6 and earlier.

Details

Product
Sibelius
Versions
affected
7.0
Changed
21 Oct 2011

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