Downloadable plugin updates: Position Rehearsal Marks and Align Objects to Barline.
Position Rehearsal Marks is a relatively minor update. It refines handling of Lines and makes improvements to how Time Signatures are dealt with. More significantly, it updated code that allows calling by other plugins, in particular Align Objects to Barline.
A PDF file explaining how to use the plugin is included in the zip file, and will be downloaded to your machine if you install the plugin.
Significant changes were made to Align Objects to Barline. As before, the plugin moves an object the the right to the end of its current bar, or to the left to the end of the previous bar, unless the bar is the first in a system. In that case it moves it as close as it can to the barline in the same bar.
That can still be a fairly long way from the actual barline, and the plugin has an option to call the plugin Position Rehearsal Marks to move the start of the line past clefs, time signatures and key signatures.
The plugin has also been upgraded to position Lines in addition to text and symbols. One big new feature is the option to have both ends of the line attached to different barlines. (See screenshot 1).
If the line starts in a bar that is not at the start of a system, the plugin can nail the line ends to the ends of 2 bars, which keeps its positioning stable. This always works fine.
As the example screenshot shows, left aligning a line at the start of a system is more problematic. By default, the start of the line is put at beat 1, which is where the first note starts. This is a long way from the barline. Calling Position Rehearsal Mark (version 02.01.10 or later) will usually take the left end very close to the barline. Using the option to align both ends will move the right end of a line to the following barline. (See screenshot 2)
There are a few edge cases to be aware of. The plugin aligns the left end first, which will also move the right end of the bar, possibly moving it into the previous bar if it crossed a barline. If this is not what you wanted, move the end of the line into the correct bar and run the plugin again.
You can move the objects, including lines, to the right as well. Again the plugin aligns the left end first, then the right end is moved based on where it landed in the first move. (Screenshot 3).
(The forum really did not want me to post this text, but I think I have outwitted it.)
One particularly useful case for having both ends of a line attach to barlines is when you create a line with centered text, and make the line invisible so the text will be centered in a bar. Robert Puff describes this technique at http://www.rpmseattle.com/of_note/center-grand-pause-g-p-other-text-in-sibelius-lines-method/. The plugin will attach the line ends to the barlines, which assures that the text is centered in the bar, because the line is centered in the bar. (Screenshot 4).
I was using this plug-in (Align Objects to Barline) to position V.S. marks. The V.S. I was positioning was a custom text style I made based off expression text. For some reason, the plug-in would not just position the V.S., but it would create a second text style called "V.S. (2)" and also make the V.S. bigger. I'm wondering if this is because the plug-in is only suited for already-existing text styles or if I'm doing something wrong.