Selecting measures

Subjects covered:

• What is a selection?
• Copy and paste
• Selecting several measures

In this lesson, we will learn how to select measures in order to move them or duplicate them. These concepts will help you to save a lot of time.

What is a selection ?

In this context, a selection designates one or more measures highlighted in order to execute an operation on them. The selection operation is used to select the measures you want to work on.

• Start Pizzicato with a new document and fill in the first measure to obtain:

• Open the Main Palette and click on the tool. This tool is the selection tool. Click on the first measure. Its contrast is reversed, i.e. the black becomes white and vice versa:

• This measure is now selected. If you click on the second measure, the preceding selection disappears, and the second measure is now selected:

Copy and paste

We will copy the contents of the first measure and place it in the second measure.

• Select the first measure again. In the Edit menu, click the Copy item. Apparently nothing occurred. Pizzicato however has copied the contents of the selected measure (measure 1) in a temporary memory. This operation is called copy.
• Select the second measure, by clicking on it. Select the Paste item in the Edit menu. The two measures become:

The contents of the temporary memory was placed in the selected measure. The transfer was thus executed in 2 parts :

• Contents of the selected measure = > temporary memory
• Temporary memory = > in another selected measure

This double operation is called copy and paste. It will be used very often, because it is quite common to find measures repeated several times in the same music work. Think for example of a battery rhythmic or a theme appearing several times.

• When a measure is selected, it is possible to erase its contents very quickly. Select measure 2 and click the Delete item in the Edit menu. The measures becomes:

You may also use the delete key: .

Use the ESC key now. The arrow tool is now active and the selection tool is disabled.

We will learn an even easier way to copy and paste this measure.

• Type the lower case letter "s" on the keyboard. The selection tool is now active again, because this letter is its shortcut. Click on the first measure. It is selected. You will now click this measure again without releasing the button and drag it to the right, in such a way that the cursor comes inside the next measure. A rectangle follows your movement:

When you release the mouse, the score becomes:

This operation is a form of shortcut to avoid using the Edit menu. It is recommended when the measures to be copied and pasted are both visible on the screen. If you want to copy a measure from the beginning to a measure at the end of the score and when it is not possible to see them at the same time on the screen, you will need to copy/paste with the menu.

Imagine you want to have the same measure repeated throughout a piece of 100 measures. You could of course write the measure once and then copy/paste it 99 times. Let us see how to do a multiple paste. Select measure one in the first staff. By holding the Control key, click and drag this measure on measure 3 in the first staff and release when the mouse cursor is inside this measure:

When you release, the following dialog box appears:

Replace the "1" by "6" and click OK. The measure is copied six times at once and the score becomes:

Selecting several measures

It is possible to work with more than one measure and one staff at the same time. Let us see how.

• In the Edit menu, click the Select all item. You obtain:

• To erase the contents of all measures, use the erase key now. The measures are redrawn empty. The Select all item lets you select all measures and staves in the score, even if they are not all visible on the screen.
• Select all measures again. When you want to cancel the contrast on the selected measures, you may either select another tool or click between 2 staves. The selection is cancelled. Fill in the score to have:

• We will duplicate the contents of these measures and will copy it starting from measure 5. Select the first measure of staff one, by typing the "s" shortcut and by clicking on this measure. To extend the selection to several measures and staves, you must hold down the SHIFT key and to click on the other corner of the measures block you want to select. By holding down this key, click on the third measure of the second staff. Your selection becomes:

• Click on the first measure of the first staff and drag it on measure 5 (second system) and release when the mouse cursor is inside it:

• To drag a block of several measures and staves, you need to click and drag the upper left measure of the selected block. The score becomes:

The whole block was copied to the new location. Notice that the possible contents of the destination measures is automatically erased.

• To select all measures of one staff, click in front of the staff, left to the first measure. Click in front of staff 2 and you get:

• Even the measures not displayed on the screen (when there are several pages for example) are selected. By clicking in front of another staff while holding down the SHIFT key, you can extend the selection. By holding down this key, click in front of staff 1. Staves 1 and 2 are now selected. In a similar way, you can select one or more measures on all staves. Click above measure 2 and you get:

• By holding down the SHIFT key, click above measure 3. The selection becomes:

Only with Pizzicato Professional :

When you select a block of measures and staves, it is possible to drag it into the main view. When you release the mouse, a new score appears in the main view. It contains only the selected measures and staves.

Exercise

Starting from a new document, realize the following score by fully using the copy/paste function.