Adding and deleting measures and staves [Beginner] [Professional]

We will start by removing 16 measures of the score. Double-click the first measure of the second system, as shown by the red circle:

The measures and staves dialog box appears:

For now, click Cancel. You can also reach this dialog box without using the tools palette, thanks to a shortcut key. Place the mouse cursor at the same position (red circle above), without clicking. Then type the low case "m" letter on the keyboard. The dialog box appears. By using this shortcut, you do not have to open the tools palette to reach this dialog box: it is faster and you have more space on the screen.

The higher part of the dialog box shows the type of operation to execute: add or delete. Click on Delete.

The two frames below respectively specify the number of measures and/or staves to add or delete. By default, it is one measure. Replace "1" with "16", in order to delete a total of 16 measures. To the right of this box, a double choice lets you indicate to Pizzicato how these 16 measures must be counted. The default choice is After, which means that Pizzicato will delete 16 measures starting with the measure you clicked to call this dialog box. The other choice would enable to delete measures preceding the current measure.

Click OK. The score becomes:

All following measures have been removed.

We will now add a staff. Call the previous dialog box on the first measure of the lower staff (by a double-click or with the shortcut m as above). Fill in the dialog box with 0 measure and 1 staff. By default the staff will be added below the clicked staff, therefore here below the lower staff. Click OK. The score becomes:

Pizzicato adds a staff, by default named "3", with a treble clef and the same time signature than the two other staves (C is a conventional abbreviation of a 4/4 time signature).

Now let us add 8 measures to the score. Call the measures and staves dialog box on the fourth measure of the staff (staff 1, 2 or 3, it does not matter). Fill in the measures box with 8. Click OK and the score becomes:

Pizzicato has added 8 measures. By default, a line has 4 measures (see further in the lesson about page layout). When measures are added, the program automatically creates systems of staves to contain all the measures. Each staff is increased by the number of added measures. Here, the page was large enough to display the resulting score. With the Professional and Beginner versions of Pizzicato, you can use the "-" zoom button of the score view in order to see the full page, as above (zoom 67 % by clicking twice on the "-" button, according to the size of your screen):

Let us add 24 measures to the score. Notice that you are not forced to add them at the end. Here, as all measures are empty, you can insert them anywhere. When the measures are filled with notes, you may insert measures before or between other existing measures. Call the measures and staves dialog box on the first measure of the score and fill in the measures box with 24. Click OK. Apparently nothing changed, except the left lower side of the score view, which now displays:

P-1/3 means that the page currently displayed is page 1 and that there is a total of 3 pages. As the page was already filled with the first 12 measures, Pizzicato has added 24 measures by creating new pages. The above horizontal scroll bar lets you scroll through the pages. Click on its right-hand button and page 2 is displayed, showing now P-2/3.

As a last illustration, we will delete the third staff. Go back to page 1 and call the measures and staves dialog box on the third staff of the first system. Select Delete, fill in the measures box with "0" and the staves box with "1". Click OK and the score becomes:

Notice that the number of systems per page is automatically adjusted by Pizzicato according to the number of systems which can hold on one page. The page indicator displays P-1/2 now. The resulting score has only two pages now, considering the deleted staff. Go and see page 2 and you will observe that it contains 4 systems of 4 measures.

It is thus with the help of the measures and staves tool that you can adjust the structure of your score. You will use it very often thereafter.

The linear mode [Beginner] [Professional]

In the higher part of the score view, you can observe the following popup menu:

This menu has two choices, Linear and Page. Until now, we only used the page layout view. In this mode, the score is viewed as it will be printed. Measures go from left to right and when you get to the border of the page, you go to the next system, as for the handwritten writing. When the page is complete, you go to the next page.

The linear mode offers another way of viewing and editing a score, without being concerned with the way the score will be printed on paper. Imagine a paper strip of an infinite width, on which you can write from left to right without stopping or having to go back to the beginning of the next line. Imagine that this infinite paper strip is on a roller that you can scroll horizontally in order to view and edit any passage you want. It is the linear mode. Click on this menu and select the Linear item. The score view becomes:

According to the size of your screen, Pizzicato displays some of the measures which are on the infinite paper strip. The left lower display box which indicated the page now displays M-1/36 (1). It means that there are 36 measures in the full score and that the first visible measure on the screen is measure 1. The 1 in brackets indicates the absolute measure number (if for example you start numbering measures with 15, see the lesson on the measures parameters). By default, this number is the same as the first number.

This mode is sometimes more practical in the creation of a score, especially for the orchestra scores or the scores that contain measures with very different widths. The linear mode allows you to encode the contents of the measures without being worried on how much measures will hold on a page. When the score is encoded, you switch into the page layout view (see the lesson on page layout) and Pizzicato displays the measures in a balanced way according to the contents of each measure.

The large horizontal scroll bar located in the lower part of the score lets you move along all measures. This can be done in several ways:

• If you click on the arrow located at the extreme right-hand side of the scroll bar, Pizzicato displays M-2/36(2), and redraws the score starting from measure 2. In a similar way, by clicking on the arrow located at the extreme left, you move one measure towards the left.

• To move one measure at a time, you can also use the left and right arrow keys on the computer keyboard.

• To reach a measure directly, for example the seventh, click on the scroll bar cursor, and while holding down the mouse button, gradually drag it to the right. Pizzicato progressively increases the measure number. When it indicates M-7/36(7), release the mouse button. The score is displayed starting from measure 7.

• By clicking in the area located between the left arrow and the cursor of the scroll bar, you move to the left by about the width of the window. If 3 measures are visible on your screen, you should move 3 measures to the left. The shortcut key is the left arrow key while holding down the SHIFT key.

• In the same way, by clicking in the area located between the right-hand side arrow and the cursor of the scroll bar, you move to the right by about the width of the window. The shortcut key is the right arrow key while holding down the SHIFT key.

Close the score without saving the modifications.