Notation Composer and Musician 242 maintenance release

Hello Notation Composer and Musician Users,

If you are using Notation Composer or Musician version 2.0 through 2.4.1, you are encouraged to update to version 2.4.2. You can review the version number of Composer or Musician by using the About command in the Help menu.

Visit the following web page for a description of the feature enhancements and bug fixes in the various releases 2.0 up to 2.4.2 and for instructions for updating to the latest version 2.4.2:

http://notation.com/ComposerWebUpdate.php

or

http://notation.com/MusicianWebUpdate.php


IMPORTANT: If you are using Windows Vista and are using Notation Composer or Musician version 2.3, 2.3.1, 2.3.2, 2.3.3, or 2.4 then the Help / Software Updates / Install command will not work. Instead, run the following program that was installed with Composer or Musician on your system: \Program Files\Notation\Composer\wupdate.exe or \Program Files Notation\Musician\wupdate.exe

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Mark,

A)

1. Select notes of a chord.
2. Depress shift + left arrow

Composer terminates.


B)

Depressing ctrl + spacebar adds an empty staff and selects it. Any of the following happens: playback starts, empty staff disappears, Composer terminates.

I use this key combination sometimes by mistake, when I intend to use shift + spacebar. This problem was also with Composer 2.4.1.

Best wishes,

Herbert

Howdy Herbert,

Thanks for the reports, but we're unable to reproduce the second one. Let's follow up on it via email support, so as not to waste this Announcements section with bandwidth about special setups and such that might be causing an isolated problem.

Thanks!
Sherry

p.s. I misspoke - I'm not able to reproduce either problem.

Thanks!
Sherry

Hello Herbert,

Thanks for your reports. I was able to reproduce the first problem, but not the second. I've already now fixed the first problem (select chord, Shift+LeftArrow, crash), and will release that fix in 2.4.3.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Sherry, Mark,

I think now, that problem B may have been due to a corrupted file.

Best wishes,

Herbert

Hi Mark,

A) Changing between two open files looses selection of a note.

B) Paste special does not work, when appending a file to another file and the meter differ.

Best wishes,

Herbert

Selecting a single or a very few notes is not labor effective when you can create them on the spot for equal or less effort.
I've never had to use "paste special". Select one or more measures. use control C to copy. Highlight where you want the measure replicated and type control V. If necessary, "deselect", or highlight another measure and type control V for each additional measure needed. Copying measures is efficient. Copying and pasting chord groups will sometimes work, but is not as predictable. "Paste Special" just does not apply here.

Copying to mismatched meter shouldn't work. Make meter match in advance. Otherwise, even if copy succeeds, measures will be changed and may not be what you desired. Change the target measures to match, first.

Hi Michael,

I appreciate your effort to help. This is the right spirit. But you are missing the point. Just read my post again.

A) and B) used to work in earlier versions.

Best wishes,

Herbert

Thanks for the confidence in intentions. I'm likely missing the value gained or lost with A) or B). So I defer to Mark or Sherry.
Best wishes,

Michael

Hi Michael,

My post was about joining files. I usually assemble a project from a number of short files. Paste special is a good way of doing it. I should have said, that I can not remember, having had the problem as indicated in my post.

Just using paste works ok. But I appreciate any improvement in productivity, as I am always battling to finish a project in time. Paste special is faster to use than paste.

I seem to have posted in the wrong section. Somebody has kindly moved the posts.

Best wishes,

Herbert

Howdy Herbert,

Thanks for the reports - I was able to reproduce both problems and they are now in the queue for fixing.

ttfn,
Sherry

Hi Mark,

1. Select upper and lower voice notes.
2. Move notes to an empty staff below by shift + down arrow

Composer terminates.

Best wishes,

Herbert

Howdy Herbert,

Thanks for the report - I've been able to reproduce it with only two notes on the same tic. Duly noted (very bad pun intended ;) )

ttfn,
Sherry

Hello Herbert and Sherry,

I was also able to reproduce this with 2.4.2. It is already fixed now in the upcoming 2.4.3. Thanks for the report.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Sherry,

The command “Combine chord” or “cc” is most useful.

If one of the notes to be combined is part of a chord, the command does not work.

Best wishes,

Herbert

Hi Herbert,

Thanks for reporting this bug. I've entered it into the bug list. It will likely get fixed in the next 4 weeks.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hi Sherry, Mark,

If you delete a tremolo by depressing the delete button, Composer terminates.

Best wishes,

Herbert

Howdy Herbert,

I'm having difficulty reproducing this problem. Could you please give me the particular steps you're using to see the problem?

My test was as follows:

1. Create a new file.
2. Add a half note on beat one of the first measure.
3. Use the Ornament palette to make that note a tremelo.
4. Select the note, and press Delete.

The note deleted fine for me with no crash. What should I do to see the bug?

Thanks!
Sherry

Hi Sherry,

1. Open a new file by following the defaults of “Create a New Song”.
2. Place onto the treble staff a chord of two 1/4 notes, g and c. A single note does not show the problem.
3. Change notes to a single chord tremolo.
4. Select both notes. A single note does not show the problem.
5. Depress the delete button.

Composer terminates.

Best wishes,

Herbert

Dear Sherry, Mark and Herbert,

Have you ever been the least annoyed when you add a note to a staff and you find yourself in limbo land on a previous graphics page? You find your way back, of course, but the paint routine neglected to return to the corrected graphics where the new note is inserted.
I know, ignorance is bliss, and you think I've reached total nervana, but I think the graphics repaint routine could be a possible trigger for your tremelo deletion crash. I would also wonder if the same test crashes if the new tremelo chord is after a few stable measures.

If there is no relation to the repaint problem, I'd still like to have all the repaint routines come back to where one is currently working. By changing the graphics page, it allows a "redraw" offscreen, which is fast and very cool, but please return to the active graphics page where one was last working after the redraw.

Thanks Herbert, for finding the snags. This software is getting better and better all the time. And so goes my three seconds of fame. Best wishes to all.

-- Michael --

Hi Michael,

After using Composer for a while one becomes familiar with all the good features, but also with some blemishes. Familiarity brings about fondness. Fondness makes us forgiving of a little misbehavior.

I have called the disappearance of the editing object “loss of focus”. Loss of focus is annoying but quite benign.

Best wishes,

Herbert

To clarify the above:
STAFF >> SETUP is where I find the problem.

Hello Herbert,

Thanks you for your clear bug report above, which I was able to reproduce:<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

1. Open a new file by following the defaults of “Create a New Song”.
2. Place onto the treble staff a chord of two 1/4 notes, g and c. A single note does not show the problem.
3. Change notes to a single chord tremolo.
4. Select both notes. A single note does not show the problem.
5. Depress the delete button.

Composer terminates.<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>I confirmed that this was b bug in version 2.4.2. I have now fixed it for the upcoming 2.4.3 release.

Cheers
-- Mark

Michael,

P.S. Wow, I haven't had that much fun making screen shots for the forum for a long time.

Cheers
-- Mark

Hello Herbert,

I edited my post above to say that the 'delete tremolo' bug is now fixed. Actually, I discovered that I had already fixed it in the current version 2.4.3 that I'm working on.

Cheers
-- Mark