Copying and Pasting Lyrics

Sometimes you can save time entering lyrics that are repetitive by copying them from one part of the score to another. Two alternative procedures for copying lyrics are described below.

When you copy lyrics from one part of a song to another, it is important that the rhythms of the sung notes are basically the same, or more specifically, that the number of notes are the same in the two regions. If the number of notes do not match, then the copied lyrics might not be aligned correctly with the destination melody notes. If this happens, there is a convenient way for you to correct the problem. You can shift one or more lyrics to the right or left, as described in the next topic.

When Composer copies lyrics, it recognizes if some of the "from" notes do not have corresponding lyrics. If so, then Composer will skip over corresponding "to" notes, as illustrated here:

In matching notes in the "from" and "to" regions, Composer ignores the right note of any pair of tied notes. This limitation is rarely a problem, because it does not make sense that a distinct lyric can be sung at the division of a tied note. A distinct lyric (or syllable) requires a distinct note, even if that note is of the same pitch.

To copy lyrics from one section of a song to another location, using the clipboard:

1.      Select an entire staff, or select some region of a track, that contains the lyrics you wish to copy.

Here is an example of what the selected region looks like:

2.      Copy the region to the clipboard using the Copy command in the Edit menu. This copies everything in the selected region to the clipboard, including the lyrics.

-- OR --

Type CTRL+C, which is the standard Windows keyboard shortcut for Copy to Clipboard.

3.      Select the new region to where you wish to copy the lyrics.

4.      Type SHIFT+L to display the Lyrics Palette. In the Lyric Menu, choose the Paste Lyrics command.

-- OR --

Choose the Paste Lyrics command in the Edit menu.

-- OR --

Type "qpl" for Quick Paste Lyrics.

To copy lyrics from one section of a song to another location, using a dialog box:

1.      Optionally, select an entire staff, or select some region of a track, that contains the lyrics you wish to copy.

2.      Type SHIFT+L to display the Lyrics Palette and menu.

3.      In the Lyric Menu, choose the Copy Lyrics Between Tracks command.

-- OR --

Type "qcl" for Quick Copy Lyrics.

     Composer will display the Copy Lyrics Between Tracks dialog box, such as illustrated below.

3.      In the dialog box, select the track to which you wish to copy the lyrics.

The range of 'from' and 'to' locations (measure, beat, and tick) will be those for the region you optionally selected in the first step. You will not need to change these values unless desired.

Note that lyrics can only be copied from the same range of locations to another track. This feature does not support copying lyrics from one range of locations to another range of locations in the same track or another track.

4.      Click the OK button to complete the task.

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