| Introduction |
 | What's New in Version 2.6 |
| What's New in Version 2.5 |
| What's New in Version 2.4 |
| What's New in Version 2.3 |
| What's New in Version 2.1 |
| What's New in Version 2.0 |
| Getting Started |
| About the Trial Version of Notation Composer |
| Using This Documentation |
| Printing This Documentation |
| Installing Notation Composer |
| Finding and Starting Notation Composer on Your System |
| Backing Up Your Purchased Copy of Notation Composer |
| Getting Free Software Updates to Composer |
| Uninstalling Notation Composer |
| How to Buy Notation Composer |
| The Purpose of Notation Composer |
| Preparing and Printing Sheet Music from the Internet |
| Studying and Enjoying Music |
| Practicing Music |
| Rearranging Music for Your Particular Instrument |
| Arranging Music According to Your Performance Skills and Taste |
| Arranging Music for Your Group of Musicians |
| Preparing Lessons for Music Students |
| Composing Music |
| Who Needs Notation Composer? |
| Comparison Between Notation Composer and Notation Musician |
| Quick Start Tutorial |
| Tutorial: Opening a File on Your System |
| Tutorial: Opening a File from the Internet |
| Tutorial: Playing the Song |
| Tutorial: Correcting the Notes and Accidentals |
| Tutorial: Adding Lyrics |
| Tutorial: Saving Your Work in a File |
| Tutorial: Working with Parts |
| Tutorial: Creating a New Song |
| Tutorial: Adding Notes to a New Song |
| Tutorial: Adding Annotations |
| Tutorial: Viewing and Quantizing the Performance |
| Opening, Transcribing, Printing, Playing, and Saving Songs |
| Music File Formats That You Can Use in Composer |
| Opening a MIDI FIle or Karaoke File Already on Your System |
| Associating Notation Composer with .MID, .KAR, and .NOT Files |
| Searching for and Downloading MIDI Files from the Internet |
| Using Composer's Internet Browsing Window |
| Specifying the Initial Web Page for Browsing |
| Downloading MIDI Files and Zip Files |
| Transcribing MIDI Files and Recordings to Notation |
| Transcription Options |
| Re-Transcribing a MIDI File or Recording |
| Correcting the Barlines for Files Recorded Without a Metronome. |
| How to Determine a "Metronomeless" File |
| Summary of Steps for Correcting Barlines Using the Rebar Feature |
| Using the Rebar Tools to Correct Barlines |
| Creating a New Song File |
| Creating Your Own Song Templates |
| Editing the Song Title and Author Information |
| Saving Your Work in a Notation .not or MIDI .mid File |
| Sharing Your Music With Others so They Can View, Play, and Print Your Songs |
| Transferring Your Score to Other Music Programs Via MusicXML |
| Backing Up Your Work with Auto-Save |
| Opening a Notation .not File |
| Viewing Multiple Song Files at a Time |
| Printing the Score |
| Playing the Song |
| Playback Location and Staff Focus Markers |
| Starting and Stopping Playback |
| Fast Forwarding |
| Setting Up the Metronome |
| Jumping to or Previewing Another Location in the Song During Playback |
| Setting the Focus on a Staff During Playback |
| Anticipating Page Turns |
| Playing or Ignoring Repeats and Endings |
| Highlighting Active Notes and Lyrics |
| Turning Off Stuck Notes |
| Viewing and Adjusting the Tempo |
| Controlling the Overall Volume Level |
| Muting and Soloing Staves |
| Adjusting the Volume Level of Selected Staves During Playback |
| Using Playlists (Jukebox) |
| Organizing Songs in a Playlist |
| Playing Songs in a Playlist |
| Moving Playlists |
| Practicing Music with Accompaniment |
| Playing Along with Your MIDI Instrument |
| Setting up Practice Loops |
| Starting and Stopping a Practice Session |
| Advancing to the Next (or Previous) Rehearsal Mark |
| Practicing a Part While Singing or Playing a non-MIDI Instrument |
| Practicing a Part Using Your MIDI Keyboard or MIDI Instrument |
| Controlling Notation Composer from Your Music Keyboard |
| Navigating through Composer and the Score |
| Parts of the Composer Window |
| Customizing Colors in Composer |
| Showing and Hiding Parts of the Composer Window |
| Menus (But Not Too Much) |
| Toolbar |
| Song Time |
| Playback and Paging Buttons |
| Metronome Button |
| Tempo and Volume Controls |
| Window and Page View Buttons |
| Mouse Mode Buttons: Select and Add |
| Undo and Redo Buttons |
| Zoom-In and Zoom-Out Buttons |
| Performance (MIDI) View Buttons |
| Palettes |
| Keyboard Commands |
| Executing Commands from Your MIDI Keyboard |
| Window View and Page View |
| Staff Controls |
| Play, Mute or Solo Staff |
| Instrument Sound Selection |
| Select Staff |
| Scrolling, Resizing and Zooming the Window |
| Scrolling the Window |
| Automatic Scrolling During Playback |
| Resizing the Window |
| Zooming the Window |
| Navigating through Pages of the Score |
| Viewing a Range of Measures |
| First Page, Next Page, Previous Page, and Last Page |
| Go to a Measure or Page |
| Go to a Rehearsal Mark |
| Editing Staves and Formatting Parts |
| Understanding Tracks, Staves, and Parts |
| Editing Staves |
| Adding New Staves |
| Deleting Staves |
| Editing Instrument (Staff) Names |
| Changing the Instrument Sound of a Staff |
| Assigning MIDI Channels |
| Cloning a Staff |
| Copying Staff Settings |
| Merging Staves |
| Adjusting Per-Staff Volume Level and Left-to-Right Pan |
| Transposing a Staff |
| Splitting Staves |
| Splitting a Staff into Right- and Left-Hand Staves |
| Splitting the Drum Staff into Individual Drum Staves |
| Splitting a Staff into Melody and Accompaniment |
| Splitting Double-Played Notes from Solo Instrument |
| Rearranging the Order of Staves |
| Shifting Notes Between Staves |
| Preparing Parts |
| Automatically Creating Parts |
| Creating a New Part |
| Selecting a Part |
| Renaming a Part |
| Changing Which Staves Are Displayed in a Part |
| Deleting a Part |
| Printing Parts |
| Wizard for Preparing Part |
| Sing-Along Part |
| Easy Notes Part |
| Fake Book Lead Sheet Part |
| Chord Chart |
| Customized Part |
| Preparing Parts for Piano, Voirce, Drums, and Guitar |
| Preparing a Piano or Keyboard Part |
| Preparing a Piano Reduction of a Score |
| Preparing a Vocal Part |
| Preparing a Drum Part |
| Preparing a Guitar Part |
| Formatting Parts |
| Page Setup |
| Adding Page Title, Headers and Footers |
| Overall Font Size |
| Horizontal and Vertical Spacing |
| Font Type and Size for Types of Text |
| Showing and Hiding Types of Music Annotations |
| Showing and Hiding Instrument Names |
| Hiding Empty Staves |
| Displaying Pitch Name (Easy Note) Letters in Noteheads |
| Formatting a Part Using a Template |
| Copying the Format of a Part to Other Parts |
| Laying out Pages of a Part |
| Tip: Postpone Doing Page Layout |
| Changing Font Size in Layout View |
| Changing Horizontal Spacing in Layout View |
| Specifying the Number of Bars Per Line |
| Forcing a Page Break or System Break |
| Moving a Measure to the Previous System |
| Moving a System to the Previous Page |
| Moving Barlines Within a System |
| Changing Vertical Spacing Between Staves and Systems |
| Freezing Line Breaks and Page Breaks for Entire Part |
| Restoring Default Pagination |
| Editing the Music Notation |
| Basic Editing Procedures |
| General Method for Adding, Changing, and Deleting Objects |
| Adding Objects Using Palettes |
| Selecting One or More Objects Before Editing Them |
| Changing Object Properties Using Palettes |
| Selecting and Editing Regions of a Score |
| Using the Clipboard |
| Copy, Cut, and Paste |
| Clearing a Region of the Score |
| Creating a New Song from the Clipboard |
| Undoing Editing Operations |
| Recovering Interrupted Song File Editing |
| Editing Measures |
| Inserting and Adding Measures |
| Deleting Measures |
| Splitting Measures |
| Joining Measures |
| Creating Upbeat Measures |
| Shifting Barlines |
| Editing Measure Numbers |
| Adding Notes |
| Adding Notes with the Mouse |
| Adding Notes with Mouse by Choosing Durations from the Note Palette |
| Selecting the Note Duration |
| Using the Beat Ruler |
| Adding Notes Using the Sequential Note Entry Mode |
| Specifying the Stem Direction (Voice) |
| Determining the Pitch of a New Note |
| Determining the Loudness of a New Note |
| Adding Notes Using Only Your Computer Keyboard |
| Adding Notes Using Your Music (MIDI) Keyboard |
| Recording Your Performance at MIDI Keyboard to Enter Notes |
| Adding Notes Using Step-Time Recording Mode |
| Using Step-Time Recording and Sequential Note Entry Modes Together |
| Selecting, Editing and Deleting Notes |
| Alternative Methods for Selecting Notes |
| Selecting Notes and Advancing to the Next or Previous Note |
| Automatically Playing Notes When Selected |
| Deleting Notes |
| Removing Silent Notes |
| Editing Note Pitch |
| 8va Octaves |
| Editing Note Accidental (Sharp, Flat, etc.) |
| Editing the Rhythms of Notes |
| Editing Note Location (Attack) |
| Editing Note Duration |
| Editing Triplets and Quintuplets |
| Editing Swing Notation |
| Combining Separate Notes into Chords |
| Editing Accent Marks |
| Editing Beams |
| Editing Ties |
| Editing the Note Voice (Stem Direction) |
| Editing Drum Notes |
| Editing Notehead Shape |
| Transposing Notes |
| Transposing Actual Pitches |
| Transposing to the Key of an Instrument |
| Doubling and Scaling Note Durations |
| Editing Rests |
| Deleting Rests to Extend the Duration of Previous Notes |
| Dividing and Combining Rests |
| Changing the Voice of a Rest |
| Using Rests to Erase Notes |
| Eliminating Small Rests |
| Using Multiple Measure Rests |
| Hiding Rests |
| Editing Grace Notes |
| Understanding the Two Types of Grace Notes |
| Adding Grace Notes |
| Viewing Grace Notes as Written-Out Notes |
| Editing the Slash on Grace Note Stems |
| Converting Short Notes to Grace Notes |
| Editing the Timing of Grace Notes |
| Reverting Grace Notes to Written-Out Notes |
| Editing Ornaments |
| Adding Ornaments |
| Converting Written-Out Performances to Ornaments |
| Reverting Ornaments to Written-Out Notes |
| Deleting an Ornament |
| Viewing and Editing the Written-Out Performance of Ornaments |
| Editing and Transcribing Trills |
| Editing Turns |
| Editing Mordents |
| Editing Arpeggios |
| Editing and Transcribing Tremolos |
| Editing Staff Symbols |
| Brackets and Braces |
| Clefs |
| Key Signatures |
| Meters (Time Signatures) |
| Barlines |
| Repetition Marks |
| Barline Repeat Marks |
| Endings |
| D.S. and Other Go-To Marks |
| Repeat Instructions for Performances |
| Editing Music Annotations |
| Accents and Articulations |
| Dynamic Marks |
| Hairpin Crescendo Marks |
| Special Symbols |
| Slurs (Phrase Marks) |
| Adding Slurs |
| Deleting a Slur |
| Converting Pedal Performance to Pedal Marks |
| Changing the Shape and Extent of a Slur |
| Lines and Glissandos |
| Adding Lines and Glissandos |
| Deleting a Line Or Glissando |
| Changing the Extent or Angle of a Line or Glissando |
| Sustain Pedal Marks |
| Converting Pedal Marks to Pedal Performance |
| Editing Types of Text |
| General Procedures for Editing Text |
| Adding Text |
| Editing Text |
| Deleting Text |
| Selecting Font Type, Size, and Properties |
| Moving a Text Object |
| Copying and Pasting Text |
| Showing and Hiding Types of Text |
| Adding International Characters in Text |
| Lyrics |
| Adding and Editing Lyrics |
| Advancing to the Next (or Previous) Lyric |
| Adding and Editing Multiple Verses |
| Lyric Hyphen and Melisma Characters |
| Copying and Pasting Lyrics |
| Correcting the Misalignment of Lyrics with Notes |
| Editing Lyrics Using an External Text Editor |
| Working with Karaoke (.kar) Files |
| Hiding Lyrics |
| Free Text |
| Adding and Editing Free Text |
| Mixing Music Symbols and Normal Text |
| Vertically Aligning Free Text |
| Page Text |
| Adding and Editing Page Text |
| Determining What Pages Show the Page Text |
| Aligning Page Text |
| Standard Page Text Such as Page Number |
| Specifying Page Text in Templates |
| Chord Names |
| Adding and Editing Chord Names |
| Analyzing (Transcribing) Chord Names |
| Advancing to the Next (or Previous) Beat While Editing Chord Names |
| Shifting Chord Names to the Right or Left |
| Formatting Chord Names |
| Temporarily Hiding or Permanently Removing Chord Names |
| Transposing Chord Names |
| Rehearsal Marks |
| Adding and Editing Rehearsal Marks |
| Using Rehearsal Marks as Editing Bookmarks |
| Using Rehearsal Marks for Practicing Music |
| Recording from a Music Keyboard |
| Setting Up Your Music Keyboard |
| Recording in Step-Time |
| Setting the Tempo for Real-Time Recording with a Metronome |
| Setting Up Pickup Beats |
| Recording Without the Metronome |
| Setting the Instrument Sound for Recording |
| Setting Up Transcription Options for Recording |
| Starting and Ending the First Recording (Using the Metronome) |
| Recording Into a Selected Region (Punch-In) |
| Recording from a Keyboard with Two Hands |
| Recording Multiple Alternative Takes |
| Recovering an Interrupted Recording |
| Cleaning up the Performance and/or Notation after a Recording |
| Viewing and Editing the Music Performance |
| Viewing and Editing the Performance of Notes |
| Viewing and Editing the Attack and Release of Notes |
| Understanding Piano Roll Notation |
| Viewing Piano Roll Notation While Annotating a Score |
| Using the Piano Roll Palette |
| Displaying As-Performed Attack and Release Offset Data |
| Editing As-Performed Attack Location and Duration |
| Quantizing the Performance of Notes |
| Changing Only the As-Notated Location and Duration |
| Saving and Applying Note Duration Adjustments |
| Viewing and Editing the Loudness of Notes |
| Viewing the Loudness of Notes While Annotating the Score |
| Editing the Loudness of Notes |
| Filtering Notes Based on Notation |
| Inserting a Sound Change in the Middle of a Staff |
| Viewing and Editing Graphs of the Musical Performance |
| Tutorial on Graphical Music Editing |
| Tempo |
| Editing the Tempo Graphically |
| Applying a Constant Tempo, Accelerando, or Decelerando |
| Per-Staff Channel Volume Level |
| Left-to-Right Pan |
| Note Pitch Bend |
| Sustain Pedal Control |
| MIDI Controller Data |
| Configuring Your Soundcard and MIDI Equipment |
| Quick MIDI Device Setup |
| What To Do If You Do Not Hear Any Sound |
| What To Do If Recording Does Not Work |
| Procedures for Common MIDI Configuration Tasks |
| Assigning Device Names That Make Better Sense to You |
| Changing the Default Playback Device |
| Installing a USB or MIDI Cable Between Your Soundcard and Keyboard |
| Adding a New MIDI Keyboard to Your Configuration |
| Deciding Whether or Not Your Keyboard Should Directly Produce Sound |
| Procedures for Advanced MIDI Configuration Tasks |
| Installing a Software Synthesizer |
| Preparing Bank, Patch, and Drum Note Names for a MIDI Device |
| Adjusting for the Delay of Some MIDI Output Devices |
| Configuring a New External MIDI Output Device |
| Exchanging Device Descriptions With Other Computers and Users |
| How to Handle Devices Connected with MIDI Thru Cables |
| How to Save Effort if You Rearrange Your MIDI Equipment Often |
| Using the MIDI Device Configuration Window |
| Understanding the Details of the MIDI Device Configuration Window |
| Understanding Ports and Devices in the MIDI Device Configuration Window |
| Common MIDI Device Configurations |
| Playback Channels in the MIDI Device Configuration Window |
| Recording Indicator in the MIDI Device Configuration Window |
| Menus in the MIDI Device Configuration Window |
| Testing Playback and Recording Devices |
| Watching Device Activity While Playing a Song |
| Managing MIDI Ports |
| Removing a MIDI Port |
| Adding a MIDI Port |
| Connecting and Disconnecting Devices from an External Port |
| Changing the Position of a MIDI Port in the Configuration Window |
| Specifying Whether a Port Is Internal or External |
| Managing MIDI Devices |
| Importing from a MIDI Device Description (.mdd) File |
| Importing from a Cakewalk Instrument Description (.ins) File |
| Adding an External Device |
| Removing a Device |
| Renaming a Device |
| Specifying Properties of a Device |
| Specifying the Default MIDI Output Device |
| Specifying a General MIDI (GM) Device |
| Tuning a Device to Specific MIDI Channels |
| Exporting to a MIDI Device Description (.mdd) File |
| Assigning Bank, Patch, and Drum Note Names to a MIDI Device |
| Assigning a Bank to a MIDI Device |
| Removing a Bank from a MIDI Device |
| Assigning Patch Names for a MIDI Device or Bank of a Device |
| Managing Drum Note Lists |
| Managing Alternative MIDI Device Configurations |
| Selecting a Configuration |
| Creating a New Configuration |
| Re-Initializing a Configuration |
| Cloning a Configuration |
| Renaming a Configuration |
| Deleting a Configuration |
| Appendixes |
| Appendix A: Notation Composer Keyboard Shortcuts |
| Appendix B: What is MIDI? |
| Appendix C: Technical Support |
| Appendix D: Notation Composer License Agreement |
© 2010 Notation Software, Inc.