Global options and graphic copy |
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Basic global options [Light] [Beginner] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
In the Options menu, select the Global
options
item. The following dialog box appears:

It lets you select a few options that are independent of the
Pizzicato document. When you change these options, it is valid
for all the documents you will open thereafter. Let us see these
parameters in detail:
- The Scroll score window check box, when
activated (by default), asks Pizzicato to automatically
scroll the score when it is played. The menu right below
lets you select the refresh frequency each measure, after
two measures, three measures or by full screen (by
default).
- The Scroll sequencer view check box is
similar, but it applies for the sequencer window.
- The Curve factor for slurs is a graphic
adjustment. Its default value is 30. It affects the
drawing of slurs and ties in the score. By decreasing it,
the slurs resemble more and more to a straight line and
by increasing it they are more curved.
- The Slur thickness determines the thickness at
the middle point of slurs and ties.
- The Default window frame specifies the view
Pizzicato will open when you open a document. By checking
the Maximum size box, the window will occupy the
full screen (except if several documents are open at the
same time). The instrument window being a fixed size
window, it is not influenced by the Maximum size box.
- The Follow score playing frame contains a menu
specifying how the play cursor moves during the reading
of a score. It will move Every measure, Every
beat, Every half beat, Every quarter of
a beat or Continuously. By checking the Vertical
line box, a vertical line will follow the play on
all staves of the score. By checking the Colour
played notes box, Pizzicato will draw the notes in
red when they are played.
- The Play edited notes box lets you enable or
disable the playing of a note when you place it on the
score or when you move a note with the mouse.
- Pizzicato Beginner has an additional text box
and a button used to select the default template. By
selecting the New item in the File menu,
Pizzicato will open the template selected here.
Advanced global options [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro]
In the Options menu, select the Global
options
item. The following dialog box appears:

It lets you select a few options that are independent of the
Pizzicato document. When you change these options, it is valid
for all the documents you will open thereafter. Let us see these
parameters in detail:
- The At Pizzicato startup frame lets you specify
the action executed when starting Pizzicato.
- The New document frame lets you specify the
action executed when you select the New item in
the File menu.
- The Activate Undo/Redo box validates the
memorizing of a certain number of operations you execute
on the score. When you select the Undo item in
the Edit menu, Pizzicato goes back one step by
"undoing" the last operation. You can activate
up to 50 undo levels. This function is useful when you
executed for example a wrong operation: you can bring the
score back to the state where it was before the faulty
operation.
- The Scroll score window check box, when
activated (by default), asks Pizzicato to automatically
scroll the score when it is played. The menu right below
lets you select the refresh frequency each measure, after
two measures, three measures or by full screen (by
default).
- The Scroll sequencer view check box is
similar, but it applies for the sequencer window.
- The Scrolling of the conductor view check box
determines how the conductor view will scroll
(continuously or step by step).
- For Pizzicato Pro and Notation, the Musical
font frame lets you select the musical font used to
display the notes, keys, accidentals
Only the Pizzicato
musical font is delivered with the software. Three
other musical font can be recognized and used, but only
if they are already installed on your computer. One is
the Fughetta musical font. It is sold by Mr
Blake Hodgetts and a shareware version can be downloaded
on the internet address:
http://www.efn.org/~bch/AboutFonts.html
- The Follow score playing frame contains a menu
specifying how the play cursor moves during the reading
of a score. It will move Every measure, Every
beat, Every half beat, Every quarter of
a beat or Continuously. By checking the Vertical
line box, a vertical line will follow the play on
all staves of the score. By checking the Colour
played notes box, Pizzicato will draw the notes in
red when they are played.
- The Default window frame specifies the view
Pizzicato will open when you open a document. By checking
the Maximum size box, the window will occupy the
full screen (except if several documents are open at the
same time). The instrument window being a fixed size
window, it is not influenced by the Maximum size box.
- The Play edited notes box lets you enable or
disable the playing of a note when you place it on the
score or when you move a note with the mouse.
- The Default template frame has a text box and a
button to select the default template used by Pizzicato.
- The Curve factor for slurs is a graphic
adjustment. Its default value is 30. It affects the
drawing of slurs and ties in the score. By decreasing it,
the slurs resemble more and more to a straight line and
by increasing it they are more curved.
- The Slur thickness determines the thickness at
the middle point of slurs and ties.
Graphic copy [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
It is possible to copy the contents of the score view so as to
paste the picture in your word processor or drawing program. To
do this, open a score window and in the Edit menu select
the Copy image
item. The following dialog
box appears:

- Graphic resolution determines the resolution of
the copied picture. 75 corresponds to the screen
resolution. If you want a good resolution, you can keep
300 or even increase it. It depends on what you want to
do with the image. If it must be printed, we advise you a
minimum of 300 DPI (Dot Per Inch = Pixel per inch). You
will probably have to reduce the image to 25 % when used
in another program, but you will gain in smoothness at
printing. If you use the pictures to build an Internet
site about music, a value of 75 DPI will be appropriate.
- By checking Draw a frame around the image, a
black border is added around the picture.
- On Windows, by checking Colour image, the memory
used will be more important, but any colour present in
the score will also be copied. Please note that some
applications do not accept black and white bitmap images.
In such a case, check this box and your application
(Word, Open Office, Corel,...) will then accept to paste
the image. On Mac, the colours are automatically copied.
- The Save as... button allows you to save the
picture as a graphic file that can be used by other
programs (BMP - Bitmap - format for Windows and PICT
format for Mac).
- The Copy to clipboard button copies the picture
so that you can paste it in any program accepting
pictures.
Notice that the copied picture is formed with the contents of
the score window. Before copying, you can decrease the size of
the window so that it includes exactly the area you want to copy.
The value of the display zoom does not affect the copied picture.
Additional options [Light] [Beginner] [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Light] [Composition Pro] [Drums and Percussion] [Guitar] [Choir] [Keyboard] [Soloist]
When selecting the Additional
options... item from the Options menu, the
following dialog appears:

The upper part is used to define the default directories
proposed by Pizzicato when opening or saving a file. After
installation, there are no default directory checked. If you
enable one or more check boxes, you may then select your favorite
default directory with the corresponding Select...
button. Pizzicato will then propose you that directory as the
first choice in an open/save dialog box.
In the lower part, six check boxes define the default
behaviour of Pizzicato:
- The first check box forces Pizzicato to automatically
transcribe an imported MIDI file so as to display its
score content.
- The second check box automatically opens the tool
palettes that were opened the last time you closed
Pizzicato.
- The last check box forces Pizzicato to adapt the notes to
the clef of the destination measures, when you copy/paste
measures inside a document. The clefs are not pasted.
- The fourth check box enables the automatic adjustment of
slurs, for slurs entered since version 3.6, which takes
into account the start and stop note of a slur and adjust
it automatically.
- The fifth check box determines if Pizzicato will
automatically separate the various percussion instruments
when importing a MIDI file.
- The sixth check box enable the font smoothing function
while drawing the score. This gives a nicer aspect to the
score, but if you experiment slow reactions of Pizzicato
when manipulating the score, try to disable this option.
Note : depending on the version you have, some of the above
options are not applicable. For instance, as Pizzicato Light does
not import MIDI files, the import MIDI options are irrelevant for
Pizzicato Light.