Matt: Wow, "I still use Encore", I remember and used Encore for a long time (way way back), I dropped it because of a lack of support.

Unfortunately I can't remember much of Noteworthy Composer except I used it for about 1 year (long ago). If memory serves me, it worked well and easy as pie to use but I always thought of it as a beginner's intro into the music notation sw.

And so I went for the big ones, I have/had Finale and Sibelius but I didn't like either one; difficult and frustrating to use. I just wanted something simple to use.

You're right about checking out the demos. I bought some because of their "name".