Customizing the screen - PG Music Forums

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In a wishlist forum, discussion broke out that really belongs here. Maybe this will restart it in an appropriate place.

I wish people would post a shot of their BiaB screen showing the customizations they've made to aid their work.

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Can anyone provide a Picture of how they rearranged the screen to work better for them?

The chordsheet is scaled smaller to allow other windows onscreen. The two surviving toolbars are floated out on top. The keyboards are intentionally gone.

Note that the toolbar region is not scalable. The "harmony" windows get cut off, but I don't care.

To Raymb1:

Break out the toolbars by just dragging them out of their docks. Put a cursor in the left-hand side of each, and you get one of those "move" cursors with arrows pointing 4 ways. Click and drag wherever you like.

Now, how did you get the title on the bottom?

deleted -- duplicate screenshot

http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae225/raymb1/HeresThatRainyDay.png

Re: Toolbars on the bottom. click on <Window-Put notation/chords on top> Only problem, I have to do that every time I open BIAB. Hope there's a way to make it permanent. Later, Ray

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Re: Toolbars on the bottom. click on <Window-Put notation/chords on top> Only problem, I have to do that every time I open BIAB. Hope there's a way to make it permanent.

Thanks, Ray! I wouldn't have looked in there for it, although the location makes sense.

That trick is great. It doesn't work quite predictably when the main window is scaled down. The whole title area disappears, instead of going to the bottom. That discovery will be useful: I can hide the title area when I need more room, by pressing ctrl-T. Poof: You see 30% more lines for chords. And even after it disappears the floated toolbars stay visible up top.

Having that area totally hidden almost forces you to concentrate on your arrangement, and you can get the controls back in an instant. So I guess it's a Feature. Using the hot-key makes it so easy to invert the screen that maybe it doesn't matter much about whether it sticks permanently.

EDIT: THE TITLE AREA DOES NOT DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY, AS I FIRST THOUGHT. DRAGGING DOWN THE LOWER EDGE OF THE CHORD SHEET REVEALS IT AGAIN. IT'S JUST THAT IT CAN BE HIDDEN BY SCALING WHEN IT'S ON THE BOTTOM.

Hi Larry,
I've been playing around and I ran into a problem. I'm sure it's simple but I can't figure it out.
When I resize the BIAB Window, it cuts off the right side of my measures.
I have 4 per line. I'm missing something.
How do I get the measures to fit?

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Thanks, Wayne,

It will just scale down to size without any special trickery - reduces the type size to get the whole line in. Don't even fool with the so-called "Daw Plugin" thing.

But I suddenly think you don't have the DAW Plugin thing...

Scalability did not arrive until version 2010. I suspect yours is older, right? If so, many customizations will be available to you, but not that one.

No DAW plugin here, but I have version 2009.
I guess that's it. What a drag. Resizing has been in Windows Software forever.
Thanks for the info, I thought I was missing something simple, but it seems the program is.
Wayne,

No, BiaB has never been in any rush to join the modern era.

You could upgrade to version 2011, Wayne, if you want scalability. Or just wait until the next time you do upgrade in the normal course of things. All you need is the cheap Contempto-Pak ("Pro" or whatever they call it).

Meanwhile, you can shoot for other improvements in your 2009 copy. Kill those keyboards, and you'll gain lines of workspace. There are color schemes and font substitutions you might like.

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Kill those keyboards, and you'll gain lines of workspace.

How do you do that. I tried the corners and don't get a cursor of any type. Also my `11 will not resize w/o the DAW button activated. Are there draw backs to using that method?

Ron

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Kill those keyboards, and you'll gain lines of workspace.

How do you do that. I tried the corners and don't get a cursor of any type. Also my `11 will not resize w/o the DAW button activated. Are there draw backs to using that method?

Ron

To get rid of the keyboard you need to go to Opt.->Preferences (CNTL E), and then press the 'display' button. The 'Display Options' box will show up, you then need to un-click 'Show the On-screen piano'

THANK YOU DAVE!

Ron

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How do you do that. I tried the corners and don't get a cursor of any type. Also my `11 will not resize w/o the DAW button activated. Are there draw backs to using that method?
Ron

Pulling at the left edges of the toolbars is the way to peel them out of their their docks. It does work if you find the right area. The keyboards have no such hotspot. Dave tells how to defeat the keyboards.

The Daw Mode does not have to be turned on in 2010.5, in order to resize. I suspect you're locked in full screen view, which prevents you from resizing or moving. BiaB likes to default to that view, so click on the double-folder icon at the far upper RIGHT. That should make you resizable. It's normal Windows behavior.