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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 3
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OP
Newbie
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 3 |
Hi,
I would really apprecciate if someone could tell me what settings I need to adjust to prevent the chord symbols and the lyrics overlapping when I print a lead sheet. I clearly need to adjust the spacing of the staves, chord symbols and lyrics but I can't figure out what should be changed,
Steve.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 603
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 603 |
Steve --
Open the notation view for your tune and press the "OPT." button. That opens the Notation Options menu that includes "Chord Vertical Position" and "Lyrics position". What you choose for those will carry all the way through to the printout. It's an odd place to put those controls, with no indication that they will fix your printout. But they've been that way forever.
More controls that affect printing are found in the "Leadsheet Options" menu and (at last) the Print Options menu. The different menus have some secondary hidden pages, as well.
In other words, three different menus affect final printout. You are not the first to find that a little hard to follow.
Larry
______
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 824
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Jul 2001
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Those options are a good starting point but you will find some other factors also affect the colliding of lyrics and chord symbols.
In the Notation Window Options - push the 'Opt' button:
1. The "Chord Font" and "Lyrics Font" entries by % will affect the spacing between staves
In the print options screen - push the 'Print' button:
1. "font size", which determines the size of the staves.
2. "Staves per page", which determines the space between staves in combination with "font size".
3. Note that the settings for 'Line Based' or 'Note based' also determine how far below the staff the lyric is positioned.
4. If you push the 'More' button you will find the settings for "Margins & Misc. Settings". Your dimension for Top and Bottom margins can also affect how many staves fit on the page, leaving sufficient room between staves so that no collision occurs.
Once you get it set up to your liking you will be able to reproduce the settings very quickly. I did print screens 'way back when' to remind myself. And believe me, it is even worse if you are a trombone player and want everything in bass cleff, mostly above the stave.
Grah Jive Talk
"Don't worry baby, they'll swing their arses off."
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 3
Newbie
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OP
Newbie
Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 3 |
Thank you for your help, but after spending a couple of hours I cannot figure out a way to make a lead sheet print that doesn't have some feature unusable or bizzare. I am not looking for precise control such as I would get in Finale I just want to print a usable lead sheet with the lyric text not too small and the staves a fairly normal size, ie not huge or tiny. Having played with the settings now I have to admit I am completely beaten.
I have tried returning all three dialogue boxes
lead sheet options
notation window options
printing window options
to default settings but I still can't make an ok printout. I keep getting weird things like the Style and Tempo text is huge and I can find no way to modify it.
Could somebody suggest some settings for each of these boxes that would produce a tolerable result. Ideally it would be good if I could print a little bit larger than the average music book as I have vision problems.
I must say that I am feeling extremely frustrated. I am finding what shoudn't be such a difficult thing to be one of the most frustrating software problems I have experienced. I am not often completely beaten by a piece of software. Surely everything in its default settings should produce a usable result.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
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Veteran
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Make use of the Print Preview button found in the window after you hit Print.
It is as true WYSIWYG *What You See Is What You Get* and can save time, toner and paper.
Yes, all those settings in all those places is a frustration at times.
I have my BB open and here's my settings, which seem to print most things alright, but I give no guarantees about that. The thing seems to get me just when I need it most and don't have a lot of time to mess with it. Of course.
In the Lead Sheet Options window:
Experiment with the Font Size there, which is listed in Percentages. You can use the buttons, but you can also kind of narrow it down by typing a percentage in the little box as well.
While there, not the "number of staves per page" setting, changing that to less staves per page often yields more room, especially when lyrics are to be included.
I often set the Show Bar #s to None to free up some real estate as well, sometimes if there is a need for rehearsal numbers, I'll set it to Every Part Marker, but having it number every single bar is just silly IMO.
You can also hit the Notation Options button and uncheck the Display Patch Names on Notation, set that to False, again, it is rather silly and likely meaningless information to have on the sheet.
Close the Options window and hit the Print button at the top of the Leadsheet View page next. Don't worry, it won't print yet.
See the Staves per Page button there also? I have never figured out which of the two actually controls what, but right now, for example, mine is set to "10" here, while the one in the Leadsheet Options window is set for "4" and that's from a recent printout session that yielded what I needed the band to see.
Under the Font Size setting, I will use 48 for a leadsheet with no lyrics, have lowered that to 24 for one with lyrics IIRC. Again, I make lots of use of the Print Preview button to inspect what it looks like before I waste paper and ink.
About those Style and Tempo markings, I often highlight and delete them in the slots in the Print Window. They really aren't needed all that much on a sheet. Especially the Style, which doesn't mean anything to musicians not really familiar to Band in a Box styles.
A little trial and error using the Print Preview and you might just get what you're after.
Or, as we used to say when tuning up in the old USAF band, something "close enough for gummint work!"
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Aug 2012
Posts: 3
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OP
Newbie
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Hi Mac,
Thank you so much for your advice. After some more frustration I eventually did get there and have been able to printout something that looks quite good and easy to read.
The breakthrough was :
the font size and nos of staves settings in the "Lead Sheet Options" affect only the onscreen display of the lead sheet window.
The font size and nos of staves settings in the "Print Options" affect only the printout. And neither interacts with the other.
The settings in the "Notation Options" affect both.
After all this time as is so often the case it was one little setting that I needed to find in this case the "font size (def.) = "
Clearly these dialogue boxes need to be overhauled from the point of view of ease of use, but the end result is quite good.
Thanks for your help again.
Steve
Last edited by stevehumus; 01/11/13 10:30 PM.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: May 2000
Posts: 38,502
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: May 2000
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Quote:
The breakthrough was :
the font size and nos of staves settings in the "Lead Sheet Options" affect only the onscreen display of the lead sheet window.
The font size and nos of staves settings in the "Print Options" affect only the printout. And neither interacts with the other.
The settings in the "Notation Options" affect both.
So one would think, Steve *grin*
The reason I was kind of cautioning on those issues is that I have had things go bump in the night and there I sit, a half hour late to leave for the rehearsal, going back thru those settings because the songfiles I need to take to the rehearsal aren't printing satisfactorily. Sometimes it has to do with me trying to print a song layout that differs from my "norm" but other times, no explanation for the strange happenings.
Sometimes I have hit the Return to Factory Settings under the Options menu and was able to start all over again with my preferred Print settings and whatnot. Awhile back though, with the previous version of BB, there was about a three-day long exasperation going on here. It is what it is, I eventually did something that somehow brought it back to what I wanted rather than what I was getting.
That said, I still love using BB for the creation of fast leadsheets, the note-entry method in the Notation Editor is simply a brilliant thing, automatially filling in the right note lengths or rests like it does. I've got Sibelius here, would take a much longer time to wack out a simply leadsheet than what BB does.
Good on you for sticking with it and getting it sorted, Steve.
Have Fun,
--Mac
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 824
Expert
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Expert
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 824 |
Yep Mac, I could not live without BB leadsheets. We use them in all the jazz bands I play with in preference to RealBooks. A production print run for me usually involves C (treble clef and bass clef), Bb, Eb parts and a chord chart. I also like to get each part on a single sheet of A4. You need very good control of the print layouts, I can tell you. But it is okay, once you get it down. And you can even produce quite complex band arrangements (charts) using the automatic harmony features. Now there's a challenge for 'would-be printers out'. Harmony parts!  I also use BB for the first stage of any big band arrangement because it is so easy to enter the melody and secondary lines compared to the Finale, Sibelius, Overture 4 etc. And, again, that ability to create different types of harmonies very quickly. Only then do I dump a BB midi file into Sibelius to tidy up the arrangement.
Grah Jive Talk
"Don't worry baby, they'll swing their arses off."
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 392
Journeyman
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Journeyman
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 392 |
1. I think this thread should be a "sticky" with a PRINTING headline. Pretty soon, this thread will be buried and a search for "printing" will likely return a jillion hits...not many of which will be as informative as this one.
2. I seem to recall posting a Wish List comment concerning CONSOLIDATING ALL PRINTING-RELATED TWEAKS.
Seems to me that not a single existing tweak page would have to be edited from its existing format.
Rather, every single tweak that would have ANYTHING to do with how a Leadsheet would be printed could just be duplicated and CONSOLIDATED into one button...maybe with a printer icon....ya think??? (-:
That way, a user could just start at the top of the tweak check boxes and by process of elimination, end up with whatever BIAB is capable of producing. That might be tedious but would be VASTLY better than having to go to several different locations...some of which aren't the least bit obvious.
Best,
Jim
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 8
Newbie
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Newbie
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 8 |
Sorry I can’t help; only replying to help me follow this post.
I swear I could’ve written both the OP and this second post of the OP as I’ve gone through the same steps and yes, even saddled with low vision myself.
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 20,607
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 20,607 |
DH00,
The above thread that you've replied to is from 2013. (For example, the post from Graham Martin is from January 13, 2013). If you are having problems, it would be better to start a new thread.
--Noel
MY SONGS...Audiophile BIAB 2026
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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 8
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Newbie
Joined: Jan 2016
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Thanks Noel, I had noticed that after I first posted but figured ah well it’ll serve as a placemark for me. I’ve owned one form or another of BiaB since 2014, but have always struggled with it for this or that reason. Just this year I’ve discovered the power of AI search results (vs. the old Google, Siri, Sherlock etc. dead ends). AI has gotten me light years down the learning curve of BiaB features, where its own user manual never could.
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