G'day Flatfoot,
Quote:

One thing I want to do is fix a note. I want to be able to click on a note and get a menu that allows me to change the note from C to C#, or from an eighth to a quarter. Does Noteworthy allow that?



As John has already indicated it's easy enough, but best handled without the mouse. You don't actually click the note, but drag across it to select (highlight) it - easier to <Shift-Arrow> over it from the keyboard, then press <9>, or click the # button. To go from eighth to quarter select the same way as above and press:
  • 1=whole
  • 2=half
  • 3=quarter
  • 4=eighth
  • 5=sixteenth
  • 6=thirtysecond
  • 7=natural
  • 8=flat
  • 9=sharp


Navigation round the score is easy too:
<Left or Right Arrow> shift an "object" (note, rest, text entry, barline, dynamic etc..)
<Ctrl-Left or Right Arrow> go to the start of the next (or previous) bar
<Shift-Left or Right Arrow> Select (highlight) next or previous object*
<Ctrl-Shift-Left or Right Arrow> Select (highlight) all objects from the current position to the beginning of the next or previous bar*

* Repeated presses adds to the selection - these also work with the mouse instead of the arrow, you just drag over the objects to be selected - quick, easy and intuitive.

I've lost count of the number of notation packages I've "auditioned" and while NWC doesn't have some features I'd like to have available the user interface is soooo much better than everything else I've looked at that it became the deal breaker for every other product. Especially Finale and Sibelius - those two have the name, and some great features, but their UI really sucks and they don't have anywhere near the flexibility.

Which brings me to one other point. NWC is, I think, the only one that doesn't force you to define the number of staves (instruments) before you can start and force the bar structure (from the time sig.) while entering notes - I find these two 'features" of other products highly counter-productive - particularly if I'm in an experimental mode. You can easily fix the barline positions AFTER you've played around and got the rhythm right - just perform a barline audit. As for adding staves - forget the crap the others want you to go through - just press <Ctrl-A> and voila - a new staff for a new instrument - don't really want the new staff? OK, make it the current one and press <Ctrl-D>.

Oh yeah, made some mistakes? User definable level of undo's (<Ctrl-Z> of course) - I have 64 levels of undo set - maximum is 100. Didn't mean to undo? <Ctrl-Y> is redo with the same number of levels as undo.

And then there's user tools - man these are great! Create your own tools! NWC doesn't do something you would like natively? - write a user tool. That's if one hasn't already been created for the job. Can't write code - that's fine, doesn't stop you from using tools others have created.


It's a good product, for the price I reckon it's a great product. The demo is slightly feature limited and I can't remember what those limitations are but they won't prevent you from getting a good feel for it.

Last edited by Lawrie; 04/17/09 05:41 PM.