Hi Matt and others :-)

I'm somewhat new to posting replies, but here goes ...

I was happy to read your posts, Matt, about Don Williams possibly resurrecting Encore. Since the mid-90's, I used Encore for the Mac to compose and meticulously notate over 550 songs, including a 2 hour choir cantata on the "Old Testament" book of Isaiah.

To be able to continue using Encore, I've had to keep one of my Macs running with the old OS. But here's the marvel … I've found that when running Encore using MOJAVE OS, the program is FAR MORE stable than it was with MANY of the operating systems before that. I still make TONS and TONS of backups of songs I'm working on while editing them, since crashes still happen — particularly if I'm not just writing with a melody staff, but with a piano staff as well — but I'm amazed at how many of my old scores continue to open well (and edit well) with this current setup.

Incidentally, just to let you know: when I click on "About Encore", it lists the version I'm using as 5.0.6.1303M, which I was told was the most recent version. And immediately below that, the "About Encore" window lists the version as 5.0.7. That's a bit strange, I know, considering the more detailed version-identification above the "5.0.7" lists it as "5.0.6 …"

In any case, I thought I would pass this information along. My life is super busy with other matters, thus, as I continue to write music, I am still using Encore rather than learning a new program. But that's also because I want to still be able to edit and improve earlier compositions.

By the way, I've also been working hard, going through ALL my Encore compositions, generating PDF's and primitive XML files from each of them just in case I must one day fully bail from Encore. Should that day ever come, and I suspect it will, can you guys offer suggestions re: the best way to convert my PDF scores to a quality XML file? (I created the PDF scores using Encore's print function on the Mac.) Typically, my scores contain not only a melody line, chord symbols, lyrics, and a notated piano introduction, but also many "text" boxes as well. Thus, the better the PDF to XML converter the better. As you know, the XML files exported by Encore are exceedingly basic, not even retaining lyrics or chord symbols.

Thanks! And all the best to all of you! It would be such a blessing if Don W. was given strength and wisdom to "resurrect" our favorite app!

:-) Mark

P.S. This may be old news to you, but here's a tip just in case: I've found that when an Encore score crashes, I must (1) go back to a prior version since the version that just crashed got even more corrupted by the crash, and (2) I sometimes find that if I select several lines of my score in a suspected problem area and "cut" all of that area's note and etc data, then rebuild the section from scratch, it clears the problem and the score no longer crashes. I also find that some scores begin to crash when I move a staff up or down and then do a save. When that happens, I just go back to an earlier version prior to me moving the staff.