When setting the width to 0 doesn't work (it still makes the element to be displayed), I think that a minimum value of 0.01sp (for example) should be set for this field, so it would prevent users to add a value 0 that just doesn't work. What I mean is that if setting the width to 0 works for some elements (elements are not displayed) and doesn't work for others (elements are still displayed), it will be very confusing. I think it is important to maintain consistency. Since your case case only includes situations where the line is *already* very short, I wonder if maybe the existing workarounds (move drag line endpoint to left, or add spaces to end of text) might be sufficient? You can always position manually if you prefer centering.īTW, one concern about zero-length lines - they will then be difficult to see/select later unless you promise to only create zero-length lines with text.

And centering strikes me as a bad idea in case where the notes are very closely spaced - text like '15ma' could easily overlap more than one note and it would be less clear which note it actually applies to. As is, left aligning kinds of seems like a good compromise between the two guidelines.

We actually align it to the left, except for whole notes currently (again, since they are offset). She suggests placing the text slightly to the left of the notehead. It generally tries to follow the guidlines given by Elain Gould in Behind Bars, which differ from the excerpt you posted. Note that *centering* the text over the note is not actually what MuseScore is trying to do. The only case I know of where it would normally make sense for the line to be invisible is the case we *already* get right - where the line would be shorter than the text. I'll add the workaround to my existing PR on ottava layout.īut I still wonder *why* you are trying to create ottavas with invisible lines. It's one pixel wide regardless of zoom level, so not a useful behavior for us at all. I looked it up, and sure enough, Qt treats zero-width lines as one pixel wide. I think setting line width to 0 *should* make the line invisible. It would presumably be *possible* to update the code the search out elements containing text objects, but it might turn out to be kind of an ugly hack. And not just one but three - the initial text, but also optional text to appear on the the continuation line if it extends across systems, also optional text to appear at the end of the line. Ottavas and other lines are different in that they are not actually of type 'text' at all - rather they *contain* elements of type 'text'. The code to automatically update elements using a given a text style only works for 'simple' elements of type 'text' like staff text. It is 'sort of' a bug that changing ottava styles doesn't affect existing ottavas. Our posts crossed so I hadn't seen your first response. We'll be revisiting this when we decide on So it may or may not make sense to do anything different with ottavas here. It is only whole notes that are demonstrate the behavior you show above, because whole notes are themselves shifted to the left in order to center over other note types in other voices. That seems to work.ģ) The alignment of octave lines over whole notes is something I was actually just looking at the other day. You could, I suppose, plant spaces after the '8' to trick this system. We could easily work around that if we decide this is desirable - simply don't draw the line at all if width is 0.Ģ) My question is, why do you *want* to hide the line? As you've noticed, it is automatically suppressed if the nominal line length is shorter than the length of the text. Seems to be an artifact of how Qt draws lines. Add a “va” to it.1) I don't know if it is deliberately that zero-width lines render other than invisible, but I don't see anywhere that MuseScore is doing this deliberately. If you wish to add “va” for formality, select the 8va and go over to the inspector.With your palette window open, type 8va in the search bar and it should come right up.Just put the sign below the staff instead of above.(See image 5)ġ 2 3 4 5 Notating the 8va(ottava) in Musescore To indicate that a segment of music should be played one octave lower, an 8va bassa(octava bassa) could be used.Optionally, the word loco(at place) can be added for clarity as to the ending of the all’ottava, though also not necessary.If the dashed line of an all’ottava must go beyond the first line, then a courtesy “8” or “8va” can be placed at the beginning of the second line, though this is not mandatory.The end hook appears just after the last note intended to be played all’ottava.8va can be written as such(see image 2) or with just the number 8(see image 1), followed by a dashed line.If the reader sees 8va, he or she knows to play the selected music above or below the staff. The 8va sign can be used to avoid multiple ledger lines in music.

Musescore 8va