Lengthening/Shortening stems

You can lengthen/shorten the stems of individual notes, independently of your project-wide settings. You can do this for the current layout and frame chain only or for all layouts and frame chains.

Prerequisite

  • Graphic Editing is selected in the Engrave toolbox.

  • You have chosen the appropriate property scope for local properties.

Procedure

  1. In Engrave mode, select the stems you want to lengthen/shorten.
  2. Lengthen/Shorten the stems in any of the following ways:

    • Press Alt/Opt-Up Arrow to make stems longer.

    • Press Alt/Opt-Down Arrow to make stems shorter.

      Note

      If you want to lengthen/shorten stems by larger increments, you can press Ctrl/Cmd as well as the standard key command, for example, Ctrl/Cmd-Alt/Opt-Up Arrow.

    • Click and drag the square handles at the end of the stems upwards/downwards.

Result

The selected stems are lengthened/shortened, regardless of their stem direction. For example, selecting a down-stem note and pressing Alt/Opt-Up Arrow lengthens it by moving the end of the stem downwards, away from the notehead. If the property scope was set to Locally, this change only takes effect in the current layout and frame chain.

Tip

  • Stem adj. in the Notes and Rests group of the Properties panel is activated when you lengthen/shorten stems.

    You can also use this property to lengthen/shorten stems by changing the value in the value field. However, the Notes and Rests group is only available when the notehead is selected rather than the stem.

    Deactivating the property resets the selected stems to their default length.

  • You can change the default length of all stems project-wide in the Stems section of the Notes page in Engrave > Engraving Options. There are different options for stems in different contexts.