Moving notehead brackets graphically

You can move individual notehead brackets graphically without changing the notes to which they apply, including moving left and right notehead brackets independently of each other. You can do this for the current layout and frame chain only or for all layouts and frame chains.

Note

You cannot move notehead brackets rhythmically. If you want to show notehead brackets on different notes, you must hide them on their original notes and show them on the new notes.

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 notehead brackets you want to move graphically.
    Note

    You must select whole notehead brackets, not any of their handles.

  2. Move the notehead brackets in any of the following ways:

    • Press Alt/Opt-Right Arrow to move them to the right.

    • Press Alt/Opt-Left Arrow to move them to the left.

    • Press Alt/Opt-Up Arrow to move them upwards.

    • Press Alt/Opt-Down Arrow to move them downwards.

      Tip

      If you want to move items by larger increments, you can press Ctrl/Cmd as well as the standard key command, for example, Ctrl/Cmd-Alt/Opt-Left Arrow.

    • Click and drag them in any direction.

Result

The selected notehead brackets are moved graphically without changing the notes to which they apply. If the property scope was set to Locally, this change only takes effect in the current layout and frame chain. If necessary, other items, such as ties and slurs, automatically move out of the way to accommodate their new positions. This might affect note spacing and casting off.

Tip

  • The following properties in the Bracketed Noteheads group of the Properties panel are activated automatically when you move the corresponding notehead bracket.

    • L bracket body moves left notehead brackets. X moves them horizontally, Y moves them vertically.

    • R bracket body moves right notehead brackets. X moves them horizontally, Y moves them vertically.

    You can also use these properties to move notehead brackets graphically by changing the values in the value fields.

    Deactivating the properties resets the selected notehead brackets to their default positions.

  • You can change the default positions of all notehead brackets, including the gaps between them and other items, on the Bracketed Noteheads page in Engrave > Engraving Options.