Not sure how much longer all of the posts on the Sibelius Blog will stay posted as I am not sure where Daniel ended up in the midst of Avid’s messing with Sibelius. Today though I was reading through looking for some information and found a few very helpful tips Daniel has posted.
Here are some links…
- Understand margins in Sibelius better
- Shortcuts to selections
- Multi-Copy - Copy dynamics into multiple staff all at once
- Change Instrument Names Plugin - This allows you to quickly change all names of any staff you want for your score.
James Humberstone has a great post on optimizing your Sibelius files for use in Scorch on your iPad. Go read the article It’s not that you really HAVE to optimize your score for iPad but you may end up with something that is more readable.
In my own working with Sibelius I have found a few things that make my work faster…
- Don’t do things twice – like enter articulations and dynamics. Use Multi-Copy tip from above.
- Use the Re-Input Pitch tool! That way you can enter the flute part notes for example, then put all the articulations and dynamics and hairpins into the part. You then simply copy that part into the Clarinet part for any sections that use the same rhythms etc. but the pitch is different. Once copied then you use your shortcut, Shift Command I on a mac, and start typing new pitch names. This saves you a TON of time from starting from scratch.
- Learn your keyboard shortcuts! I couldn’t even tell you where some of the functions I use exist in the menu’s.
- Create your own shortcuts – I have shortcuts set up so I can insert accents, marcatos, fermatas, staccatos and dry rolls very quickly with the press of just a few keys. Anything you find yourself inputting on a constant basis should have a shortcut assigned to it!
