Further new features in Sibelius 2

These pages refer solely to the upgrade from Sibelius 1.x to Sibelius 2. All the improvements and many more are incorporated in the more recent upgrade to Sibelius 6.

With over 200 new features and feature enhancements, Sibelius 2 has far more than we can cover in depth, so here's a summary of the remaining improvements:

We've also reorganized some of the menus and keyboard shortcuts to make them even simpler and more efficient.

Look and feel: additional zoom percentages, e.g. 87.5%, 125% • keypad layout tabs light up to show when options are used on them • navigator show highlights and selected passages

Creating music: add lines (e.g. slurs, hairpins) along a selected passage in one action • set Flexi-time click speed with the tempo slider • metronome click now correct for pick-up (upbeat) bars • recognition of staccato, tenuto and tied notes in Flexi-time improved • Delete key when inputting deletes successive notes leftwards (like a word processor) • more than 300 instruments, from didgeridoo to melodeon • more than 130 types of manuscript paper; new types include marching/concert/wind/military/school bands, jazz combos, drum and percussion corps, handbells, special page sizes, scores with separate title pages, etc. • manuscript papers contain appropriate house style settings, e.g. winged repeats and Inkpen2 font for jazz scores, dynamics above the staff for vocal scores • more than 200 keyboard shortcuts, with many new ones, including moving accidentals/ties, transposing, etc. • now undo up to 10,000 operations • Control-clicking (Mac) or right-clicking (Windows) an object gives more menu options (e.g. paste, change voice, hide) • grace notes can be stepped through with the arrow keys and edited just like normal notes • stems on middle lines or single-line staves can point upwards by default, for percussion and vocal music • drum set (kit) revised in line with the recommendations of the US Percussive Arts Society (PAS)

Notation: bar numbers individually moveable (horizontally and vertically) • articulations and rhythm dots now moveable • flip ties and articulations with the X key • new barlines for early and avant garde music (mensurstriche, tick, short, etc.) • write barlines in some instruments and not others (easier to notate multiple simultaneous time signatures) • place normal barlines in the middle of a bar - ideal for writing tuplets across barlines • improved articulation positioning • hide individual tails and beams; useful for feathered beams and chords split between piano staves • over 50 preset guitar frame chord types • guitar frame preview • create key signatures for individual staves, allowing multiple simultaneous key signatures • redesigned dialog shows each key signature graphically • many new lines, such as guitar tab bends, wide vibrato, hairpins to/from silence, dotted/dashed hairpins, new brackets, bracketed editorial slurs and hairpins • new guitar notations automatically convert between notation and tab designs • invisible barlines, suppressed cautionary key signatures, tilde (~) text etc. behave like other hidden objects

Text & fonts: new Inkpen2 font family includes a handwritten text font, much-improved symbol designs and many more handwritten symbols • easier to enter lyrics into voices 1 and 2 independently • lyrics automatically attach to notes in the correct voice • new text style for lyrics above the staff • select a line of lyrics, chord symbols, etc. with Edit > Select > Select More • hanging punctuation (in lyrics etc.) • new symbols in the Opus font • new Opus PlainChords font for chords with no superscript characters • problems with editing text over several lines fixed • edit text by hitting Return • intelligently guesses which staff to attach text to when between staves • chord symbols can include 'stackable' alterations • chord symbols without superscripts • new text style for Nashville chord numbers • space bar advances to the next beat or note (whichever is sooner) when inputting chord symbols and figured bass; useful for chord changes over held notes or bar rests • new menu of special text styles (e.g. time signatures, bar numbers, etc.) for creating special notations

Playback: select and play back non-adjacent staves • omit repeats (optional) • built-in support for many more keyboards and sound modules • drum staves no longer require a special MIDI channel • new MIDI messages for various bank/program change combinations • NoteOn/NoteOff MIDI messages

Selections and passages: passages can contain non-adjacent staves • slurs/text etc. no longer displaced when copied using z-click or Alt+click • drag multiple selections with the mouse (e.g. multiple dynamics, all notes of a chord) • copy multiple selections (e.g. filtered selections) containing tuplets • special filters for deleting notes from chords and voices

Layout and formatting: move staves with arrow key shortcuts • staff spacing in extracted parts no longer uneven • reset object design (e.g. formatting of text, curvature of a slur) independently from its position • set mouse drag threshold and arrow nudge distance for each type of object • ignore width of lyrics when respacing notes (optional) • the left-hand end of a single-staff system is now draggable • the bottom staff of a justified page is now draggable • set default gap allowed for instrument names to the left of systems

Printing: include View options on printouts such as hidden objects, rulers, highlights, etc. • print imported graphics etc. in color

Graphics import/export: export multiple pages as graphics files at once • export just part of a page • choose the resolution of exported EMF/BMP files • crop empty page margins in exported graphics • resize imported graphics • imported graphics automatically compressed to reduce file size • imported graphics included in scores published on the Internet

Plug-ins: further new plug-ins: add ficta accidentals, check harp pedaling, Make Layout Uniform now works with multirests, split dotted rests into separate quarter + eighth note (crotchet + quaver) rests, remove dangling ties, apply House Style to folder of files, convert folder of files to graphics • various checking plug-ins highlight mistakes in yellow • all plug-ins include a Stop button • ManuScript language now supports floating point numbers, arrays, hashes, 'for… to' loops, improved text handling, highlighting, saving graphics files, access to more objects within Sibelius (e.g. voices, lyrics, lines, key and time signatures, etc.) • new Trace Plug-ins window to aid in debugging

House Styles: whole new House Style menu of publishing options • various house style files provided to import into scores • new tremolo appearance options • minimum stem length • new tie appearance options • magnetic tuplet design and positioning • default barline type (e.g. invisible barlines for unmetered scores) • automatic winged repeats (for jazz) • bar numbers below bottom staff (e.g. for film scores)

Files: Sibelius 2 opens scores from all previous versions of Sibelius, but due to file format changes, earlier versions of Sibelius cannot open Sibelius 2 scores • saved MIDI files include full playback of repeats (optional) • set default location for saving scores (Windows only) • scores open at the position and zoom factor you were at when you last saved • recent scores listed on the File menu itself • MIDI file importing: recognition of rhythm, tied notes, staccatos, tuplets, spelling of accidentals all improved • staff size automatically reduced if too many instruments in the MIDI file to fit on the page • hide imported metronome marks (optional); useful if there are many of them

Improvements prior to Sibelius 1.4

If you're currently using a version earlier than Sibelius 1.4, you'll also get some or all of the following enhancements when you upgrade to Sibelius 2:

'Magnetic' slurs which automatically reposition • append scores • auto-backup when you save • file converters for Finale, Allegro, PrintMusic, SCORE and Acorn Sibelius files • edit guitar frames by double-clicking • new instruments added • publish music directly to SibeliusMusic.com • custom keyboard shortcuts • shortcuts for laptops and other computers without numeric keypads • improved accidental positioning, and ability to move accidentals • option to beam eighths (quavers) in fours when creating time signatures • new clefs for guitar tab • new shortcut to flip note stems and slurs • symbols snap to a more intelligent position • improved appearance of lyric hyphens • new manuscript papers for worksheets, exam papers and larger noteheads • option to draw '1' over single-bar multirests • multirests can be split at any point • support for OMS and FreeMIDI (Mac only) • new 'sound sets' to support a wider range of MIDI devices • Opus and Inkpen fonts embeddable in Acrobat PDF files • new PostScript (Type 1) version of Opus • mix notehead types within a chord • removal of ties if duration of tied note changed • import/export note spacing in house styles • improved default note spacing rule • Reset Note Spacing takes account of width of lyrics • improved MIDI importing • option to view extracted parts as well as save them • automatically strip illegal characters out of web page and extracted part filenames • new percussion staff types • new plug-ins including Add Chord Symbols, Quartertone Playback, Find Range, Tonic Sol-Fa Notation, Copy Dynamics, Halve/Double Note Values, Retrograde, etc. • various printing problems fixed • export EPS files • new stem length rule for notes on the middle line/spaces of the staff • new symbols for handbell music, harp pedal diagrams, accordion music, guitar tab, jazz lift and fall, wind fingerings, conducting symbols, note clusters, choral arrows, etc. • hide any text after a tilde (~) • no need to use floppy disk when transferring Sibelius • rotate single digits to improve the appearance of angled tuplets • note positions in crossing voices improved

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