DocumentationNotation & Editing

Notation & Editing

The Write activity is the main notation workspace. Use note input for new music, then return to normal mode to select existing material and apply commands, palettes, or inspector changes.

Select musical material

  • Click a note or notation item to select it.
  • Shift-click extends the selection through the score.
  • Ctrl-click toggles individual items.
  • Click empty staff space to select a measure.
  • Ctrl+A selects all applicable material.

Arrow keys move the selection by event or staff. Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right jump by measure; Home and End move to the first or last event in the measure. Alt+Left and Alt+Right cycle through annotations attached to the current event. Hold Shift with an arrow to extend the selection by event or staff.

Apply common edits

The fastest commands act directly on the selection:

Key Action
S Toggle a slur
T Toggle a tie to the next note
F Flip direction or above/below placement
R Repeat the selection immediately after itself
. Toggle an augmentation dot
Shift+T Set tempo at the selection
Shift+X Add staff text
Delete Replace selected rhythmic events with rests

Pitch transposition follows one vertical-arrow grammar in normal and note-input modes:

Key Transposition
Alt+↑ / Alt+↓ Diatonic step
Alt+Shift+↑ / Alt+Shift+↓ Chromatic step (semitone)
Ctrl+Alt+↑ / Ctrl+Alt+↓ Octave

Use Edit → Transpose Selection… when you need a named interval or more control than the direct arrow-key transposition commands.

Palettes and radial menus

The left panel contains notation palettes and clipboard history. Palettes are useful when you want to browse available symbols; radial menus are faster once you know the category shortcut.

Shortcut Category
Shift+A Articulations
Shift+B Barlines
Shift+C Clefs
Shift+D Dynamics
Shift+E Ornaments and expressions
Shift+F Fingerings
Shift+H Breath marks and fermatas
Shift+M Time signatures
Shift+R Repeats
Shift+3 Tuplets
Shift+5 Key signatures

Choose an item from a radial menu to apply it to the current selection. The same commands remain available from the palettes when you prefer a persistent visual list.

Inspector

The right inspector changes properties of the selected item. The available controls depend on what is selected: notes expose pitch and notation properties, while slurs, barlines, text, and other annotations expose their own specialized controls.

Use direct shortcuts for frequent actions and the inspector for precise or less common properties. Both edit the same MNX document and participate in undo and redo.

Clipboard history

Copy and paste use MNX-aware score fragments rather than pixels. The History tab in the left panel retains recent copied fragments and shows a musical preview, making it useful when reusing several passages.

Jump bar

Press Ctrl+Space to open the jump bar. It can:

  • run editor commands;
  • switch activities such as Setup, Play, Picture, or Publish;
  • jump to a measure or rehearsal mark;
  • switch between score and instrumental-part views;
  • open a specific Settings category or Help.

Type a few characters to filter the list, use the arrow keys to choose a result, and press Enter. For direct navigation, type m12 or b12 for measure 12, or rA for rehearsal mark A.

For entering new notes, see Note Entry. For the complete binding list, see Keyboard & Mouse.