Lyrics
Overview
Lyrics, the words for a song, are entered with the command Edit: Lyrics.... The command can be accessed in any of the following manners:
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Select the Edit command menu and then select Lyrics...
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The quick key Ctrl+L
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The Lyric icon, which is the blue capital L
To set lyrics for a staff, click the staff to make it active and access the lyrics command (Ctrl+L). Once you have the Staff Lyrics dialog box open, on the Configuration tab, set how many lyric lines your song will have with Line Count. Select the number of lines with the drop down box. This can be changed at anytime. So, if you are not sure how many lines you will have, start with "1 Lyric Line" as shown below. You cannot add lyrics until you have set the Line Count.
Setting Line Count to "1 Lyric Line" will make the Lyric 1 tab available. Click on the Lyric 1 tab. Click in the white box. You will enter your lyrics in this box, as shown below. Then click OK. If you already have notes placed on the staff, the lyrics will appear with the notes. If you do not have notes on the staff yet, the lyrics will show once notes are added. When you need to change or add to the lyrics, go back to Edit: Lyrics.
For more specifics and examples, see...
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The
�Lyrics Command section of the online help file. -
Sample song files, such as JINGLE.nwc and SAVEQUEN.nwc - go to Edit: Lyrics to see how lyrics were entered.
Setting Notes to Not Have Lyrics
Lyrics will start at the first note of the song. If you have notes at the beginning, or anywhere in the song, that that you do not want lyrics assigned to, there are 2 methods to skip the notes.
Method 1
Set the property of the notes to never have lyrics. To do this, select/highlight the notes that you do not want to have lyrics, press Alt+Enter to access the note properties dialog box, and under the Notes tab, set Lyric Syllable to Never. See the diagram below.
Method 2
Use an (underscore) in the Lyric Editor (Ctrl+L) for each note you want to skip. If you have several lines of lyrics and you want lyrics both assigned and not assinged to the same notes based on the verse, you will need to use the underscores. For example, entering _ in a Lyrics tab will skip 4 notes. These notes will not have lyrics and the underscore will not show in the editor or print. See the diagram below for an example.
Assigning Lyrics to Tied or Slurred Notes
By default, lyrics are not assigned to notes that are the beneficiary of a tie or slur. If you would like to assign lyrics to these notes, select the notes, press Alt+Enter, under the Notes tab, set Lyric Syllable to Always.
Changing the Font Size and Style
In some cases you may want to keep the staff size the same, but increase the size of the lyrics. You may also want to use a font other than the default Times New Roman. To change the lyric size and font for an open file:
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Select File: Page Setup.
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Click the Fonts tab.
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In the scroll box, click Staff Lyric and click Modify.
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In the Font dialog box, change the Font, Font style and Size as you like.
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Click OK.
Assigning Lyrics Both Above and Below a Staff
To assign lyrics above the staff and below the staff, you will need to use staff layering, details at faq #4.
With staff layering, you will create one staff with the lyrics on top of the staff and create another staff with the lyrics under the staff. Then you will layer the 2 staves to be one staff with lyrics on top and bottom.
For the staff that you want to assign lyrics above, click the staff to make it active, use Ctrl+L (Edit:Lyrics) to open the lyric editor and on the Configuration tab, for Staff Placement - Assignment, set Top. For the staff you want to assign lyrics below the staff, set this to Bottom.
For an example, see the sample song file LAYERING.nwc.
Cutting and Pasting Lyrics
When working with lyrics you may want to copy, cut and paste lyrics within the Staff Lyrics dialog box or between NoteWorthy Composer and another application. You can copy, cut and paste lyrics by using the Windows clipboard manipulation keys.
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While in the lyric editor (Ctrl+L), select (highlight) the section of lyrics you want to work with by holding down the left mouse button and dragging it across the lyrics or by using Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right Arrow Key.
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Press Ctrl+C to copy the lyrics or press Ctrl+X to cut the lyrics.
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Place your insertion point where you want to insert the copied or cut lyrics.
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Paste the lyrics by pressing Ctrl+V.
Assigning Several Words to One Note
The underscore ( _ ) can be used to connect several lyric words to one note. For example, "Word1_Word2" entered in the Staff Lyrics Editor (Edit: Lyrics) would assign "Word1 Word2" to a single note.
There is not a feature in NWC to automatically number the lyric lines. However, you can manually number each lyric line. In Edit: Lyrics, type "1._Firstword" You will see on the staff "1. Firstword" The number 1 will appear under the first note. To adjust this, select the first note, press Alt+Enter, under the Notes tab, increase Extra Note Spacing to 2. This will place the note over Firstword instead of 1.
Numbering the Lyric Lines
Insert: Object, VerseNumbers.ms.
More Help on Lyrics
The �Lyrics Command section of the online help file
Regarding MID and KAR Files
