Tools and selections

The basic tools are the selection tool, the erase tool, and those for inserting notes, rests, text and so on, which are usually accessed from the toolbar buttons.

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Choosing a tool changes the default behaviour of the mouse buttons on the main notation canvas, at least until another tool is chosen instead. For example, choosing the selection tool allows you to make selections and so to use the selection-based functions (below); choosing an insertion tool (such as one of the notes) switches the GUI's behaviour so as to insert notes by clicking on the canvas; choosing the erase tool allows you to remove events by clicking on them.

You can also change the current tool using the Tools menu.

The majority of the remaining menu functions require a selection to be made on the canvas before they can be used. Some of them (such as Cut or the Note Style functions) will operate on any selected events; others (such as the Grace Notes or Stem Directions functions) will refuse to work unless the selection contains some notes.

To select some events on the canvas, switch to the Select (arrow) tool and then outline a rectangular area containing the events you want to select. The selected events will then be highlighted in blue. If you click on a single event, just that event will be selected ^[4]).

If you hold Shift while dragging out a rectangle, its contents will be added to any existing selection instead of replacing it.

To select a whole bar, double-click with the Select tool on some empty space within that bar; to select the whole staff, click three times. The Edit menu carries functions for selecting extended areas based on the location of the insert cursor, and you can also select events around the insert cursor by holding Shift and pressing the left or right arrow keys.

It is not possible to select events from more than one staff at once.

You can also do a certain amount of editing just by dragging things around. Switch to the Select (arrow) tool, and then you can change the pitch of notes by just click-and-dragging their heads up or down, and change the times of notes and other events by dragging them left or right. (You can't drag rests or time signatures, but you can drag everything else. If you have more than one event selected, the whole selection will be dragged at once.)

Dragging is usually a less accurate way of editing things than using the menu or toolbar functions, but it can be easier.