Steinberg Cubase 5 Operation Manual

							581
Working with text
About this chapter
In this chapter you will learn:
 Which different types of text are available.
 How to enter and edit text.
 How to set font, size and style.
 How to enter lyrics.
Adding and editing text symbols
This section describes the general procedure for adding 
and editing text symbols. As described in the section 
“Different types of text” on page 583, there are several dif-
ferent types of text symbols, but the basic procedures are 
the same (except for block text symbols, see “Block Text” 
on page 585, and page text symbols, see “Page text” on 
page 585).
Inserting a text symbol
1.If you wish, select a font, size and style for the text (or 
select a text attribute), as described in the section “Selec-
ting font, size and style for the text” on page 582.
You can also change these settings after you inserted the text.
2.Open the desired symbol tab in the Inspector.
The different text symbols are found on the Other, Layout and Project sym-
bol tabs.
3.Click on the text symbol in the tab to select the Pencil 
tool.
4.Make sure the correct staff is active, and click in the 
score at the position where you want the text to appear.
If you are adding lyrics, you should click above or below a note (lyrics are 
centered around each note and positioned vertically to where you clicked). 
See “Lyrics” on page 583.
5.Enter the text in the text box that appears.
You can use [Backspace] to delete letters, and move the cursor with the 
arrow keys. 
6.When you are done, press [Return].
The text appears. You can move, duplicate or delete it as with any symbol.
About the melisma lines
When you add a text symbol, you will find a handle at the 
right edge of the text. By dragging this handle to the right, 
you can extend a “melisma line” from the text. This has 
several uses:
If you are adding lyrics and want to indicate that a sylla-
ble should be sung over several notes:
If the text is an advice about articulation or playing style, 
and you want it to apply to a certain musical phrase only:
If the text is an advice about articulation or playing style, 
and you want it to apply from that point on in the score:
On the Score Settings–Project page, Text Settings sub-
page, you will find two settings that determine the appear-
ance of the melisma lines:
 The Melisma Style pop-up is where you specify whether the 
line should be solid or dotted.
 The Melisma End pop-up allows you to choose whether the 
end of the line should be plain, have an arrow, or form a 
“bracket” up or down.
Making space
If you find there is not enough space between staves, 
e.g. to add lyrics, please see “Dragging staves” on page 
604 for info on how to separate the staves.
If you find the score looks crammed after adding text, 
see “Auto Layout” on page 606. 
						

							582
Working with text
Editing the text
If you made a mistake when typing or for some other rea-
son wish to change text, double-click on a text block with 
the Object Selection tool, edit the text and press [Return] 
to close it.
It is also possible to replace all occurrences of a certain 
word in the score, without having to edit the texts manually, 
see “Find and replace” on page 587.
Selecting font, size and style for the text
1.Select the text you want to make settings for.
If nothing is selected, the settings you make will be the “default settings”. 
The next time you insert text, these settings will be used.
2.Open the Score Settings–Text page.
3.Select a font from the Font pop-up menu.
How many and which fonts appear depends on what typefaces you have 
installed on your computer. 
4.Select a text size from the Size pop-up menu (or enter 
one manually in the text field). 
5.You can also add one or several font options using the 
checkboxes and pop-up menus.
Most of the options are common text style variations such as bold, italic, 
underline, etc. But there are also a few special style options:
6.Click Apply to apply the settings to the selected text.
Note that you can select other text blocks while the dialog remains open – 
the dialog will be updated to reflect the settings of the currently selected 
text.
7.When you are done, close the Score Settings dialog.
Text attribute sets
A text attribute set can be seen as a “preset” containing all 
font, size and style settings. By creating text attribute sets 
for the settings you use most often, you can save a lot of 
time.
Creating a text attribute set
1.Open the Score Settings–Project page and select the 
Text Settings subpage.
2.Open the Attribute Sets tab.
3.Pull down the Set pop-up menu and select the “Empty” 
set.
4.Select a font, specify a size and add style options us-
ing the checkboxes.
The options are the same as when you make text settings on the Score 
Settings–Text page (see above).
5.Click in the Set field and enter a name for the new text 
attribute set.
6.Click Store to store the new text attribute set.
Using text attribute sets
To apply the settings in the text attribute set to one or 
several text blocks, select them, select the set from the 
Set pop-up menu on the Score Settings–Text page and 
click Apply. You can also apply a text attribute set to a text 
block directly in the score by right-clicking it and selecting 
the set from the context menu.
If you select a text attribute set on the Text page when 
no text is selected in the score, the settings will be used 
the next time you insert some text.
ÖAfter you’ve selected a set for a text block, there will be 
a “link” between the text and the attribute set. Any changes 
to the attribute set will affect all texts that use it (see below). 
You can still edit any text settings manually (on the Project–Text Settings 
subpage) but then the “link” to the attribute set will be removed.
!For regular text you should probably avoid the “Stein-
berg” fonts. These are the fonts Cubase uses for all 
scoring symbols, etc.
Option Description
Frame Allows you to put the text in a rectangular (“Box”) or oval 
frame.
Melisma 
optionsThese determine the appearance of the “melisma line”, 
see “About the melisma lines” on page 581.
Positioning Allows you to select which side of the text block (left or 
right) should be used for calculating its position. This has 
an effect in situations where that text block is moved au-
tomatically (as a result of an Auto Layout function, when 
you move bar lines manually, etc.). If, for example, the text 
block appears just in front of a note (to the left of it), it will 
appear in a more sensible position after the adjustment, if 
the “Right” option is selected.
Alignment:
Left/Center/
RightAllows you to specify the alignment of the text. These op-
tions are only valid for texts with more than one line. 
						

							583
Working with text
Editing text attribute sets
If you edit the settings in a text attribute set, all texts using 
this particular set will be affected. This is very practical, 
since it allows you to use the same number of “generic” 
sets for all your projects (for titles, comments, lyrics, etc.), 
and simply change the fonts, sizes, etc. for a different pro-
ject if necessary. This will also make it easier to move 
projects between computers (which may not have the 
same fonts installed).
1.Select the Attribute Sets tab on the Text Settings sub-
page of the Score Settings–Project page.
2.Select the attribute set you want to edit from the Set 
pop-up menu.
3.Change the settings as desired.
This includes the name of the set.
4.Click Apply.
Different types of text
Regular text
The regular Text option is selected.
This type of text is inserted by selecting Text in the Other 
or the Layout symbol tabs.
The text is tied to the bar and staff position. If you move 
the bar or the entire staff, it moves with it.
Pasting text
You can paste text (e.g. from another program) into a text 
symbol in the score. To do this, select the text symbol and 
right-click it. Then, select “Text from Clipboard” from the 
context menu. This option is also available on the Func-
tions submenu of the Scores menu.
Similarly, you can copy selected text by using the “Text to 
Clipboard” option from the context menu.
Lyrics
The Lyrics option is selected.
This type of text is inserted by selecting Lyrics on the Other 
symbol tab.
When you insert lyrics, you should click below or above 
the note the syllable belongs to. The text will then appear 
horizontally centered around the note and vertically posi-
tioned to where you clicked. You can later move it up or 
down, as with any symbol.
Lyrics are tied to the note position. If you move the note, 
the text moves with it. The spacing between notes is also 
adjusted to make the lyrics fit.
Inserting lyrics for a number of notes
1.With lyrics selected, click below or above the first note 
with the Pencil tool.
2.A text input field is opened. Enter the text (the word or 
syllable) for that note.
3.Hit [Tab].
The program moves on to the next note.
4.Input text for this note and hit [Tab] again.
5.Proceed until the last note and then press [Return] or 
click outside the text box.
When you insert lyrics this way, the positions of the notes 
will automatically be adjusted so that no lyric “block” over-
laps another. If this is not what you want, you can activate 
the option “Don’t Sync Lyrics” in the Lyrics category on 
the Score Settings–Project page (Notation Style sub-
page). If this is activated, the note positions will not be af-
fected, which may be preferable. 
						

							584
Working with text
When entering words with several syllables you normally 
separate the syllables with a dash (-). By default, the dash 
signs are automatically centered between the syllables – if 
this is not what you want, activate the option “Don’t Center 
Hyphens” in the Lyrics category on the Score Settings–
Project page (Notation Style subpage).
Lyrics and measure widths
When you first enter lyrics, the result may look crammed, 
since the words take up more space than the notes (the lyr-
ics are also selected just after entering the last word, which 
will make them look a bit odd when overlapping). To rem-
edy this, use the auto layout function to automatically adjust 
the measure widths (see “Auto Layout” on page 606).
Before and after using the auto layout function.
Adding a second verse
To insert a second line of lyrics, proceed as follows:
1.Enter the new lyrics above or below the existing verse.
2.Select all the words that should be in the new verse.
3.Right-click the selected words to open the context 
menu.
4.Select the appropriate verse from the Move To Verse 
submenu (Verse 1–6).
This assigns the selected lyrics to the selected verse.
To indicate that the words belong to another verse, they 
are automatically displayed in another color. However, all 
verses will print in black as usual.
To select all words in one verse only, press [Shift] and 
double-click on the first word in that verse.
This selects all following words in the verse.
Inserting lyrics into voices
Each voice can have its own lyrics. If you have a vocal ar-
rangement with several voices, you can add lyrics to them, 
one by one.
1.Click on the Lyrics symbol in the Other symbol tab, so 
that the Pencil tool is selected.
2.Make sure that the correct voice is selected (on the 
extended toolbar). See “Entering notes into voices” on 
page 535.
3.Click on the first note in the selected voice.
4.Enter the lyrics for this voice, using the [Tab] key to 
move from note to note, as described above.
5.Start over, by activating the next voice, clicking on the 
first note in that voice and proceeding as with the first voice.
6.If needed, adjust the position of the lyrics for each 
voice (see below).
Moving lyrics
If you want to move the lyrics up or down, for example to 
make room for a second verse, proceed as follows:
1.Hold down [Shift] and double-click on the first word in 
the lyrics.
All lyric “blocks” are selected.
2.Drag one of the lyric blocks up or down.
All selected lyric blocks are moved accordingly.
Adding lyrics from the clipboard
If you want to prepare your lyrics in another program, you 
can import them into Cubase the following way:
1.Create the lyrics in another program.
Separate words with space as usual, syllables within words with dash 
signs (-).
2.Copy the text.
3.In Cubase, select the first note to which the lyrics 
should be added.
4.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Lyrics from 
Clipboard” from the Functions submenu.
The lyrics are added, starting at the selected note. 
						

							585
Working with text
Layout text
The text symbols in the Layout symbol tab are part of the 
layout layer, and can thus be hidden or shown for different 
tracks in the layout, by activating the “L” column on the 
Score Settings–Layout page. The text will appear in all 
staves for which you have activated the “L” column. This 
means it is tied to the bar and staff position. If you move 
the bar or the entire staff, it moves with it.
Block Text
Block Text allows you to import text from a file on disk or 
from the clipboard. Proceed as follows:
1.Click on the Block Text symbol on the desired tab to 
bring up the Pencil tool.
You can choose between project layer block text (from the Project tab –
useful for text that should appear on all pages, e. g. the score title), layout 
layer block text (from the Layout tab – if you want to print a title only for a 
particular track layout, e. g. for a particular instrument), or block text used 
for individual parts (from the Other tab – this text will only appear in the 
score for a particular part).
2.Click in the score where you want to insert the text.
A regular file dialog appears.
3.Select a file (text or rtf) to import.
4.Click Open.
The text in the file is inserted into the score.
Right-clicking on inserted Block Text brings up a pop-
up menu with the following options:
The RTF Settings dialog
Selecting “Properties” from the context menu (or double-
clicking the Block Text) brings up a dialog with settings for 
the Block Text. These are:
Page text
The page text symbols are found on the Layout and Project 
tabs. They work the same way, but Project Page Text is 
part of the project layout, and will therefore appear in all 
layouts. 
The position of page text is not tied to a note, bar or staff 
position. In other words, it does not matter if you move 
other objects on the page, the page text stays where you 
inserted it. Typically, it is used for score titles, page num-
bers, copyright information and other text elements that 
you want displayed with all parts (on all pages if you like).
Proceed as follows to enter Page text:
1.Open the Layout or the Project tab of the Symbols 
Inspector.
2.Click on the Page Text symbol to bring up the Pencil 
tool.
3.Click in the score.
It does not matter where you click – the positioning is specified in the di-
alog that appears.
4.Enter the text you want displayed in the field at the top 
of the dialog.
You can use special characters to add “variables” such as page numbers 
– see below.
Menu item Description
Import  Text… Imports text from a text file or rtf file. The imported text will 
replace any text currently inserted at the position of the 
Block Text.
Update Text Reloads the text from the file.
Text From 
ClipboardPastes the text from the clipboard into the Block Text.
Text To 
ClipboardCopies the Block Text to the clipboard.
Hide Hides the inserted block text. To make the text visible 
again, activate the Hide checkbox in the display filter bar, 
right-click on the text “Hidden” which is displayed for the 
hidden text and select “Show” on the context menu.
Properties Brings up the RTF Settings dialog. You can also open 
this by double-clicking the Block Text.
Setting Description
Font Lets you select the font to use for the Block Text. If “No 
Change” is selected, the font in the original file (if appli-
cable) is used.
Size The text size, as a percentage.
Draw Frame When this is activated, a frame is shown around the 
Block Text.
Word wrap When this is activated, line breaks are used to fit the text 
in the Block Text symbol.
Replace mode In this mode, the Block Text box will be opaque, covering 
what’s under it.
Trans mode In this mode, the Block Text box will be transparent. 
						

							586
Working with text
5.Adjust the settings for how the text should be posi-
tioned:
6.Select a text attribute set for the text, or make manual 
settings for font, size and style.
7.Click OK.
The text is inserted. You can adjust the positioning manually by dragging 
the text block.
Inserting variables
When you enter the text, you can also insert special char-
acters or “place holders” for different attributes. When the 
text is displayed, these characters will be replaced by their 
actual values (e.g. page numbers). The following variables 
are available:
For example, if you enter the text “%l, %r, Page %p”, these 
variables might be shown as “1st Violin, Quartet No.2, 
Page 12” in the score.
Using the Score Settings (Text page)
In the Score Settings (Text page), you can find a number 
of text-related settings. The symbol buttons correspond to 
the symbols found on the Other, Layout, and Project tabs 
of the Symbols Inspector, see “Symbol details” on page 
570. You can use the Layer pop-up menu to switch be-
tween the display of the corresponding layers. 
Select the layer you wish to use from the Layer pop-up 
menu.
The text symbols available for this layer will be displayed to the left of the 
pop-up menu.
You can use the text symbols in the same way as you 
would use symbols from the Inspector or a symbol palette.
When you select a text symbol and move the mouse pointer over the 
score, the pointer will change to a pencil, and you can enter text at the 
position you click on.
The Notepad tab and the Selection tab
Below the text symbols and the Layer pop-up, you can 
find two tabs with large text entry fields.
Use the Notepad tab to enter longer text passages. 
When you are happy with the text in terms of wording and 
length, select all or part of the text, and select a note in the 
score. Now, the Insert Lyrics button below the Notepad 
tab becomes available. 
When you click Insert Lyrics, the selected text will be entered into the 
score, starting from the note you selected.
When you select text in the score and open the Selec-
tion tab, the selected words are shown in the text field. 
You can now change the wording of the text, and use the 
text format options to the left to change the appearance of 
the selected text. When you are done, click Apply to apply 
your changes to the selected text in the score.
Option Description
Show on all 
pagesWhen this is activated, the text will be shown on all 
pages. The “Except First” checkbox allows you to exclude 
the very first page.
Show on first 
pageWhen this is selected, the text will only be shown on the 
first page.
Line This determines how the text should be aligned. For ex-
ample, if you place several texts on “Top/Left”, you can 
sort them by entering the desired number of lines.
Toggle 
PositionWhen the Left or Right position option is selected to the 
right, activating this checkbox will make the text alternate 
between left and right alignment on even/odd pages.
Position 
buttonsDetermines where on the page you want the text, verti-
cally (Top/Bottom) and horizontally (Left, Center, Right). 
Text to enter Text that will be displayed
%p The current page number.
%l (lower case L) The long staff name.
%s The short staff name.
%r The name of the project. 
						

							587
Working with text
Text functions
The Words tab
If you have certain words that you use a lot, you can “store” 
these as dedicated symbols on the Words tab. This will 
save time, since you do not have to type the same word 
over and over again.
Storing a word
1.Open the Words symbol tab.
This tab is hidden by default. See “Showing/Hiding Symbols Inspector 
tabs” on page 557 for information on how to display hidden Inspector 
tabs.
2.Double-click on an “empty” symbol.
The Custom Text Editor dialog appears.
3.Type in the desired word(s) in the text field at the top 
of the dialog.
4.Specify the text type (regular text or lyrics) with the 
Type pop-up.
5.Make settings for font, size and style.
You can also use a text attribute set if you like.
6.Click Exit to close the dialog.
The words you entered appear in the selected symbol field on the Words 
tab.
Right-clicking one of the fields opens a context menu 
with a number of options:
 Select “Edit…” to open the Custom Text Editor dialog.
 Select “New” to add a new empty symbol to the Words tab.
 Select “Remove” to delete any unwanted symbols from the 
Words tab.
 Select “Open As Palette” to open the Words symbol palette.
Inserting a word
You insert words from the Words tab as you would insert 
any regular symbol, by selecting the appropriate word and 
clicking in the score. However, you can edit the word after 
inserting it, just as with text inserted by typing.
Find and replace
This function allows you to replace all occurrences of a cer-
tain word or group of words, with another word or group of 
words. The replacement is done once and for all, for all text 
symbol types, regardless of font, size and style settings. 
Proceed as follows:
1.Pull down the Scores menu and select “Find and Re-
place” from the Functions submenu.
A dialog appears.
2.Enter the words to replace in the Find value field.
3.If you want all instances of the words to be replaced, 
regardless of upper/lower case, deactivate the “Case 
Sensitive” option.
4.If you do not want to replace the words if they are a 
part of another word, activate the “Entire Word” option.
For example, if you want to replace the word “string” but not the word 
“stringendo”, you should activate “Entire Word”.
5.Enter the words that should be used as replacement in 
the “Replace” field.
6.Click OK.
Now all occurrences of the “Find” words will be replaced with the 
“Replace” words. 
						

							588
Working with text
Staff names
You can make settings for staff names in several places:
On the Score Settings–Layout page, you specify whether 
the staff names should be shown at all, and whether to use 
the names of the actual edited tracks in the score.
In a multi-track layout, you can choose for which tracks the staff names 
should be shown, by clicking in the “N” column for each track.
You specify a long and short staff name on the Score 
Settings–Staff page (Main tab).
These will be used if you do not use the “From Tracks” option on the 
Score Settings–Layout page. The long name will be displayed for the first 
system only, and the short name for the following systems. If you want a 
name at the top of the page only, leave the “Short” name field empty.
To select a font for staff names, proceed as follows:
1.Open the Score Settings–Project page and select the 
Text Settings subpage.
2.Select the Project Text tab.
3.Use the “Font for” pop-up menu to select “Staff Na-
mes”.
4.Select font, size and styles for the staff names (or use 
a text attribute set).
5.Click Apply and close the Score Settings dialog.
Additional staff name settings
 If you activate the option “Show Track Names to Left of staff” 
on the Notation Style subpage (Staff Names category) of the 
Score Settings–Project page, the staff names will be shown 
to the left of the staves, instead of above them.
 You can define separate subnames for the upper and the 
lower staff in a polyphonic or split system, see “Staff names” 
on page 526.
 You can fine-tune the vertical and horizontal position of staff 
names with some of the options on the Spacing subpage of 
the Score Settings–Project page.
Bar Numbers
Bar Number settings can be made in several places as 
well:
General settings
1.Open the Notation Style subpage of the Score Set-
tings–Project page.
2.Scroll down the list to the “Bar Numbers” category.
3.Use the “Show every” setting to specify how often bar 
numbers should be shown.
The options are “First Bar” (bar numbers shown for the first bar on each 
staff), “Off” (no bar numbers shown) and any number. Click in the Status 
column and use the mouse wheel to select the desired option.
4.If you like, activate the “Show Range with Multi-Rests” 
option.
When this is activated, and you have a multi-rest, the bar number at the 
beginning of the multi-rest will show a range, indicating the length of the 
multi-rest.
5.If you want the bar numbers to be displayed below the 
bar lines, activate the “Below Bar Lines” option.
6.Click Apply and close the Score Settings dialog.
Text settings
As with many of the other fixed text elements, you can se-
lect a font, size and style for bar numbers on the Text Set-
tings subpage of the Score Settings–Project page.
Spacing
On the Spacings subpage of the Score Settings–Project 
page you will find four settings that relate to bar numbers:
!If the option “Show Long Staff Names on new Pages” 
is activated on the Notation Style subpage (Staff 
Names category) of the Score Settings–Project page, 
the long name will be displayed for the first system on 
every page.
Option Description
First Bar Number – 
Horizontal OffsetSets the horizontal distance between the bar num-
ber and the bar line for the first bar on each staff.
First Bar Number – 
Vertical OffsetSets the vertical distance between the bar number 
and the bar line for the first bar on each staff.
Other Bar Numbers – 
Horizontal OffsetSets the horizontal distance between the bar num-
ber and the bar line for all other bars.
Other Bar Numbers – 
Vertical OffsetSets the vertical distance between the bar number 
and the bar line for all other bars. 
						

							589
Working with text
Offsetting bar numbers
If you double-click on a bar number, a dialog appears, al-
lowing you to skip a number of bars in the otherwise con-
tinuous bar numbering.
This is used for example when a section repeats. Say, you 
have a repeat of bar 7 and 8, and want the first bar after 
the repeat to have the number 11, not 9. To achieve this, 
you double-click on the “9” and insert an offset of “2”.
It is also useful if the score starts with an upbeat, and you 
want the first “real” bar to be numbered 1. In that case you 
would specify an offset of “-1” for the second bar, and 
make sure the bar number for the upbeat bar is hidden.
Bar number offsets belong to the Project layer and are 
shown for all tracks and layouts.
Settings for other fixed text elements
You can make text settings for virtually all text and num-
bers that appear in the score. Proceed as follows:
1.Open the Text Settings subpage of the Score Set-
tings–Project page.
2.Select the Project Text tab.
3.Use the “Font For” pop-up menu to select a text type 
to make settings for.
4.Use the options in the dialog to change the settings.
5.Click Apply to apply the settings to all elements of the 
selected type.
To close the dialog, click the close button at the top right of the dialog 
window.
Bar Numbers before and after changing their text settings.
You can also define text attribute sets on the Text Set-
tings subpage, as a means to quickly change text.
Note that you can select a defined attribute set from the context menu 
opened when right-clicking on a text element (see “Text attribute sets” 
on page 582). 
						

							11
Working with layouts