Editing

Once the notes are in, most corrections go through the Selection tool: pick some notes or measures, then decide what to do with them. This chapter covers selecting, copy and paste, transposing, deleting, moving items by hand and undoing what you did.

The Selection tool

The Selection tool is the first one in the palette on the left: choose it with ⌘1 (Ctrl+1 on Windows) or from the Tools menu. When playback is stopped, Esc also brings you back to it.

The tools with their own palette (Articulations, Expressions, Lines, Tuplets, Repeats and Jumps, Layout) select exactly like the Selection tool, and the selection stays put when you switch between them.

Selecting notes and measures

Notes

• Click a note to select it (you also hear it).
• ⇧-click more notes to add them; ⇧-clicking a note that is already selected removes it.

Measures

• Click an empty part of a measure to select that measure on that staff.
• ⇧-click another measure to extend the selection to it, and down (or up) to the staff you clicked.
• ⌥-click (Alt-click on Windows) selects the measure on every staff.
• ⌘A (Ctrl+A on Windows), or Edit → Select All, selects the whole score.
• Double-click a measure to jump into Speedy Entry right there.

Selected measures are shown as a rounded box on each system.

Changing the selected notes

With notes selected (or measures: then every note inside them counts) you can use the keyboard:

Key	What it does
↑ ↓	Move the notes one step, following the key signature
⇧↑ ⇧↓	Move the notes an octave
+ −	Raise or lower by a semitone (on percussion, switch to the other sound at the same position)
;	Turn the note into an acciaccatura, then an appoggiatura, then back into a normal note
⌫	Delete (see below)

Duration, dots, ties and articulations can also be changed in the Inspector.

Copy, cut and paste

Copying works on the selected measures of the selected staves, with everything in them: notes, rests, layers, articulations, dynamics, hairpins, text, chord symbols, lines, slurs and glissandos.

Command	Mac	Windows
Cut	⌘X	Ctrl+X
Copy	⌘C	Ctrl+C
Paste	⌘V	Ctrl+V
Paste Multiple…	⌥⌘V	from the menu

All of these are in the Edit menu.

1. Select the measures to copy (click, ⇧-click to extend, ⌥-click for all staves).
2. Choose Copy (or Cut, which copies and then empties the measures: the measures stay, with a rest).
3. Click the measure where the music should go, or put the Simple or Speedy Entry cursor there.
4. Choose Paste.

Good to know:

• Pasting replaces whatever is in the target measures. If the score runs out, measures are added.
• When you copy several staves, they are pasted from the clicked staff downwards.
• Notes are copied at concert pitch, so pasting into a transposing instrument writes them in its own key.
• The target measures need a time signature of the same length as the copied ones.
• After pasting, the pasted music stays selected, and the whole paste undoes in a single step.
• The clipboard works between different windows and documents.
• While you are typing in a text field, ⌘C and ⌘V copy and paste text, not music.

Paste Multiple

Edit → Paste Multiple… (⌥⌘V on the Mac) asks how many times to repeat the copied music and pastes the copies one after the other, starting from the selected measure. Handy for a riff, a drum groove or a repeated accompaniment pattern.

Transpose

Edit → Transpose… transposes the selected notes, or the selected measures of the selected staves. In the dialog, choose:

• By an interval: from a minor second to an octave, Up or Down, with one or two extra octaves if needed.
• Into another key: the target key and the direction (The nearest, Above or Below).

Spelling is handled properly (B♭ up a major third becomes D), chord symbols move along with the notes, and percussion stays where it is.

If all staves are selected (⌥-click or ⌘A) you can tick Change the key signature too: the key signature then changes for the transposed passage only. Beyond 7 sharps or flats the enharmonic key is used.

Deleting

• With notes selected, ⌫ (on Windows also Del) removes them from the measure. To turn a note into a rest instead, use ⌫ in Speedy Entry.
• With measures selected, ⌫ empties those measures on the selected staves (on every staff after a ⌥-click, Alt-click on Windows); clefs stay.
• To remove the measures from the score altogether, use Document → Delete Selected Measures (⌘⌫ on the Mac, from the menu on Windows). See also Instruments and staves.

Moving items by hand

Maestro places dynamics, text and lines automatically, but sometimes you want to nudge something. With the Selection tool you can grab and drag dynamics, text, rehearsal marks, chord symbols, slurs, hairpins, octave lines and text lines with the mouse.

After clicking the item:

Key	What it does
← → ↑ ↓	Move it by a quarter of a staff space
⇧ + arrows	Move it by a whole space
⌫	Delete it
Esc	Deselect it

Edit → Automatic Position (⌥⇧⌘R on the Mac) puts the selected item back where Maestro wants it.

The offset is relative to the automatic position, so when the layout changes the item follows the music. It is saved with the document and applies to the parts as well.

The Inspector

View → Inspector (⌥⌘I; Ctrl+I on Windows) opens a column on the right showing the properties of whatever is selected, or of the note under the Speedy Entry cursor. Changes are made in place and undo like any other edit.

• Note: pitches, measure and layer; note value and dots; tie to the next note; articulations, switched on and off with a click; tuplet. With several notes selected, a change applies to all of them.
• Measure: key and time signature from that measure on; repeat start and end; new system and new page.
• Staff: name and short name, instrument, sound, transposition, staff size, distance from the staff above, percussion, guitar fretboards.
• Document: title, composer, metronome tempo, page format.

Undo and redo

Every change can be undone one step at a time, and redone.

Command	Mac	Windows
Undo	⌘Z	Ctrl+Z
Redo	⇧⌘Z	Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z

On the Mac the menu shows the name of the operation (“Undo Transpose”), and the toolbar has Undo and Redo buttons with the operation’s name in their tooltip. Large operations (a paste, a transposition, a harmonization) undo in a single step.