And about time, too! We’ve been working on this one for a long stretch now, and we think it’s a fairly meaty release.  Some of the goodies awaiting our users include:

• The new “Import” command allows MusicXML files to be imported into Noteflight from other notation programs.
• Cut/copy/paste work across different documents, including multiple windows open at the same time.
• The new “Save As Copy” command permits a copy of any document to be saved to your own set of scores.
• Lyrics may be added to notes, including support for multiple verses.
• Dynamics or arbitrary expression text can be added at any note/rest. Dynamics affect score playback.
• If one or more staves are selected during playback, only those staves will be heard. This allows one to more clearly hear an individual part.
• Swing eighth notes are supported, with any desired degree of swing.
• Scores are automatically saved during editing to avoid possible loss of work.
• Performance instruction text can be added to the score at any note, rest or barline.
• Parts for transposing instruments can optionally be displayed and edited in their transposed keys.
• Selected notes and passages can be transposed by named intervals, and enharmonic changes applied.

Underground coding dwarves toiling in stalactite-studded stone halls, sitting in front of workstations carved out of the living rock… in fact, this is nothing like the scene you would observe in our development office, which is more like a sunny living room than a cave.  This post is a quick update on what’s going on in our non-cave.

First of all, we’re hard at work finishing MusicXML import, probably the most frequently requested feature addition at the moment.  We are able to bring MusicXML documents into Noteflight already, but we want to do a really good job of testing the process since there are many flavors of MusicXML generated by the various notation programs out there.  Also, the ability to import brings the potential for much longer Noteflight scores, so we need to do a better job of optimizing Noteflight to perform well with larger pieces of music for the import feature to be truly useful.

I’m also pleased to say that we’ve recently completed the implementation of lyrics, dynamics and some new system/staff text features that make it much easier to add expression and performance instructions to scores.  The lyrics layout does what you would expect: longer words affect the note spacing so that the lyrics don’t get squished together, and hyphens are correctly centered in the gap between successive syllables.  We’re even supporting multiple verses.

Other recently added features include hand-tuned stretching/shrinking of measure widths, playback of selected staves only, and better position control over that pesky Object Editing Palette.

We’re hoping to get this to you soon — thanks for being patient!