When you are in the Score, as you drag text left or right, or if you select a bar to place a graphic (or text), it will be located at that point. If that location happens to be somewhere in the middle of your multi-rest, it will break the multirest at that bar:
View – Attachment Lines (available in every version of Sibelius, dating back to v1.0 in 1998) is a helpful way to see which bar the text or graphic is attached to.
To keep the multirest from breaking after a layout update or note entry, select the bar just after the multimeasure rest, then enter the text or place the graphic, attached to the downbeat of that bar, then use the X Offset of the Properties Palette (or Inspector) to move the selected graphic (or text) to the left. Measurement here is in Spaces, with 12 spaces equal to one inch. Use a positive number to move the object to the right, a negative number to move it to the left. With a little experimenting, you’ll get the hang of it quickly.
Now, the rests will break appropriately. You can also use this technique from the other side of the multirest – attach the graphic or text to the last bar before the start of the multirest, and offset it to the right.
With the introduction of Dynamic Parts in Sibelius 4, it became possible to move text or graphics in the part without changing its attachment point: the attachment point remains “fixed” to the location set in the score, and the object remains tethered to that location in the parts, but can be freely moved. So, if you don’t need the object offset horizontally to the same location in Score and Parts, you can just “drag it where you want it” in the parts.
Using the Properties Palette or Inspector for location offset is generally recommended however, as it will allow you to show the object at the same location with the same offset in both score and parts.
Quick Tip: Take a look at the Properties Palette / Inspector settings any time multimeasure rests are breaking inappropriately – you may discover a hairpin or an 8va marking, Tempo mark or Repeat text attached to “Beat 5” of the previous bar, instead of where it should really be attached – on beat 1. Maybe it just needs an offset in the Properties Palette / Inspector…
That’s it – that’s all there is to it!
~robert
for Gerardo Martinez
Take Control of Multirests Control Multirest Break Points in Sibelius Sibelius Tip: Reason #4 Multi Measure Rests Break Incorrectly in Parts Breaking Bad : Multi-Rests in Sibelius, part 5
What a great tutorial! I’ve been dealing with this problem since 2004 when I first purchased Sibelius! Thanks to your blog, I won’t have to move a symbol around, press the convert to multi-rests command and replace the symbol in it’s desired place. I will definitely bookmark your site and recommend you to my friends. Thank you very much for your swift help.
You are most welcome, Gerardo. It’s a very common situation, which always makes for good subject matter.
~robert
Another useful Sibelius technique:
When you have lots of bars in a multi rest symbol and you want an alphabetical rehearsal mark (not a bar number) to appear after, say, 25 bars rest:
1. Select the multirest and take note of the bar number at the start, say bar 125 as an example.
2. Mentally add 25 to the bar number, so in this case, it’s 150.
3. Type Ctrl-Alt-G (for PC) to bring up the go to bar number dialogue. Type in the bar number for the rehearsal mark (150 in this case) and click on OK.
4. Because bar 150 is within the multirest, the whole multirest is selected, but when you type Ctrl-R for the rehearsal mark, Sibelius asks you if you want to put the rehearsal mark at a place which is not in view. In this case, that’s what you want and Sibelius automatically splits the multirest as required!
Saves a lot of messing around jumping to and from ‘Show Multirests’! Is there a better way? Maybe.