Curated Plug-in sets: Installing the first plug-in

A Curated Plug-in Set is a collection of Sibelius plug-ins that can be installed at one time and run from a single location. These sets are described in the Of Note post Working sets, My Plugins, and Curated plug-ins in Sibelius.

In order to install a curated plug-in set, you will first need to install the downloadable plug-in Install New Plugin, which will be used to install other plugins.

Here are step-by-step instructions for installing Install New Plugin. There are different instructions for Sibelius 6 and for Sibelius 7 or later.

Installing in Sibelius 7 and later.

As of Sibelius 7 there is a plug-in installer for downloadable plug-ins at File >Plug-ins > Install Plug-ins. When you bring up the installer, drop the Show list, in the upper left corner, and choose All plug-ins. In the Plug-ins list, click the arrow in Other to show the plug-ins in that category, and click on Install New Plugin.

In the Location box below the list, you will see the default category, Other. This is where the plugin will be found on your machine once it is installed.

Click Install. You can now to go Home > Plug-ins > Other, and choose Install New Plugin from the menu. You will not need to close and restart Sibelius to run the plug-in.

Installing in Sibelius 6 and earlier

To install plugins prior to Sibelius 7 you have to download and unzip plug-in files from the download page, and then copy them to the appropriate plug-in subfolder. This can be complicated, and if you have access to someone who has done this before, it might be good to ask for some help. You can find more detailed instructions in the Of Note post Installing Plug-ins in Sibelius, but these instructions should be enough for most cases.

The link Install New Plugin will take you to the Plugin Download Page and you can download the zip file for a plugin from that page. Click on the download link.

Your web browser may unzip these automatically, but if it does not, you may need a utility for this purpose. On Mac, simply double click on the archive to uncompress it. In Windows 7 and later, Windows Explorer will open with the unzipped available to be copied.

At this point need to copy the file InstallNewPlugin.plg to your user plugins folder.

In Windows 7 or later, copy the following line of text, open Windows Explorer, and paste into the address bar:

%appdata%\Sibelius Software\Sibelius 6\Plugins

For Mac OSX, copy the following line of text, choose Go > Go To Folder from the main Finder menu and paste into the dialog:

~/Library/Application Support/Sibelius Software/Sibelius 6/Plugins

If these folders do not exist, you can create them. Instructions can be found at Installing Plug-ins in Sibelius.

Plug-ins are not stored in the Plugins folder itself, so you can choose a subfolder if there is an appropriate one, or else create a new folder under Plugins, such as Downloaded Plugins. Copy InstallNewPlugin.plg to your subfolder, then close and restart Sibelius.

To run Install New Plugin, go to the Plug-ins menu and look for Downloaded Plugins. Choose the plug-in you want to run from the menu.

In the future, you can use Install New Plugin to install other plug-ins. You will still need to download and unzip the plug-in file, but it will show you the available subfolders and will warn you if you try installing a plugin that is already installed.

Assigning a keyboard shortcut for My Plugins

The plug-in My Plugins is used to run the plug-in in the curated set. You can install it separately with the same procedures used for Install New Plugin, but it will be usually installed as part of the curated plug-in set. You should go ahead and install the curated set now, and come back later if you would like to assign a shortcut.

Once My Plugins has been installed, you can run it from the menu each time, but it can be convenient to give it a keyboard shortcut. To do this, go to File > Preferences. In Sibelius 6 or earlier choose Menus and Shortcuts; in Sibelius 7 or later choose Keyboard Shortcuts. You cannot add shortcuts to the standard feature sets, so in Current feature set be sure the set says (user copy) or use Add Feature Set to create an editable feature set.

From there choose the Plug-ins Tab or category, then find My Plugins in the sorted list of plug-in names. Choose Add to create your shortcut. It can be tricky finding unused shortcuts. Check the section Finding unused keyboard shortcuts in the Sibelius Reference for suggested keys, such as these:

If you choose a shortcut that is in use, you will be warned when you try to assign a shortcut, and you can choose another.

Once you have assigned your shortcut, just type your shortcut to run the plug-in.