Incorporate a time signature into a line of text in Sibelius

Q: My question is about tempo changes. I’m copying handwritten parts to Sibelius so musicians can easily read what’s written, and there is a tempo change that states, among other things, that the music is to have a 12/8 feel, where the 12 is above the 8, no slash, just like you’d see in a time signature. Is there a way to do this in Sibelius or am I stuck writing writing out “12/8” just as you see it here?

A: Yes, absolutely. First of all, Sibelius 6 (and 7) have a text style called “Time Signatures (one staff only)” which allows you to place a regular looking time signature as text anywhere you want, independent of their normal staff location(s). This text style is located here:

• Sibelius 6 : Create > Text > Other Staff Text > Time Signatures (one staff only)
• Sibelius 7 : Text Tab > Styles Gallery > Time Signatures (special) > Time Signatures (one staff only)

But you can also create a new text style which will allow you to display a time signature as part of a line of text, like this:

Here’s how…

• Sibelius 7 : Select the Text Tab, then choose Edit Text Styles from the Styles group.
• Sibelius 6 : Go the the House Style Menu and Select Edit Text Styles…

When the dialog comes up, select the “Tempo” text style, then click “New” (Sibelius 6) or “New Text Style” (Sibelius 7):

A warning dialog will come up asking if you are sure you want to create a new text style based on “Tempo”. Click Yes.

Inside the Text Style Editor, rename the new text style to something descriptive. We now want to change the Line Spacing for the text style to 25%. In Sibelius 7, Line Spacing is under Advanced Formats in the Font tab. In Sibelius 6, it’s located in the Vertical Positioning tab. OK the Text Style editor dialog, then close the Text Styles selection window, after noting that your descriptive name appears in the list:

All that remains is to type in our text with a few modifications. We start by creating a regular Tempo Mark:

• Sibelius 6 : Create > Text > Other System Text > Tempo
• Sibelius 7 : Text Tab > Styles Gallery > Tempo > Tempo

1. For the “12/8 Feel” example above, type the following: “12 return (optional space) 8 space Feel” (without the quotes).
2. Select the numbers inside the text, and change the font to Opus Std. (Text Tab > Font popup in Sibelius 7, Properties palette, Text > font popup in Sibelius 6).
3. Finally, highlight the full text string you just created and then swap the Text Style to your newly created one.

 

That’s it! That’s all there is to it.

~robert

for Justin Miller