Instruction manual - Pizzicato 3.6.2 EN660 - Revision of 2013/05/29

Professional

Notation

Composition Pro

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Editing graphic and Midi symbols (2)

Subjects covered:

Creating a new tool - Assigning a keyboard shortcut [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro]

When you create a new symbol, Pizzicato automatically creates an identifier for it. It is a number used to refer to the symbol in the Pizzicato symbol library. The symbols created by the user have a number between 4000 and 5999. The original provided symbols have a number between 2000 and 2999. The internal tools of Pizzicato have a number between 1 and 999.

As we explained when we studied the various tools, a shortcut can be used to activate a tool or a symbol on a palette. It is here that these shortcuts can be defined. Each tool or symbol may contain one or two shortcuts. The two text boxes entitled Shortcut 1 and Shortcut 2 are used to specify the ASCII code (it is a common language for the coding of characters) of the computer keyboard key. Here is a table of the codes with the corresponding characters you can use in these text boxes:

32 Space 48 0 64 @ 80 P 96 ' 112 p
33 ! 49 1 65 A 81 Q 97 a 113 q
34 " 50 2 66 B 82 R 98 b 114 r
35 # 51 3 67 C 83 S 99 c 115 s
36 $ 52 4 68 D 84 T 100 d 116 t
37 % 53 5 69 E 85 U 101 e 117 u
38 & 54 6 70 F 86 V 102 f 118 v
39 ' 55 7 71 G 87 W 103 g 119 w
40 ( 56 8 72 H 88 X 104 h 120 x
41 ) 57 9 73 I 89 Y 105 i 121 y
42 * 58 : 74 J 90 Z 106 j 122 z
43 + 59 ; 75 K 91 [ 107 k 123 {
44 , 60 < 76 L 92 \ 108 l 124 |
45 - 61 = 77 M 93 ] 109 m 125 }
46 . 62 > 78 N 94 ^ 110 n 126 ~
47 / 63 ? 79 O 95 _ 111 o    

By placing for example the number "78" in one of the text boxes, your tool will be activated using the capital letter N.

For keyboards with the 12 function keys, the following codes are also valid, according to the key pressed, with the Control key, the SHIFT key or both:

Key alone + Control + SHIFT + Control + SHIFT
241 F1 225 F1 209 F1 193 F1
242 F2 226 F2 210 F2 194 F2
243 F3 227 F3 211 F3 195 F3
244 F4 228 F4 212 F4 196 F4
245 F5 229 F5 213 F5 197 F5
246 F6 230 F6 214 F6 198 F6
247 F7 231 F7 215 F7 199 F7
248 F8 232 F8 216 F8 200 F8
249 F9 233 F9 217 F9 201 F9
250 F10 234 F10 218 F10 202 F10
251 F11 235 F11 219 F11 203 F11
252 F12 236 F12 220 F12 204 F12

By placing the code "215", you need to hold the SHIFT key and to press on the keyboard F7 key to activate the shortcut. Take care that the F10 key is not always available (Windows uses it as a system key to access menus) and will not necessarily work correctly as a shortcut.

The menu located just below is entitled Shortcut working method. It is used to specify how shortcuts will influence the tool or the symbol. Four modes are available:

Select the Activate palette item.

The Icon type menu selects or create the drawing that will represent the tool or the symbol on the palette. For a graphic symbol, the drawing in the palette is not necessarily the same as the one that will appear on the score. In general it is the same but when the score symbol is rather large, it is possible to represent it in a simplified form on the palette. This menu selects the drawing which will represent the symbol on the palette. Three choices are available:

Click OK. The palette becomes:

To call this dialog box again, click on the tool (the selected tool in black here above) with the right mouse button (Option-click on Mac), then select the Tool properties… item.

With this dialog box, you have access to all shortcuts of the original tools and symbols. You can modify them as you want but when you read a lesson, take it into account because the manual is based on the standard shortcuts. Take care not to modify the shortcuts of the notes and rests, because they are subject of a special treatment in Pizzicato.

We will create a picture to represent this symbol on the palette. In the Icon type menu, select the Bitmap item. Call the graphic editor by clicking in the Edit... button. Let us see now how to use it.

Bitmap graphic editor [Professional] [Notation] [Composition Pro]

The screen displays this window:

A bitmap drawing is defined by the colour of each one of its dots, laid out in lines and columns. The dimension of the icons in our palette had been fixed at 20 x 40. We thus have a drawing formed by 20 lines of 40 dots. The central grid represents this drawing in zoom. The upper part contains two drawing tools and 16 colours. The selected tool is the cursor (top left corner).

Two colours can be activated among the 16, the drawing colour and the background colour. A double square shows the selected colors:

Initially, the drawing colour is black (internal square) and the background colour is white (external square). By clicking in one of the 16 colours, you modify the drawing colour and update the internal square to show that it is active. By clicking on one of the colours by holding down the SHIFT key, you select the background colour.

When you click in one of the grid little squares, Pizzicato colours this square with the drawing colour, but only if this square does not contain this colour yet. With black as drawing colour, click on several consecutive squares. They become black:

If you click in a square which has already the selected drawing colour, the square is coloured with the background and thus becomes white again in our case. You can then easily correct the drawing.

Notice the small line that appears just to the right of the colours palette. It is normal size picture. As the all grid was white, it was impossible to see it until now.

If you wish to colour several consecutive squares, it is not necessary to click each time. You can click the first square, hold down the mouse button and move the mouse on all the squares you want. It is the same principle as a pencil. You press and you drag it. When you want to stop the line, you simply release the mouse. Do the following drawing by applying this principle:

On the right side of the colours, you can observe the drawing in its real size:

Let us notice that when you make a line by clicking and dragging, it is the first clicked square that determines the colour used for the full line. If you click on white (or another colour than the drawing colour), all the line will be coloured in black (drawing colour). If you click on black (drawing colour), all the line will be coloured in white (background colour).

A second tool is used to quickly fill a rectangle in the drawing. Click on the tool:

Click in the red colour, then place the mouse cursor like this:

Click and drag to the right and slightly down. A rectangle is coloured by following your movement. Release the mouse to have the following rectangle:

Close this window. You can also close it using the return key (on Mac, this window has no closing box, use the return key to close it). Click OK and use the ESC key to disable the symbol. The test palette now contains our symbol, represented by the drawing we just made:

Moreover, by typing lower case letter "z", this symbol is selected on the palette.

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Professional

Notation

Composition Pro