One of the small and perhaps under-celebrated improvements in Sibelius 6 is the ability to control how pages are laid out on screen. This is a purely ergonomic improvement that makes no difference how the score is eventually printed out onto paper, but can make a big difference to your workflow for editing.
Shown above is the classic Sibelius page view, showing pairs of facing pages stretching off to the right of the display. Aside from Panorama view, introduced in Sibelius 5, this was previously the one and only way of displaying pages in Sibelius. In Sibelius 6, this is still the default view, but it can now be changed. If you ever want to get back to this view, it’s obtained by choosing View > Pages > Spreads Horizontally. Read on for more options.
If you have a score or part where you know it’s not destined for binding into a booklet – say, a fan-fold part of three or four pages – then you might find it useful to show the pages horizontally but not as pairs of facing pages:
To obtain this view, choose View > Pages > Single Pages Horizontally.
Other document editing applications typically provide a view option for showing spreads vertically, and Sibelius 6 is now no exception. If you want to see pairs of facing pages arranged vertically, choose View > Pages > Spreads Vertically, to see this:
The final option completes the set, and allows you to view single pages arranged vertically rather than as spreads:
If you haven’t tried out these options, do give them a whirl. You may well find one of these new page arrangements provides a surprisingly big ergonomic improvement for your own workflow.
diana bushby
I can’t download my scores in the correct size so that I can print them.