Mo,

I have been using Noteworthy for over 10 years now. What appealed to me was that I was able to produce a usable musical score from scratch in about half-an-hour first time I used it.

I agree the "infinitely long stave" seems strange at first but you get used to it. On the other hand, if you ever produce music in multiple parts, it comes somewhat into its own.

For a very modest outlay, it is remarkably powerful, though for some things you do have to use workarounds. I know people who have entered full symphonies using Noteworthy and tweaked the midi features to make an acceptable playback. If you want to get an idea of what is possible, check the noteworthy scriptorium http://www.vpmag.com/nwc/ where there are large numbers of users files of music of all musical styles You could also look at Tina Billet's website; http://www.keyboard-creations.co.uk/index.html (She has notated all nine Beethoven Symphonies in Noteworthy for starters).

There is an excellent user community (or used to be, I have not checked for a while) so join the online forum and the newsgroup. Any queries you have about features, problems etc. are usually answered in a courteous manner. You can find information about both of these on the noteworthy website.

Good luck.