Noteworthy. Honestly!

Subject: Noteworthy. Honestly!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 01:25 PM

After using Noteworthy Composer for a long time, I just discovered accidentaly that I can open the text box by typing "x". I can insert a special ending by typing "bb". etc etc All this time I have been using Insert, either with the mouse or with the Alt key. What a waste of time!

Just for laughs, here is what Help says on inserting text:

This command is used to insert a text instruction of your choice into the staff. It does not influence play back of the staff in any way, but can be useful when creating a printed score for a real performer.

As with other expression marks, you can control whether the text preserves its width in the score or does not influence how the score is printed. You can also indicate whether the expression should use the italic font, the bold font , or a custom font that you specify from Page Setup.
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Why the heck can't they just say "type an x"?

Subject: RE: Noteworthy. Honestly!
From: CapriUni
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 02:12 PM

Because they're trying to be high-fallutin'?

It's not just a problem Noteworthy has. A lot of computer manuals are written that way...

Subject: RE: Noteworthy. Honestly!
From: Amos
Date: 01 Aug 05 - 02:19 PM

It is no small task to cleave to the notion of plain, clear English while trying to juggle the complexity of programmer-think!


A

Subject: RE: Noteworthy. Honestly!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 03:21 AM

I haven't looked at Noteworthy recently, but a common usage is to underline the "quick key" on the menu that drops down when you use the long Edit-click method. Common implementations require an Alt + underlined character, but in some progams the underlined char alone gets the function.

I presume there's no such marking in Noteworthy? (Ooops, I just looked. Lots of Underlines.)

Use of this hint is almost NEVER documented, but should always be kept in mind when exploring a new program - just in case it might be there.

Information is sometimes hidden in the help files under "shortcuts" or "quick keys," or occasionally just as "keyboard;" but often it's just "assumed knowledge."

Reading all of the help is a lost art, probably because of the frequent "nothing useful there."

John

Subject: RE: Noteworthy. Honestly!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 11:32 AM

Once I gave a learned lecture on contemporary proverbs. "When all else fails, read the manual" was one of the proverbs. In my view, this proverb can be taken two ways. When used sarcastically, the speaker is sneering at the listener for not reading the manual. However, I believe that it's usually used to mean that the manual is so badly written that one would only refer to it as a last resort.

One of my favorite bits of Help was in the manual for a sound card I used to have. It said "You can paste a Whatever file to an OLE client."

To me, to paste someone was to hit them with your fist, and a client was a paying customer. I had no idea what they were talking about. Now I realize that the language was that of a computer expert. Since a person like that wouldn't need the help, what was the point?
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Setting aside the foibles of Help, I hope that people will pick up on my discovery for using Noteworthy more efficiently and will start playing and sharing more music. I think that this quicker method might work for other music programs, too.

Subject: RE: Noteworthy. Honestly!
From: MMario
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 11:48 AM

RTFM! I will admit most manuals aren't worth the paper they are printed on (or the CD they are burned into these days) but there is USUALLY some helpful information in them. It used to amaze me that five and six years after installing computers in offices I could walk into the office and find the shrink wrapped manual - wrapping intact - in the exact spot I had left it on install.

Subject: RE: Noteworthy. Honestly!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 02:25 PM

The classic case on installation manuals was a ZIP drive (Iomega) we got some time back. The installation instructions were on a ZIP disk that came with the drive, which of course you could not access until after you'd completed the installation.

In traditional "techspeak" a while back, the answer to all unsolvable riddles was "It's in Knuth." Knuth announced his intention to write a series of books to contain "everything about computing." He actually got through 3 or 4 books, and they were excellent; but he got interested in something else and the stuff everyone really wanted to know was "pending publication of next volume" - for about 20 years or so, at least.

John

Subject: RE: Noteworthy. Honestly!
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 06:05 PM

There's still a chance Don Knuth could complete the effort. He is now about 67 years old and should be retiring about now. Who knows?

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Noteworthy. Honestly!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 02 Aug 05 - 06:35 PM

But since it's been quite a while since he published the first ones, he'll have to rewrite them to bring them up to date. I suspect he's more likely to continue with TeX.

John