reference.book Page 117 Monday, August 31, 2009 2:47 PM
2.10 Chord symbols The options in the Parentheses group determine when Sibelius should use parentheses around various suffix elements: Alteration / extension suffix elements for n or more alterations / extensions determines
Finally, the Language menu allows you to choose how the root notes should be written: English: the default choice, this writes note names as A–G, with B and Bb. German: writes note names as A-G, with (e.g.) Fis for F#, Ees for Eb, H for B and B for Bb. Scandinavian: writes note names as A-G, with H for B, but Bb for Bb. Solfege (do, re, mi, etc.): writes note names as Do, Re, Mi, etc. Solfege (do, ré, mi, etc.): writes note names as Do, Ré, Mi, etc.
The Language setting only affects the display of chord symbols: for text input of chord symbols, you should always use the regular English note names. You can override the global choices made on the Chord Symbols page of House Style Engraving Rules for individual chord types using House Style Edit Chord Symbols – 8.13 Edit Chord Symbols.
Legacy chord symbol input In earlier versions of Sibelius, chord symbols were a kind of text, and had to be typed in using special keyboard shortcuts or bits of chord symbol chosen from a word menu. For the purposes of backwards compatibility, it is possible to enable so-called legacy chord symbol input, which makes chord symbols behave the same way as in earlier versions, by switching on the Use legacy chord symbol input checkbox on the Other page of File Preferences (in the Sibelius menu on Mac). Be aware that legacy chord symbols do not respond to the edits possible from the Edit Chord Symbols submenu, and do not change appearance when you change the options on the Chord Symbols page of House Style Engraving Rules. As a consequence, you are strongly recommended to use real chord symbols. If you find yourself occasionally needing a legacy chord symbol, you can choose Create Text Special Text Chord symbol to type a single legacy chord symbol into the score. If you want, you can also assign a keyboard shortcut to the Chord symbols text style, and use that shortcut on the occasions when you require a legacy chord symbols – 5.12 Menus and shortcuts.
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whether Sibelius should use parentheses only when there are a certain number of alterations or extensions in the chord symbol; by default, this is set to 1, but you may find parentheses unnecessary for chords with two or fewer extensions, in which case you could set this to 3. Word-modifiers (sus, add, omit) determines whether Sibelius should place word modifiers such as “sus” inside parentheses. By default, this option is switched on. Major 7ths on minor chords determines whether Sibelius should write e.g. Cm(,7) or Cm,7. By default, this option is switched on.