reference.book Page 233 Monday, August 31, 2009 2:47 PM
3.3 Lyrics Layout Reset Note Spacing (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+N or N), as the lyrics will probably require more or less horizontal space than previously.
Blocks of lyrics Extra verses of a song or hymn can be written as blocks of words at the end of the score. These aren’t the same as normal lyrics because they don’t align with notes. To type a block of lyrics, use Create Text Other System Text Block lyrics. Simply type the lyrics, and hit Return (on the main keyboard) at the end of each line, or copy the lyrics from elsewhere in the score if you can (see Copying lyrics from Sibelius above). It’s convenient if you type each verse as a separate text object, so that you can move them around separately.
Notes on the middle staff line normally have stems pointing down; however, when there are lyrics you may want stems drawn pointing up so as to avoid colliding with the words. To do this automatically, edit the staff types used by the vocal instruments in your score using House Style Edit Instruments – see Notes and Rests page on page 640.
Engraving Rules options On the Text page of the House Style Engraving Rules dialog (shortcut Ctrl+Shift+E or E) you can set the position of lyric lines and spacing of hyphens, and some other options besides: Use text hyphens (not symbols) makes Sibelius draw lyrics hyphens with the font used for creating lyrics, rather than using a special symbol from the Create Symbols dialog. This
option is switched on by default. One hyphen maximum forces only one lyric hyphen to appear, even if syllables are spaced a long way apart. This option is switched off by default. Hyphens allowed at start of systems controls whether a lyric hyphen can appear at the start of a system if there is a syllable on the first note. This option is switched off by default. Hanging punctuation controls whether Sibelius takes account of hanging punctuation when positioning lyrics (see Hanging punctuation above). Center all syllables followed by hyphens center-aligns melismatic syllables (i.e. held over more than one note) which are followed by hyphens, rather than left-aligning them as per the default behavior. This option is switched off by default. Center all syllables containing East Asian characters is switched on by default. The rules for aligning lyrics in Western alphabets are not appropriate for East Asian languages, where most lyrics are single characters. Draw slurs between East Asian characters draws small slurs beneath any lyric items containing more than one East Asian character, between the first and the last East Asian character in the syllable, making it clear that they should all be sung to the same note. This option is switched on by default.
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Stem directions