One major hassle is that having something highlighted like a note or rest can mean two things: whatever you do will happen AFTER the highlighted note (e.g. hitting the sharp key will sharp the NEXT note you enter) or it means that whatever you do will affect the highlighted note (e.g. hitting the sharp key will sharp the currently highlighted note.) And there is no way to tell the difference looking at the screen.
The manual is perhaps the worst-indexed manual I have ever seen! I can't remember what I was looking for, but there was no entry for it in the index. I asked on a Sibelius yahoogroup and was told what page to find the answer, in somewhat impatient "RTFM" terms (F did NOT mean Finale). Once I found where it was in the manual, I knew what heading it was under in the index and was able to find it in the index (not under its own name, however). But it should have had its own alphabetical entry.
The authors are not only arrogant, they are paranoid. For people who objected to Finale98's copy protection, Sibelius is definitely not the program to buy. Finale allows installation on any number of machines and trusts the integrity of the end-user not to give away copies. This allows you to use it on your home computer, your office computer and your notebook computer, with fully functional copies on all three machines. Sibelius only allows fully functional installation on ONE machine. You can install it on any other number of machines, but to save or print, you need to transfer a secret code using the always dependable (NOT!) 3.5 disk medium. If that disk gets damaged between machines you are doomed until you contact Sibelius and get their pontifical blessing (they'll give you a new code number) to have a working copy again. OR, for only an additional $50US you can buy a second code so you can have it work on two computers. Such a deal!
I do think it is possible to do serious engraving projects with Sibelius and to have them look good -- I don't think it is possible to do as wide a variety of engraving projects with Sibelius. It works well for Baroque, Classical and Romantic style notation projects.
There are some heavy-hitting arrangers and composers who do use Sibelius very successfully, so I feel it important to note that it IS a powerful program that can turn out obviously workable charts.
But it is equally important to note that while many people complain about having to learn Finale's way of doing things, at least Finale often gives several ways to achieve the same notational result while with Sibelius you also have to learn the program's way of doing things. But with Sibelius there seems to be only ONE way to do things, and that is Sibelius's way of doing things and heaven help you if you don't do them in Sibelius's preferred order!
And don't change your mind in mid-project! If you start it in 3/4, DON'T try to change to 3/8! You can either start over or you can start over.
Craig Parmerlee wrote:
[snip]> Considering all the flame wars at that time about how intuitive Sibelius
was, I found the case to be exactly the opposite. Certain really basic operations were quite intuitive; more so than Finale. But whenever I wanted to do something of even moderate sophistication, I found myself completely lost, and rarely any help from the Help files or manuals. Finale at the time was vary far from intuitive, but at least the answers could usually be found in the comprehensive manuals.
BY FAR, the thing I found most troubling was the complete lack of a scroll mode of operating on scores. Perhaps this has changed, but I found it utterly impossible to work in that screen view, especially as the screen seems constantly to be bouncing around in unpredictable ways. I could never get my bearings in the program. If that is still a limitation, I'd suggest adding it to the list of Sibelius weaknesses.
After that experience I concluded:
a) that the Sibelius authors are arrogant jerks
b) that the users who were boasting so loudly about its superiority must not ever do any serious work with the program.
-- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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