NightCustomizer is a special utility that lets you customize hundreds of default settings and controls, so you can personalize how Nightingale operates and feels.
Follow these steps to use NightCustomizer™:
1) Quit Nightingale
2) Double-click on NightCustomizer to start it--the Nightingale Prefs file is opened
3) Make desired changes in NightCustomizer
4) Save changes in NightCustomizer
5) Quit NightCustomizer
6) Restart Nightingale to see changes take effect
Detailed Instructions for using NightCustomizer:
1. Quit Nightingale and then double-click on the NightCustomizer Icon. The file Nightingale Prefs is automatically opened and displayed on your screen.
2. Select the type of objects you wish to modify from the Objects list on the left.
3. Double-click on the item you wish to modify where it appears in the Items list. A dialog box is displayed in which you can make changes to the default setting for that item. Click on the [OK] button to close the dialog.
4. To save changes made in Nightingale, select the Save command in the File menu.
5. To have changes take effect, you must quit NightCustomizer (select Quit from the File menu) and then restart Nightingale.
Troubleshooting:
No Prefs File available:
When you start up Nightingale for the first time, it creates a new Nightingale Prefs file, which is stored in the Preferences folder (the Preferences folder resides in your Macintosh’s System folder). If you have not yet used the actual Nightingale application, or for some reason have moved the Nightingale Prefs file out of the Preferences folder, you will see an alert displayed when starting NightCustomizer:
“Can’t find current Prefs file. Create it first by launching and then quiting Nightingale.
Click on the [OK] button, then quit NightCustomizer (by selecting Quit under the File menu). You must now start the actual Nightingale application by double-clicking on its icon (in the Nightingale Folder on your hard drive) to create Nightingale Prefs file. Once Nightingale has finished its start up sequence, you may quit Nightingale and then re-start NightCustomizer.
If Nightingale still running:
If you try to start NightCustomizer while the actual Nightingale application is still running, you will see this alert displayed:
“Can’t open the current Prefs file, probably because Nightingale is using it now.
You must quit Nightingale before editing the current Prefs file with NightCustomizer”
Click on the [OK] button, then quit NightCustomizer (by selecting Quit under the File menu). You must now quit the actual Nightingale application, which means you “call it up” on your screen so that its menu bar is displayed. To do this, you must either 1) click repeatedly on the small icon appearing in the upper right corner of your screen until the Nightingale icon appears (using System 6 and MultiFinder), or 2) click on the small icon appearing in the upper right corner, and then move the mouse down to select the Nightingale icon in the list (using System 7). Once Nightingale’s menus are displayed and active, select Quit from the File menu. You may now start NightCustomizer.
NightCustomizer’s Objects list:
Once you have successfully started NightCustomizer and are viewing the contents of the Nightingale Prefs file, a list of “Objects” is displayed. From this list you can choose the group of settings you want to adjust:
General prefs are the general default settings which control most of the how Nightingale behaves and looks — the staff, initial time signature, paper sizes, MouseShaking™ control, page layout, etc.
Engraver prefs are the default settings for how symbols and objects appear in your score — stem lengths, chord symbol appearance, lyrics spacing, curvature of slurs, multibar rest appearance, etc.
MIDI prefs are the default settings that control the operation of your MIDI instrument and how it interacts with Nightingale, including recording and playback behavior.
PostScript prefs control information being sent to your printer.
Instruments is a table of settings used by the Instrument dialog under the Master Page menu.
Spacing Tables give you a choice of several tables used for note spacing on the staff, or lets you create your own.
Palette keymap tells you the keyboard equivalent shortcuts (“hot keys”) assigned to each tool in the palette, and lets you assign different keys for each tool.
Units of Measurement used in NightCustomizer:
Points
Engraver’s points are used for many measurements in Nightingale.
1 inch is approximately equal to 72 points.
1 point is equal to slightly less than 1/64th of an inch.
Use the following formula to convert points into inches: (nΩ/72) = x, where “n” is the number of points given as the original value , and “Ω” is either 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64, 128 etc., depending on what increment of an inch you wish to calculate (16ths, 32nd, or 64ths, etc.). “x” is the number of those increments that will be equal in size to the original measurement.
Use this simpler formula to calculate decimal values of an inch: n/72 = x
Pixels
A pixel is a dot on the Macintosh screen. On a standard 72 DPI Mac screen, one pixel on the screen equals one engraver’s point (9 pixels is approximately equal to 1/8 inch).
Percentages of the Staff Height or Spaces
Measurements that are a function of the staff’s height or the size of its spaces are dependent upon the staff size you have specified in your score. The default staff size is “5”, which is 0.22 inches in total height (equal to 16 points). You can select a new staff height for a score using Nightingale’s Master Page command. You can set a new default size with NightCustomizer in the General Prefs items, or in Nightingale in the Preferences dialog.
NightCustomizer’s Items list:
General Prefs Items
Maximum number of open files 10
The number Nightingale scores that can be open during one work session. Can be set higher for machines with more than 2 Megabytes of RAM; Nightingale warns you if you have too little memory to operate.
Additional top margin on first page 54
The “title margin” — Measured in points
54 points is equal to 3/4 inch (see Units of Measurement, above)
Default paper size 0, 0, 792, 612
Top edge =0 points (leave beginning number as is)
Left edge = 0 points (leave beginning number as is)
Bottom edge = 792 points (equal to 11 inches)
Right edge = 612 points (equal to 8.5 inches)
Default margins 36, 45, 36, 18
Measured in points
Top margin = 36 points (1/2 inch)
Left margin = 45 points (5/8 inch)
Right margin = 36 (1/2 inch)
Bottom Margin = 18 (1/4 inch)
Margins for page numbers 39, 45, 18, 36
Measured in points. Be careful margins are not less than your printers limitations.
Default first system indent 47
Measured in points.
Default space between systems 5
Expressed in the number of ledger lines above/below a staff.
Default staff rastral size 5
Possible sizes 1 (large) through 8 (small), with size 0 settable to any size with the next field in the list.
(see Staff Size in the References section of this manual for information).
Rastral 0 staff height 28
Measured in points, may be anything from 4 to 72.
Default time signature 4/4
Set upper and lower numbers to any time signature you wish. Nightingale assumes this is the time signature for any staff that starts without one (because it has been deleted).
Numerator must be between 1 and 99
Denominator must be 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 or 64.
Screen layout: default 1, 20
The default setting for this option means pages are arranged in a single column that is 20 rows tall.
See Screen Page Layout in the commands section of the manual for discussion of choices.
Screen layout: page separation 8, 8
Measured in pixels (8 pixels is equal to approximately 1/9 of an inch)
Tool palette offset -100, -8
Measured in pixels; Horizontal = -100 pixels; Vertical = -8
The position of the Tool Palette relative to the upper left corner of the first document opened. Negative numbers in the horizontal field are to the left of the document’s score window. Negative numbers in the vertical field are above the document’s score window.
Max. note insert syncing tolerance 40
Expressed as a percentage of the notehead width. Use this setting to adjust how carefully you must place the cursor when you click a new note/rest onto a sync with another note/rest. Larger percentages tell Nightingale to allow for less accurate cursor placement when deciding if the new note you are entering belongs on a given sync with the original note. Smaller percentages mean you must place the new note more carefully on or near the center axis of the original note on the given sync.
Double/repeat bars act as barlines? Yes
When Nightingale calculates measure numbers, double barlines, final barlines, and repeat bars that you insert in the score, they are counted as actual barlines for measures.
Allow early music clefs? No
Whenever you enter a C clef, it will automatically be placed on the center line, making it an alto clef. With this option set to “No,” you are limited to dragging the clef up to be centered on the fourth line (i.e., tenor clef), or back to the center line. These are the only positions of the C clef that are still in use, except for historical editions of early music and so on. With the option set to “Yes,” you can drag the clef up/down to be centered on any line of the staff
Mouse shaking threshold 10
Expressed in “ticks” (a tick is 1/60th of a second), ranging from 0 to 100. A value of 0 turns the feature off.
MouseShaking™ switches between the selection arrow and the last used musical symbol or tool in the palette. The shorter the time, the faster must shake.
Enlarge selection highlighting area 1
Expressed in pixels (ranging from 1–10).
When a symbol in your score is selected, it is highlighted by a small, solid box which is drawn around it. The size of the box can range from slightly larger than the size of the symbol to a box several times larger.
Use alternate accidental/pitch entry method? No
This setting tells Nightingale if you wish to use the EasyAccidentals™ feature when entering notes with the mouse. Turning on this setting and pressing the Caps Lock key will make accidentals appear during any up/downward movement of the mouse during note entry (with no need to press the Shift key for accidentals). At the time of this printing it has some difficulty relating to dragging notes afterward, and is not recommended.
Slur/tie tool behavior Tie
You choose “Tie,” “Slur,” or “Ask.”
When you use the slur/tie tool to place a curved line between two consecutive notes of equal pitch, you will ordinarily want the line to act as a tie. Playback will properly reflect this, and the second note will not be re-articulated. (If they are chords instead of single notes, each pair of notes will be tied.)
If you prefer, you can have Nightingale insert a slur between the notes. This means that 1) the default curvature will be different, and (2) on MIDI playback, the second note will be re-articulated.
If you select the “Ask” option, Nightingale will ask you if you prefer a tie or slur each time you connect two consecutive notes of equal pitch.
Quality of slurs on screen Medium
• Fastest, least beautiful—will appear less smooth and with less beautiful shaping, but will redraw very quickly on the screen.
• Medium—generally look good, and fairly quick redrawing
• Slowest, most beautiful—in certain cases, especially compound slurs, will appear smoother, but usually indistinguishable from Medium quality, and will redraw more slowly. This option is rarely useful.
Cmd-period drawing interruption? Yes
This allows you to interrupt screen redrawing at any time, eliminating the need to wait for the screen to be refreshed before another command can be engaged
Units of distance for Get Info Quarter points.
Measured in engravers points; This setting allows choices for points, quarter points, and sixteenth points as the basic unit of measurement that will be used by Nightingale’s Get Info command.
Disable Undo? No
The Undo command under the Edit menu allows you to reverse the last action or command used. Turning off this option will save on memory usage.
Low memory threshold 40
Measured in Kilobytes of RAM (Random Access Memory). If you have made a large number of changes in your score without saving those changes, or work for a long time without quitting the Nightingale application, more and more of your Macintosh’s memory will be engaged by Nightingale until finally there is not enough memory available for the program to operate (leading to system errors and potential loss of all work done since you last saved). Nightingale displays a warning (one time only) that memory is low and you need to save changes to your score. If you experience system errors, you may wish to boost the Low memory threshold so that Nightingale warns you earlier of the danger of losing your work.
Critically low memory threshold 16
Measured in Kilobytes of RAM (Random Access Memory). See explanation of Low memory threshold (above). If available memory is at the minimum threshold Nightingale will display a warning (to save your work) each time you try to use a command or make a change to your score.
Scroll slop 16, 16
Measured in pixels: horizontal = 16, vertical = 16
The amount of paper to keep in view. When making the score window smaller (by dragging the “zoom box”), it is possible for the paper to become completely hidden. In this case, Nightingale forces the view to change so that the top left corner of the paper always remains in view.
Beam by Beat options 1:No, 2:No
These options allow you to adjust how Nightingale’s Beam by Beat command will group beamed notes. Normally each group of beamed notes has a total duration of a single beat. The options in this dialog tell Beam by Beat to group beamed notes so they extend over two beat units.
Save Pref and palette changes without asking? No
When you make changes in Nightingale to its tool palette layout or to the settings controlled in the Preferences dialog, you will see a dialog displayed, when you next quit Nightingale, asking whether you want to save these changes. If you change the “Save Pref and palette changes without asking” option to “Yes,” the save changes dialog will not come up when you quit Nightingale. Not recommended unless you’re sure you want changes automatically saved."
Solid staff lines instead of “gray”? No
Nightingale normally displays your score using gray-scale staff lines instead of solid black lines, making it visually easier to differentiate the musical symbols on your score from the staff lines. If you wish solid staff lines, change this option to “Yes.” This is especially desirable when using an overhead screen projector to display Nightingale scores.
Move note modifiers with their notes? Yes
Normally, when you drag a note up or down on the staff, or when you transpose a note’s pitch up or down, you will want any note modifier attached to that note to move up/down with it. If you turn off this option, a note modifier “stays put” when its note’s pitch changes.
Center whole-measure rests entered if auto-respace off? No
Normally, with Nightingale’s Auto Measure Respace command turned on, a whole measure rest (equal to one full measure in whatever meter is active) will be automatically centered in the measure. If you are working with Auto Measure Respace turned off, newly-entered whole-measure rests will not be automatically centered, but will stay where you place it on the staff until you use the Respace Bars command.
Minimum stretching for Justify to warn about 15
Nightingale’s Justify Systems command will take whatever measure spacing you have created and will stretch or squeeze the spacing to make the music just fill the system. If the Justify Systems command does a great deal of stretching, the results may not look very beautiful when compared with engraver’s spacing practices, especially around accidentals. Multiply this number by 10 to get the minimum percentage at which Nightingale will display a warning.
Engraver Pref Items:
Stem length: normal 14
Measured in quarter-spaces (i.e., multiples of one-quarter the distance between staff lines. So 14 = 14/4 spaces = 3-1/2 spaces, or one octave).
Stem length: normal, 2 voice/staff 12
Measured in quarter-spaces (i.e., multiples of one-quarter the distance between staff lines). This setting controls notation of upper, lower and cross-staff voices created with the Multivoice Notation command, where there are two voices active in a staff, and the note head is NOT positioned so that it requires ledger lines.
Stem length: short, 2 voice/staff 11
Measured in quarter-spaces of the staff. This setting controls notation of upper, lower and cross-staff voices created with the Multivoice Notation command, where there are two voices active in a staff, and the note head IS positioned so that it requires ledger lines.
Stem length: grace notes 10
Measured in quarter-spaces (i.e., multiples of one-quarter the distance between staff lines).
Slash grace-note stems? Yes
This makes it possible to suppress the usual slashes on grace-note stems, e.g., for eighteenth-century music.
Draw stemlets on beamed rests? No
If you beam a group of notes and rests, there will normally be no stem extending between the beam(s) and the rests, as there is for the notes. If you turn on the “stemlets” option, small stems will be drawn from the beam toward the rests.
Rest offset from normal height with multiple voices 4
Measured in half-spaces. When using the Multivoice Notation command, newly-inserted rests in voices designated either “upper”, “lower” or “cross-staff” will be offset up or down, respectively.
Standard space after barline 12
This and the next six options affect only the Respace Bars command and Automatic Respacing.
Measured in eighth-spaces. The space normally left by Nightingale between the barline and the first symbol in a measure.
Minimum space after barline 10
Measured in eighth-spaces. Minimum space between a barline and the left edge of the next symbol in the measure.
Minimum space before barline 5
Measured in eighth-spaces. Minimum space between the last symbol in a measure and the next barline.
Minimum space between any symbols 2
Measured in eighth-spaces of the staff.
Minimum space between lyrics 6
Measured in eighth-spaces of the staff.
Space between timesig/keysig and note 10
Measured in eighth-spaces of the staff. The standard space between a time or key signature and the first note/rest in the score.
Space between accidentals 4
Measured approximately in quarter-spaces of the staff. The horizontal step size Nightingale uses automatically to keep accidentals from overlapping when you insert them.
Curvature of newly-inserted slurs 100
Expressed as a percentage of “normal” curvature for slurs and ties
Curvature of newly-inserted ties 85
Expressed as a percentage of “normal” curvature for slurs and ties.
Relative slope of newly-created beams 25
Expressed as a percentage of the slope of a line from the first beamed note’s stem to the last beamed note’s stem.
Mouth width of newly-inserted hairpins 5
Measured in quarter-spaces of the staff. For graphic crescendo/decrescendo markings inserted using the “<” or “>” tool from the palette.
Height above staff top of newly-created endings 10
Measured in half-spaces of the staff. When repeat endings brackets are inserted, they are initially placed above the staff, with the top edge of the bracket five spaces (ten half-spaces) above the top line of the staff. Use Get Info to move individual repeat ending brackets, or drag them into different positions.
Length of 2-measure multibar rest 12
Measured in quarter-spaces of the staff. This is the minimum size of multibar rest, and all larger rests have length added onto this minimum length.
Additional length of multibar rests 2
Measured in quarter-spaces of the staff. For each additional measure of rest above two measures, Nightingale adds length to the multibar rest in increments of two quarter-spaces.
Multibar rest thickness 2
Measured in quarter-spaces of the staff. The thickness of the beam used to create multibar rests.
Length of dashes in dotted barlines 4
Measured in eighth-spaces of the staff.
Cross-system beam extension length 5
Measured in quarter-spaces of the staff. When a beam extend over a barline, and those two measures are on different systems, the beam in the first measure will extend horizontally past the stem of the last note in the measure.
Text/measure number enclosure margin 2
Measured in points. The margin between a string of text or a measure number and its enclosing box, if it has one.
Text/measure number enclosure width offset 0
Measured in points. The offset on widths of text or measure number enclosing boxes.
Square brackets for curly braces? No
With this option set to “No”, a piano grand staff or other multi-staff part will be connected with a curly brace along the left end of each system. Setting it to “Yes” makes connects them with a square-cornered bracket instead.
Size of music characters in chord symbols 150
Expressed as a percentage of the text size in its field of the chord symbol. The overall size of characters in Chord Symbols is controlled with the Define Text Styles command. This setting affects only sharps, flats, and natural signs in chord symbols (refer to the entry titled Define Text Styles in the Commands section of this manual).
Size of small font used in chord symbols 67
Expressed as a percentage of the Chord Symbol font size as given in the Define Text Styles command. This setting affects everything except the root names.
Superscript of chord symbol extensions 40
Expressed as a percentage of the Chord Symbol font size as given in the Define Text Styles command. Chord symbol extensions are raised above the baseline on which the chord’s root name is placed.
Draw parentheses in chord symbols? Yes
Each upper extension of the chord will be enclosed in parentheses unless this option is set to “No.”
Font to use for music characters Sonata
Allows a choice of several music fonts. However, with Nightingale 1.0 serious adjustments are necessary for most fonts other than Sonata.
Left-justify partnames (otherwise centered)? No
Normally, the name of the instrument or voice assigned to a part appears at the left of the first system; it may also appear at the left of other systems. This option makes the names left-justified.
Draw system bracket if only 1 staff visible? No
When you have hidden staves (using the Work on Page Format command), you may wish to have the left hand bracket connecting all parts in the system appear despite the fact that only one staff may be visible.
Draw part bracket if only 1 staff visible? No
When you have hidden staves (using the Work on Page Format command), you may wish to have the left hand bracket connecting all staves in a multiple-staff part appear despite the fact that only one staff may be visible.
“USING NIGHT CUSTOMIZER” CONTINUES IN THE NEXT PORTION OF THIS DOCUMENT, WHICH IS NAMED “USING NIGHTCUSTOMIZER II”
