Tap the sides (blue areas) to turn the page, tap the center (yellow area) to show and hide the controls, and tap and hold anywhere on the page to annotate

When space permits, you may see two additional items in the title bar; tap and hold either of these icons to change their function or to disable them if you prefer

Welcome to forScore! Here are a few quick things you should know before you get started.

Turning Pages

Turn the page with two basic kinds of gestures: swipes and taps. Swipe left or right across the screen like flipping through pages in a book, or simply tap either side of the screen once. When using a trackpad or mouse, click the sides of the page or scroll to turn pages.

Landscape

To get a better view of your score, turn your device sideways: the page will fill up the screen’s width and extend downward if necessary. Swipe or tap to scroll from top to bottom and between pages, or drag the page up and down with your finger.

Controls

To help you get the best view of your music, forScore’s controls are hidden by default. A quick, single tap or click in the middle of the page reveals these controls:

This bar along the top of the screen gives you access to six important items (in blue): scores, bookmarks, and setlists on the left, and search, audio utilities, and the tools menu on the right. These items are discussed in greater detail throughout this guide.

The darker area in the middle of the toolbar displays the current item’s title, composer, and gives you quick access to commonly used tools and functions. The gear icon on the left shows the Display Options overlay (learn more below), and the ellipsis icon on the right presents a menu that includes additional options related to the piece of music you’re currently viewing.

Seek Bar

Along the bottom of the page, a slider control allows you to quickly preview and jump to any page in the current score. If you’ve added bookmarks to your score, the name of the bookmark hovers above the white dot as you scroll or drag it across the screen.

Zoom

Place two fingers on the screen (or trackpad) and move them farther apart to zoom in, or closer together to zoom out. Double-tap while zoomed in to return to the normal size, and double-tap while zoomed out to show additional display options.

Display Options

Double tap the center of the page or tap the gear icon in the title bar to show the Display Options overlay which gives you quick access to window-specific options including presentation, layout, and page turning functions or behaviors.

Display modes let you control how your music is presented: standard mode uses a common 3:4 aspect ratio to ensure the page looks the same on every device, best fit mode gives you a better view but may clip some annotations, and zoomed mode makes the page as big as possible but may clip the left and right edges of your music. When you’re viewing a single page in landscape orientation, choose between the default scrolling behavior and a best fit mode that shrinks the page to fit on the screen.

This overlay also gives you quick access to half page turns (in portrait orientation), two-up mode (in landscape orientation), visual effects like Sepia, and page turning modes like performance mode, Reflow, Face Gestures, and more. If an external display is connected, this overlay also shows additional options related to video output.

Getting the most out of this guide

This document was designed to introduce you to forScore’s many features, and to give you a framework of knowledge to use as you continue exploring and learning on your own. It’s not a technical manual and isn’t intended to provide exhaustive step-by-step instructions for every situation.

Every person learns differently, and while we do our best to make things clear for users of all levels of experience, you may have some questions that aren’t answered here. If that’s the case, visit forscore.co/support to find more specific answers and topics.

Devices

forScore is compatible with iPads running iPadOS 16 or later, iPhones on iOS 16 or later, Macs using macOS 13 or later, and Vision Pro with visionOS 1.1 or later. Except where noted, functions available on one device are also available (and work similarly) on the others. Exact placement and appearance of features and icons may vary based on your OS version, device, settings, and multitasking mode.

iPadOS and iOS are nearly identical in most respects, so to keep things concise we sometimes refer to them collectively as “iOS” in this guide. Unless otherwise noted, those references apply equally to both platforms.

Terminology

forScore is designed to be used with a variety of input methods including touch, keyboards, and trackpads or mice. In general, we use words like “tap” and “drag” or “swipe” which translate to “click” or “scroll” when using a mouse or trackpad. When we refer to screen size or device orientation, these concepts translate to window size and aspect ratio when windowing is used.

A note about Drag and Drop and Contextual Menus

Since they were introduced, forScore has fully supported and made extensive use of both Drag and Drop and Contextual Menu interactions. To keep things simple, this guide doesn’t call out every situation where these features are available. Instead, we provide two sections at the end of this document that help you understand when these interactions can speed up the tasks you’ve learned about in earlier sections.

Additional information about this user guide

This user guide is provided as a courtesy, as-is and without guarantee or warranty. Although we thoroughly proofread the content herein for accuracy and clarity, you are solely responsible for the integrity and protection of your information while using forScore.

This guide was last updated for version 14.3, and all features are subject to change without notice. If you are unsure how any of the processes described in this guide may affect your information, consider backing up your data before proceeding.

Please remember that many musicians rely on the legitimate sale of their sheet music as an essential part of their income. Although forScore provides the mechanism for importing PDF files from the numerous sources, it is solely your responsibility to ensure that doing so does not infringe upon any current laws or restrictions under which you are subject.

For any questions, corrections, suggestions, or concerns, please visit forscore.co/support and send us a message—your feedback is how we make better products.

All content copyright © 2024 forScore, LLC. All rights reserved. No portion of this document may be reproduced, modified, or distributed without permission.

Drag and Drop gestures make working with forScore much faster and more intuitive. In most cases Drag and Drop provides a second way of doing things, so you’re free to use the original way if you prefer.

Basics

To use Drag and Drop on iOS or iPadOS, tap and hold certain items for a moment until they appear to lift off the screen, then drag your finger away from it slightly to begin the drag process. While holding the item with one finger, you’re free to use your other fingers to interact with forScore or any other app on your device. On macOS, drag and drop works immediately—just click and drag without pausing first. Since Macs don’t support multiple simultaneous pointer interactions, some drag and drop techniques described below may not be practical on macOS.

Note: Contextual Menus also use a long press gesture and change how Drag and Drop works in cases where both are available. Tap and hold an item to show its contextual menu and then drag the preview away to use Drag and Drop (there’s no need to lift your finger first, just use one continuous motion). If you prefer, you can disable either Drag and Drop or Contextual Menus in the Accessibility section of forScore’s settings panel.

In some cases, tapping additional similar items adds them to the drag session (like dragging a score in the Score menu, then tapping other scores to drag them at the same time). You can open and close menus and panels and your drag items will follow your finger as long as it’s touching the screen.

When you’ve dragged your finger over a valid drop zone, you may see some indication that lifting your finger here will perform some kind of action. The drop zone may react by moving or changing colors, or a green “+” badge may appear, for instance, letting you know that dropping the items in this spot will copy them in some way. Each interaction works a little differently, so try some of the following examples for yourself to see how they behave.

Rearranging Items

Many of forScore’s views list items that can be rearranged: setlists and their contents, libraries, audio tracks and MIDI commands in the Metadata panel, accounts in the Services panel, and more. Typically, these items can be arranged by tapping “edit” and then dragging the three horizontal lines on the right-hand side of the cell up or down as needed. With Drag and Drop, there’s no need to enter “edit” mode first—simply tap and hold any part of the item until it lifts up and out of the list, then drag up or down.

Working With Items

Scores and bookmarks can be dragged out of forScore’s Score, Bookmark, and Setlist menus, the Search panel, and you can even drag the current item out of the main view’s title display (and remember: you can use any combination of these sources to add multiple items to your drag session). Drag any single item onto the page to open it, or drag one or more items into the Tab bar to open them in tabs.

Working With Setlists

No feature is better suited to Drag and Drop than Setlists. Creating, editing, and organizing your setlists is dramatically simpler and faster using these new gestures. To rearrange setlists or their contents, drag items up or down as discussed in the “rearranging items” section above. You can also drag a setlist into or out of a folder to move it.

To create a new setlist, drop one or more scores or bookmarks into the main Setlists list and supply a name. To add items to an existing setlist, drop them onto the setlist’s name and they’ll be added to the end of that list. Or, hover over a setlist (or tap it) to open it, then drop the items into the list at a specific point. You can even drag items out from one setlist and into another one to copy items between them.

Importing & Sharing Files

Drag and Drop isn’t just restricted to the same app; you can also drag compatible files into forScore to import them. Drop one or more PDF files into the Score menu to add them to your library, onto the page to import them and open the last one, or drop them into the tab bar to import and open all of them in new tabs. Drop them into the Setlist menu to create a new setlist with them or add them to an existing setlist using the same methods described in the previous section.

Importing works with other files, too. Drop any file type supported by forScore into certain views or panels to import them. Other supported formats include our own 4SC (scores), 4SS (setlists), and 4SB (backups) file types, as well as certain kinds of text and audio files.

You can also drag some items out of forScore to export them: drag a score to share a copy of its source PDF file, or drag an audio track, recording, or backup file to copy it to any other app that accepts them.

Audio Tracks

forScore uses Drag and Drop to help you work with audio files more quickly and flexibly, too. Drag them into and out of the audio file picker to import or export them, or drag them onto the media box to import them and link them to the current score or bookmark.

If the current track is a locally stored file, you can drag the track’s title out of the media box to send a copy to another app. Otherwise, if it’s a track that comes from your device’s shared Music library, you won’t be able to export the file but you can still use Drag and Drop to add the track to another score or bookmark in your library (drop it into the Metadata panel’s audio track list).

Annotating

While annotating, use Drag and Drop to rearrange your drawing presets by dragging them left or right. You can also work with images in several ways: drop an image onto the page (from the Photos app, Safari, or any app that allows you to drag images) and forScore will place it as an annotation. Resize it, reposition it, then tap outside of it to complete the process.

Create new stamps by dragging images from other apps directly into the Stamp Creator’s canvas. Use the Selection tool to select an area of drawn annotations, then use Drag and Drop to copy them as an image to other apps. Since you’re working with standard images in both cases, you can even combine these two examples to create new stamps from annotations you’ve previously drawn by hand, all without leaving the app or needing to go to your computer to deal with image editing software.

Services

In the Services panel, use Drag and Drop to move files between folders or drop certain things here to upload them. Drag scores, bookmarks, setlists, audio files, backups, or CSV files into the Services panel to upload them.

MIDI

Drag commands between the various MIDI sections in the Metadata panel and the Button editor to copy them, or drag commands onto the page to create a new button with them.

Multiple Windows

On iPadOS, Drag & Drop gestures can be used to create new windows. Drag a score or setlist to the left or right edge of the screen until it shows the forScore app icon, then let go to open a new window displaying that content.

Disabling Drag and Drop

Some users may find that iOS’ Drag and Drop gestures interfere with their ability to work. Although iOS does not currently provide a system setting to disable them, forScore offers an option in the Accessibility section of its Settings panel called “Drag and Drop” that significantly alters how it utilizes these gestures. When this setting is disabled, forScore does not make items available for dragging and most interactions return to how they worked with older versions of iOS.

Note that this setting does not affect how forScore receives drop gestures originating from other apps, however, so you can still do things like drag a PDF file from the Files app directly into forScore to import it.

Every app on your device has a standard set of folders that it uses to store information. This ‘Documents’ directory is used to store user content, like documents you add to (or create within) an app. Other data like app settings, which are designed to be changed through the app’s interface and not edited directly, are stored in a number of private app directories instead.

4SB Backups

In forScore’s Backups panel you can create a forScore Backup (4SB file) that packages all of forScore’s private information into a single document that is saved alongside the rest of your files in forScore’s Documents directory. Copy all of the files in this directory (including the 4SB file) to a safe location and you’ll be able to restore forScore back to its current state without affecting any other apps. As a safeguard, forScore creates an automatic 4SB backup when you launch the app. It keeps the most recent copy and a copy from the last calendar day you used it.

A backup file can not be used on its own. It only contains forScore’s information about your documents, not copies of your documents themselves. Backups are a good choice when copying all of your files to a computer using File Sharing.

4SB Archives

You can also use the Backups panel to create a forScore Archive which is similar to a backup (it also uses the 4SB file extension) but it includes a copy of every file in forScore’s Documents directory as well. This means that in order to create an archive you need to have significantly more free space available on your device, but it can be used to restore your library or migrate to a new device by copying the single archive file.

An archive file can be used on its own to recover or migrate your forScore library to a new device. They’re great for uploading your library to a cloud storage service for safe keeping.

forScore Backup Utility

Mac users running macOS 10.14 or later can use the forScore Backup Utility to archive their iOS device’s forScore library directly to their computer via a USB cable. This can be useful if you want to create a 4SB Archive but don’t have enough free space on your device. Visit forScore.co/backup-utility for more information.

Apple Backups

In most cases, whole-device backups to iCloud or iTunes (depending on your settings) are sufficient to get you back up and running if something happens to your device. The backup techniques described in the sections above are intended to provide an additional layer of security, not to replace this essential part of protecting your data.

Recently Deleted Files

When you delete a score or setlist using forScore’s delete functions, it is moved to the Recently Deleted section of the Backups panel. You can recover it for up to seven days or permanently erase it, if needed.

CSV Metadata Import/Export

Tap the scrolled page icon in the top left-hand corner of the Backups panel to import or export your forScore metadata using standard CSV (comma-separated value) text files. These files are exported using UTF-8 encoding by default, but this can be adjusted to UTF-16 if needed under Settings › Advanced options › CSV export.

On iOS and iPadOS devices, Apple provides a standard system interface that any app can use to help you work with documents, also available through the standalone “Files” app. It lets you access and work with your documents whether they’re stored in iCloud Drive, third party cloud storage services, or within apps like forScore that choose to make their documents available in this way.

File Providers

The Files interface lets you access documents stored in iCloud Drive, other apps, or dozens of third-party cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox. Learn more about configuring the Files interface to work with your favorite cloud storage provider at forscore.co/files.

Importing Files

Use the Import button in the main menu to copy files to your forScore library. Tap a single file or use the Select button (only available in the Browse tab) to import multiple files at once. Use the Locations sidebar to switch between cloud storage providers, including iCloud Drive, or to view files stored locally on your device.

Sharing Files

Any time you share files from forScore, you’ll see iOS’ native sharing interface appear which includes an option called “Save to Files.” Use this action to copy your files to other apps or upload them to any of the cloud storage services you’ve configured.

On iPads, Drag and Drop gestures make importing and sharing content even easier, especially when using iOS’ multitasking modes. Learn more about these gestures in the Drag and Drop section at the end of this guide.

The Services Panel

If you prefer, you can also access the Files interface using forScore’s Services panel. If it’s not already shown in the list of Services, tap the + button to select it, then tap it to view the splash screen and choose to either upload or download content.

forScore’s Documents

Every app has its own Documents directory where they can store a user’s information. This is where forScore stores all of your PDF files; if you’ve ever used the File Sharing interface, this is the directory you were working with.

forScore’s Documents directory can also be accessed directly through the Files interface and standalone app. Choose “On My iPad” (or iPhone) from the Locations list in the app’s sidebar to see app folders for forScore and any other apps on your device that store data in their own Documents directories.

Working within forScore’s Documents directory through the Files app carries the same implications as working within the File Sharing interface does—delete files here and they’ll be permanently removed from forScore. We do not recommend renaming PDF files through this interface as doing so will remove that file’s metadata, annotations, and more.

Note: If you want to rename PDF files stored in forScore’s Documents directory, use the metadata panel to change its title instead and the filename will be updated to match it as closely as possible.