Dashboard

If you allow it, forScore can track which scores, bookmarks, and setlists you view and for how long. With this information collected, the Dashboard feature in the tools menu can give you valuable insights into your playing habits and helps keep you on track. Three tabs along the top or bottom of the screen (shown on the left of the screen in a sidebar when space allows) give you different ways of viewing and using this information:

Analytics

The Analytics tab shows information collected over the past ninety days. It can show you statistics for either items (scores and bookmarks) or setlists, and displays either the total amount of time you spent playing or the number of views.

Tap on any day to see a detailed list of items or setlists in the lower portion of the screen. This list shows everything you viewed on that particular day and is sorted from most played or viewed to least. You can tap on any item or setlist in this list to see how often you’ve viewed or played it over the past ninety days.

Goals

The Goals tab helps you reach a minimum number of views or amount of play time for each day, week, month, or all time. Goals can be item- or setlist-specific, or they can be more general.

The main list of goals shows your current progress as a circular view and, if your goal is time-specific, uses an additional view in the lower left-hand corner to show your results for the previous term. For instance, a weekly goal would prominently display this week’s progress with a smaller view for last week’s results.

Tap a goal to edit it or to view your results for the past ninety days. The timeline along the top of the screen shows your results for the past ninety days: tap on any of these graphics to share your progress with friends or colleagues via email, message, Twitter, Facebook, and more. It’s a great way to hold yourself accountable or to share your success.

Reports

The Reports tab lets you periodically share more detailed information with a colleague or instructor as a PDF document. To begin, create a new report template and tap the circled arrow button to edit it.

Here, you can customize your report to display progress for all items and/or setlists or for one in particular. Select day, week, or month, and choose how far back you’d like the report to go. Once you’re done, tap the back button and tap the report to view its results and use the action button in the top right-hand corner to share it.

Note: The information forScore collects is stored locally on your device. It doesn’t get sent to any servers, and won’t be shared with anyone unless you specifically choose to do so. Visit forscore.co/privacy to learn more.

The Files App

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.

Table of Contents

Settings

General

• Auto-lock: Disable this setting to prevent your device from sleeping automatically while forScore is open.
• Search: Adjust which kinds of results are shown and in which order, how many recent items are listed, and more.
• Show recent items: Choose how many recent items to show in the search panel before you’ve typed anything into the search field (enter 0 for none).
• Search results: Check or uncheck specific result types and reorder them to prioritize those you want to see first.
• Search PDF text for title: When creating a bookmark, as you type in the title field this feature can offer page number suggestions based on occurrences of that text within the PDF file (not available for image-based files).
• Devices: Connect to certain types of accessories like the AirTurn PED or IKMultimedia BlueBoard.
• MIDI: Toggle the ability to send and receive MIDI commands or use the piano keyboard as a synthesizer.
• Send commands: Allow forScore to send signals you’ve added to specific scores each time you open them (see Metadata)
• Receive shortcuts Allow forScore to interpret some incoming MIDI signals as score shortcuts (see the Metadata section) or action shortcuts (see Page Turners & Shortcuts)
• Synthesizer: Allow forScore to play piano sounds in response to incoming note messages.
• MIDI network setup: Connect to a nearby network MIDI session.
• Bluetooth MIDI devices: Connect to nearby Bluetooth LE-enabled MIDI devices.
• forScore Pro: Get more out of forScore with this optional, auto-renewing subscription.
• Manage subscription: Learn more about, and sign up for, the forScore Pro service.
• Pop-up menus: Enable or disable popup menus and manage your pinned tools.
• Face gestures: If your device supports it, choose which face gesture mode to use and calibrate its sensitivity.

Navigation

• Up next: See the next queued item’s title in the status bar when you reach the last page of the current item.
• Gestures: Configure forScore’s taps, swipes, and shortcuts to better suit your needs.
• Page turners & shortcuts: Use keyboard shortcuts, MIDI signals, page turner pedal presses, or an Apple Pencil 2 double tap gesture to trigger certain actions.
• Page transitions: This setting affects the transition animation that is used when turning pages.
• Flip between scores: Choose when to advance from the end of one score to the beginning of the next, like a book.
• Landscape scrolling: When using landscape orientation, scroll up and down by half or a third of a page (11-inch iPad Pro only).
• Two-up page advance: Choose whether to advance one or two pages at a time when using two-up mode.

Appearance

• Show status bar: Controls whether the system status bar along the top of the screen is visible while using forScore.
• Controls: Prevent the seek bar from hiding when the title bar is dismissed, show the tab bar when a single tab is open, and control how the title bar behaves (if your device supports resizable windowing).
• Menus: Enable or disable section headers and control which kinds of metadata are shown below items and setlists.
• Theme: Adjust the look and feel of forScore’s interface.
• Colors: Change forScore’s primary interface colors or choose from a list of built-in themes.
• Interface style: Choose to always use light mode, always us dark mode, or follow the system setting instead.
• Icon weight: Choose a bolder or lighter style for most icons and buttons.
• Background color: Control whether the main view’s navigation bar is tinted slightly to match your current color theme.
• Page dimming: When using dark mode, forScore can dim your pages to reduce contrast in low light environments.

Metadata

• Use external audio: When forScore launches, it checks to see if iOS’ shared audio system is currently in use. If so, this option will allow you to control playback of that track, temporarily overriding any linked tracks.
• Sorting: Adjust how forScore sorts your composers, scores, and bookmarks.
• Show bookmarks in library: Bookmarks typically appear in two places—the bookmarks menu itself, and alongside other files in the score menu. Disable this to hide bookmarks from the score menu.
• Smart sorting: For checked items, sorting ignores common prefixes like “the,” “a,” or “an.”
• PDF annotations: Choose which kinds of embedded PDF annotations should be visible (and interactive, if applicable).

Annotation

• Exit two-up mode to annotate: If you’re using two-up mode, use this setting to control whether or not forScore should temporarily return to one-up mode and enlarge the current page while annotating.
• Apple Pencil: Adjust how annotation works when using Apple Pencil or the similar Logitech Crayon.
• Automatically enter annotation mode: Allows you to begin drawing at any time without entering annotation mode first.
• Automatically exit annotation mode: Allows forScore to save your work and exit annotation mode after a brief period of inactivity (defaults to Never).
• Prevent finger drawing: Restricts drawing to Apple Pencil in order to prevent accidental input.
• Variable width: Choose whether to increase drawing width based on tilt and/or pressure.
• Switch tools: Apple Pencil 2’s double tap gesture can control which annotation tool is currently active, and by default only works while you’re in annotation mode. Enable this setting to allow the gesture to work at all times (if you do, this gesture will no longer be configurable within the Page Turners & Shortcuts panel).
• Annotation tools: Control how forScore saves your last-used preset between annotation sessions.
• Remember tool selection: Allow or prevent forScore from saving your last-used annotation tool.
• Default tool: Choose a specific tool to always be selected when you enter annotation mode. If an item is selected in this section, the previous section has no effect.
• Add period with double-space: iOS automatically adds a period when you type two spaces into a text field. Disable this setting to prevent that behavior while using forScore’s text annotation tool.
• Variable width: Adjust how much forScore should emphasize your drawings based on speed or Pencil pressure and tilt.

System

• Accessibility: Enable or disable certain features, adjust the size of links and buttons, or customize the metronome’s sounds.
• App icon: Change forScore’s app icon.
• In-app purchases: Access any downloadable content you’ve previously purchased through forScore’s storefront.
• Advanced options: Access advanced/older settings and temporarily re-enable retired features that have limited support and may be removed in future updates.
• Restrictions: Set a passcode and hide certain features.
• Reset: Restore default app settings, stamps, or drawing presets, or scan your library and remove any unused data.

Backups

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.