February 27, 2019
Uncategorized
The Services panel lets you work with files stored in cloud storage services (like Dropbox and Box), to access the system’s file browser, and to download your purchases from content providers (like Musicnotes, Noteflight, Virtual Sheet Music, and more).
Cloud Storage
Tap the + button to add your preferred cloud service to the accounts list, then select it and log in when prompted. Once you’ve done so, you can navigate through your folders and see your files. You can upload, download, move, and delete supported file types including PDFs, forScore-specific formats (4SC, 4SS, and 4SB), audio files, comma-separated value (CSV) files, and some text formats (TXT, RTF, DOC, and DOCX) which are automatically converted to PDFs for you once downloaded.
Tap on a file to download it and a copy will be saved to your forScore library. If a file with the same name already exists, you’ll be asked to duplicate or overwrite the file, or to cancel the transfer. Tap the stop button in the middle of the progress wheel to cancel a file transfer. Swipe from right to left over an item (or tap and hold to reveal its contextual menu, if using a system version that supports them) to download the item directly into a setlist.
Items you add to your library are downloaded to your device so you don’t need an internet connection to view them. If the copy stored in the cloud is modified later, you’ll need to re-download it to see those changes.
You can also move your files: while in edit mode, tap to select one or more files, then choose “Move” from the toolbar. The selected files will turn blue, and you’ll be able to select directories or use the back button to navigate to the desired destination. When you’re ready, tap the “Move” button once again to send the selected files to the current directory.
To upload files, tap the upload button in the toolbar. You’ll be presented with a searchable list of all the shareable content in your library, and you may also see a file format button in the lower right-hand corner if applicable (use the forScore-specific 4SC file format when uploading scores or bookmarks to includes annotations, metadata, links, and more). Tap an item to select it, then tap the “Upload” button in the upper right corner of the menu to begin the upload process.
Files (iCloud Drive) and Other Services
The Services panel can also be used to access iCloud Drive and third-party cloud storage (including Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon Drive, as well as FTP, SFTP, or WebDAV servers) through a system-provided interface. Visit “The Files App” section later in this guide for more information.
Tip: The Files interface that appears when you use the Services panel is also available from forScore’s main menu (tap the “Import” button). In general, that’s an easier way of adding scores or other files to your forScore library.
Content Providers
Purchases you’ve made using supported content providers are listed by title and composer (or primary performer) and can be sorted alphabetically by either value, by date purchased, or by key. Tap any item to download it as a standard PDF file, or swipe over an item from right to left and use the Download action to download it to a specific setlist (or tap and hold to use contextual menus, if available). Tap “Edit” to select multiple files and download them all simultaneously.
If a content provider supports downloading transposed PDFs, you’ll see a circled “…” button to the right of that item. Tap here to see a list of available keys and choose which one you’d like to download.
While viewing a list of purchases, tap the gear icon in the toolbar to enable or disable automatic downloads for that folder. After enabling this feature, any purchases that become available in this location will be automatically downloaded into your library as soon as they’re discovered by forScore.
Account Management
To log out of an account or reset its authentication status, return to the accounts list and swipe over it from right to left, then choose Log Out (for content providers) or Delete (for cloud storage services).
February 27, 2019
Uncategorized
Adding information to each item in your music library allows you to easily search for a piece, browse through your library, and sort items in various ways.
You can view and edit an item’s metadata by tapping the title of the current item in the center of the main toolbar, by tapping the circular button to the right of any item in most menus, or by using edit mode in a menu to select multiple items and batch edit their properties at once.
The panel is divided up into sections, using either a sidebar when space permits or a tab bar along the bottom of the screen.
Properties
Layout:
The Properties tab shows a thumbnail image of the current item along with info about the item or items you’re editing. You can swipe or use the arrow buttons to turn pages, and you can tap a page to open it (any changes you’ve made will be saved automatically).
If you’re editing a score, you’ll see a book icon on the right that allows you to adjust your page numbers to match printed copies, if needed. You’ll also see a margin adjustment slider that lets you increase the size of all pages in a score by the same amount at once. This is useful for removing uniform margins, but consider using the “Crop” function in the tools menu to adjust or re-center individual pages more precisely. Cropping takes precedence, so the margin adjuster won’t affect cropped pages.
When you’re editing a bookmark, this portion of the screen allows you to view and change its start and end page numbers.
Metadata:
Each score and bookmark can be tagged with a title, rating, difficulty, reference, time, duration, key, and multiple composers, genres, tags, and labels. While typing in a new composer, genre, tag, or label, you may see a suggestion appear in the toolbar at the top of the keyboard. These suggestions, already in use elsewhere in your library, are updated automatically as you type and let you quickly reuse values and save time. You can also access these values by tapping the three horizontal lines to the right of the active text box.
A box on the left-hand side of each text field shows you what will happen when you close the metadata panel. A check mark indicates that the changes will be saved, while an empty box indicates that any changes will be discarded. If you’re batch editing files, a check mark indicates that the current value will replace any existing values for each file while a plus symbol indicates that new values will be added to each file’s existing information if it’s not already included. These boxes are updated automatically as you type, but you can tap them at any time to change them.
To add multiple composers, genres, tags, or labels to your score, use a comma to separate each phrase (i.e. “Favorites, Warm-up pieces”). Your score will then be listed under each of those items in the menu.
When you change the title of a score, forScore renames the PDF file to match as closely as possible. If you prefer, you can disable this behavior in the “advanced options” section of forScore’s settings panel (this adds a “rename PDF” option to the metadata panel’s title bar menu so you can still rename a PDF manually).
Customization:
Customize metadata types by renaming them or changing their icon. Tap a metadata label on the left side of the row to edit these attributes (all types shown in this list can be customized, however Title cannot be renamed).
PDF Info Fetching:
PDF files sometimes contain their own information for title, author, subject, and keywords, which can be used by forScore as values for title, composer, genre, and tags respectively. While editing any of these fields, choose “Fetch…” from the title bar menu to see if any of this information exists and then decide if you’d like to use it or not.
Setlist and Libraries
The “setlists” tab lets you quickly manage which setlists the current item is a part of. Tap a setlist to add the current item to it (a blue check mark will appear) and tap it again to remove it. If you have any libraries set up on your device, an additional “libraries” tab allows you to make similar changes.
Audio
If you have an audio track of a particular piece, you can link that track to the corresponding sheet music in forScore and control playback directly from within the app. Select the “Audio” tab and tap the + button to select tracks from the Music app, or tap the document button to view files stored in the app’s documents directory. (Audio files can be created using the record feature, imported from other apps, or added via the Files app or File Sharing interface.)
The media box updates every time you turn the page, disappearing if there is no track associated with the current score or bookmark, so you don’t have to spend time looking through your audio library every time you want to listen to it—just press play.
If multiple tracks are associated with the current score, swipe left and right over the album artwork to move between them.
Learn more about working with audio tracks in the next section.
MIDI
In the “MIDI” section of the metadata panel, you can assign a unique command to each score and open it with some MIDI devices. You can also save a list of commands to be sent out each time that score is opened. If you plan to use the same set of commands more than once, presets make it easy to save them and assign them to other scores later.
Note: USB-enabled MIDI devices can often connect to an iOS device via Apple’s Camera Connection Kit, while others may require an adapter like the iRig Midi.
We’ve been getting a few common questions concerning recent changes to the Services panel, so today we’re going to answer them publicly. If your questions or concerns aren’t addressed here, please get in touch with us here so we can help further.
Which service should I switch to?
None! The Files app lets you access all of the services that have ever been available in the Services panel (and a whole lot more) so you don’t need to switch to a new one.
How will I access my content on a computer or from other devices?
Although it’s primarily designed to give you access to your iCloud Drive account, the Files app isn’t a different service—it’s an iOS interface. By connecting the Files app to Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or any other third-party service, you gain the ability to access content stored on those services through the Files interface system-wide. When you’re on another device, like a computer, you can still access Google Drive (or whichever service you use) just like you always have. Your content doesn’t move anywhere.
Will Dropbox or Box be moved to the Files app too?
You can use both services with the Files app, but we have no plans to remove either account type from the Services panel. As long as these companies offer reasonable APIs, we’ll do everything we can to support them just as we always have.
Do I have to use the Files option in the Services panel?
No, there are several different ways to interact with the Files interface. If your device supports it, use Drag and Drop gestures and either the Slide Over or Split View multitasking modes. Or, use standard iOS share sheets to copy files into or out of forScore. With our next major update, we’ll be including an import button in the main menu that’ll give you quick access to the Files interface whenever you need to add something to your forScore library.
Is this decision permanent?
Yes, Apple has made clear that the Files interface is their preferred way of allowing users to access their content across all of their apps. As we continue to release updates, we’ll keep working hard to re-think some of our assumptions and to better align forScore with this new model, making it easier and simpler for our customers to manage their content so they can get back to what matters most: their music.
What if it doesn’t work for me?
Learning a whole new way of working with your content is daunting, we know. Most of our customers who have contacted us with misgivings were convinced immediately after they tried it for themselves. Step by step guides like the one we published a few weeks ago are long and pedantic and look intimidating, but spend a few minutes setting it up and you’ll see how much better it can be. You really just have to try it for yourself.
For today’s feature, we’re taking a slight detour to point out something not within forScore, but right here on the website. We just rolled out a big update, and you can now search for posts within specific categories. Head over to the main Feature of the Week page and click the search icon in the top right-hand corner to try it out.
We’ll be taking some time off to work on the next big thing, but with almost 200 Feature of the Week articles and this new search functionality you’re bound to find something new to read between now and then!
We just rolled out a big update to this site and we’re working hard to make sure everything looks great. The site is now responsive, meaning it’s much more usable and legible on smaller screens, and we’ve added search to the News and Feature of the Week category pages.
We’re working through all of our pages and posts—especially older content—to make sure things are aligned properly and optimized for all devices. Please excuse any minor design issues as we continue this process, and let us know if you encounter any major issues.
