One of forScore’s older features allows you to create and restore from annotation snapshots. These per-page saved states for your annotations allow you to keep different markings for different situations, but the new Layers feature we discussed last week gives you all of the same capabilities and more: you can hide any layer at any time without permanently removing those markings.
Since most people will want to use layers going forward, we replaced snapshots with layers in the annotation toolbar (you can reverse this if you prefer by visiting the “legacy features” section of forScore’s settings panel). When you’re working on a page that already has one or more snapshots, the Layers panel displays the Snapshots icon in the top left-hand corner so you can still access them and use them just as you always have.
When you’re ready to upgrade to using Layers, you can use a new conversion function we added forScore 10.4 to help people transition. It takes each of your snapshots and creates a new layer from them, with one caveat: forScore supports up to 8 layers but up to 24 snapshots. If you’ve got more than eight, you’ll need to remove some before you can switch over to using Layers instead.
New features are always exciting, but the real test of any thoughtfully developed app is how it helps existing users adapt to the new functionality. We spent a lot of time trying to find the best way to create something amazing for everyone without disregarding the work and time our users put into organizing and annotating their scores.
When you want to add markings to your score but keep some of them separate from others, or if you don’t want to see all of them at all times, forScore 10.4’s new Layers feature offers a great solution. While in annotation mode, tap the icon of three overlapping rectangles in the bottom right-hand corner of the the annotation toolbar. (If you’re using forScore mini, or if you’re using Split View or Slide Over on your iPad, the icon will be in the center of the top row instead.)
This button’s icon shows you how many layers exist for the current page, and tapping it opens the Layers panel. To add a new layer for the current page, tap the + button at the bottom of this panel, or swipe from right to left over any existing layer in the list to clear or remove it. Tap a layer’s title to rename it and use the three icons on the side to toggle its visibility, merge two layers, or duplicate it. Rearrange layers by tapping the “Edit” button or, with iOS 11, using Drag and Drop gestures.
In this list, you can see which layer is currently active by looking for the entry with a slightly darker gray background. When you draw, erase, or add text annotations, stamps, and shapes, they are all added to the current layer—no markings on any other layer are affected. Just like with most popular photo editing applications, markings within layers further down in the list are shown above any markings that may exist in the layers below it (higher up in the list).
Using forScore’s selection tools, you can copy and paste an area of markings from the current layer, then select a different layer and paste them there. If you make a mistake, undo and redo support is ready to help—it tracks each of your changes no matter which layer you’re working with and lets you step backwards and forwards through your edits as needed.
Annotation layers aren’t just a simple addition to forScore’s toolset, they represent a whole new way of working. If you haven’t tried using them yet, be sure to check out this panel and get a sense for how it works.
Buttons can do a lot, and with forScore 10.4 they can now do even more. There are two completely new button types as well as some expanded functionality for a few of the existing ones.
The new “Seek Audio” button type lets you change the playback position of the current audio track, whether it’s playing or paused, and the “Open Link” type allows you to activate a predefined URL with a single tap. That URL can be a standard web address, or it can also be one of the new forScore-specific links that we discussed a few weeks back.
When you’re using the “Play/Pause Audio” button, you can now specify the playback position to use when starting playing. If the audio track is playing, tapping the button will pause it, and when you tap it again it’ll start playing from the time you supplied. If you don’t supply this information, tapping the button resumes playback from the currently paused position.
Finally, the Navigation button type now sports a “Go To…” option. This lets you specify an item to open when you tap on the button. You can choose an item from your library or from a specific setlist to also queue up the rest of the items in that setlist. Once you’ve picked an item, you can also choose to specify a page number. (You can’t set a page number without choosing an item first—if you want to go to a different page of the current score then Links are a better tool for the job.)
Buttons are easy to set up and virtually effortless to use, so the next time you find yourself doing the same task over and over again at a certain point in a score, consider using a button to simplify it.
Dashboard, forScore’s set of tools that help you track and understand how you spend your time playing, got more than just a subtle design refresh with our latest updates. It’s logging system was rebuilt from the ground up for improved accuracy, and we added some new capabilities to help you get the most out of it.
You may not want to track all of the time you spend viewing a score, so forScore now lets you control how this works: a new gear icon in the top right-hand corner of Dashboard’s Analytics tab gives you several options, such as preventing tracking while you’re annotating.
You can pause or resume tracking at any time using this new panel, but the toggle action is also available as an option when configuring two- or three-finger tap gestures and through the Page Turners and Shortcuts section of forScore’s settings panel (look for “Analytics”). That means you can start and stop tracking with a gesture, page turner, stylus button, MIDI command, or external keyboard shortcut—all from the main view, without having to open Dashboard first.
When information is tracked that you don’t want, it’s now easier to remove it with our latest updates. Swipe to delete all data tracked for an item on a specific day, or reset the whole day and start fresh. If you decide not to use Dashboard any longer, or you want to reset all of its data, you can do either as well.
Whether you’re using AirDrop to send a setlist to a colleague or backing up a score to Dropbox, sharing is an integral part of working with items in forScore. Depending on what you’re sharing, there may be several formats you can use: setlists can be sent as plain text, or they can be packaged up in the forScore-specific 4SS file type. Scores and bookmarks can be exported as flattened annotated PDFs or they can be sent using forScore’s 4SC format.
Depending on how much content you’re sharing and which options are included, the export process can take a little bit of time. That’s why we added an export progress overlay to forScore with 10.4 so you can see how long it’ll take and cancel it if you need to.
If you’re using either of those two forScore-specific formats—4SS or 4SC files—they’re now stored more efficiently making them dramatically smaller. They’ll take up less space on your iPad or iPhone, use up less of your cloud storage provider’s quota, and take less time to transfer over a network connection.
Under the hood features aren’t always flashy, but they’re sometimes the most satisfying: we can take something that huge numbers of people do every day and make it significantly more efficient. It doesn’t have to make headlines to make a difference.
Since most people will want to use layers going forward, we replaced snapshots with layers in the annotation toolbar (you can reverse this if you prefer by visiting the “legacy features” section of forScore’s settings panel). When you’re working on a page that already has one or more snapshots, the Layers panel displays the Snapshots icon in the top left-hand corner so you can still access them and use them just as you always have.