Dolet 4 for Sibelius Release Notes

Version 4.0

August 22, 2008

Installation - Using Dolet for Sibelius - What's New - Translation Limits - Reporting Problems - Thank You!

Installation

Dolet 4 for Sibelius only works with Sibelius 5. To export MusicXML files from Sibelius 2.1 and 3.1, you will need to use the Dolet 1 for Sibelius plug-in. Sibelius 4.x users may use either the Dolet 1 or Dolet 3 for Sibelius plug-ins.

If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Dolet for Sibelius, we recommend that you uninstall the earlier version first to avoid confusion between different versions of the Dolet plug-in.

To install on Windows, first quit Sibelius, then run the Dolet4Sibelius.msi installer program. We recommend that you do not change the installation location, as Sibelius is very particular about where plug-ins can be installed.

On the Mac, you will see separate folders for installation on Mac OS 10.5 and Mac OS 10.4. On Mac OS 10.5, quit out of Sibelius and then run the Dolet4Sibelius installation program. We recommend that you do not change the installation location, as Sibelius is very particular about where plug-ins can be installed.

On Mac OS 10.4, you will need to do a manual installation. Quit Sibelius and copy the MusicXML folder from this kit into your Sibelius Plug-Ins folder. The Sibelius site describes the plug-in folder location for different versions of Sibelius in step 3 of their plug-in installation instructions at:

http://www.sibelius.com/download/plugins/index.html?help=install

When you first run Dolet 4 for Sibelius, you will be asked to enter your registration information. This information will be sent to you via e-mail. If you have problems with registration, please contact us at .

Using Dolet for Sibelius

Dolet^® software serves as a translator between music programs. These translations are done using the MusicXML™ file format. Dolet 4 for Sibelius can write MusicXML files, allowing you to exchange music between Sibelius and other programs that can read MusicXML files. Currently this includes Finale 2009 and Notion. You can see a full list at http://www.musicxml.org/xml/software.html. Dolet 4 for Sibelius saves files in the MusicXML 2.0 format, which allows more of the music formatting to be transferred between applications.

To save a Sibelius score as a MusicXML file, go to the Plug-ins menu and select the MusicXML submenu. Then select the "Export MusicXML" item. You will then see a standard save dialog box asking where to save the XML file. By default, this will be the same as your existing Sibelius file name, with ".xml" used instead of ".sib" for the file extension.

You may translate an entire folder of Sibelius files to MusicXML format. This batch routine will overwrite any XML files with the same name that are currently in that directory. Use the "Translate Folder of Scores to MusicXML" menu item to save MusicXML files from your Sibelius files.

For best results, do the following before exporting a score:

Lock the format of your score. This will let all of your system and page breaks be exported.
If you have chord symbols, set the score to be non-transposing so the chord symbols can export correctly.
If you have non-magnetic slurs, convert them to magnetic slurs for the most complete and accurate slur export.

What's New

Dolet 4 for Sibelius adds many new features thanks to improvements in the MusicXML 2.0 language and the Sibelius 5 plug-in interface. Dolet 4 for Sibelius now exports the following features that were not exported in version 3:

Chord symbol diagrams (requires Sibelius 5.2)
Guitar tablature staff tuning
Double-note tremolos
Sibelius's built-in metric modulations, including swing tempo indications
Cue-size notes
Multirests
Blank pages
Text on an initial blank title page
Measure numbers
Cautionary accidentals
Line breaks in text
Non-automatic tuplet formatting, such as brackets being forced to display or forced to be hidden
Parenthesized accidentals
Parenthesized notes
Staff lines, such as a 1-line percussion staff
Grace note acciaccatura / appoggiatura distinctions
Slides (requires Sibelius 5.1 or later; exports for single notes only, not chords)
Nested tuplets
Quarter-tone accidentals
Accordion registration symbols
Stress, unstress, and inverted turn symbols
Bold, italic, and underline text settings when not the house style default
Vertical positioning of lyrics
Vertical positioning of ends of lines

Dolet 4 for Sibelius has also improved export of several features from version 3:

Beaming is now exported more accurately.
Ends of ties are now exported.
Staff symbols and lines that fall in between notes are now exported.
Lyrics are exported more accurately, including multiple syllables per note.
Chord symbols are exported more accurately.
Parenthesized dynamics are exported as dynamics instead of words.
When the plug-in encounters something that cannot be exported, such as a user-defined symbol, it logs the problem in the MusicXML file.

Translation Limits

Any type of translation has limits. Things expressed in one language sometimes cannot be expressed the same way in another language. Sometimes the translator does not yet understand all the idioms and vocabulary in both languages. Dolet and MusicXML provide much greater music notation accuracy than MIDI translations, but both types of limits apply to this software.

In particular, Dolet 4 for Sibelius is limited to the musical information provided in ManuScript. It does not have access to accurate information about stem direction or stem length, so it leaves out stem information altogether. Dolet also does not have access to brackets and braces, custom articulations, user-defined lines and symbols, the default appearance of accidentals, and house style formatting information. Transposition data is not exported because the new transposition features added to ManuScript in Sibelius 5.1 are incomplete for Dolet's needs.

Reporting Problems

Given all the possibilities available in music notation, you may find problems in how we handle your Sibelius score. Please contact as at if you encounter problems with our software.

If you do find a problem, please give us a description of what Dolet is doing, compared to what you expect it to do. Attaching the Sibelius file that shows the problem will help us to find and fix the problem more quickly.

Thank You!

Thank you very much for your interest in Recordare^® and MusicXML™ software. We greatly appreciate your support of an open, Internet-friendly format for representing musical scores.

Dolet 4 for Sibelius License - Purchase Dolet 4 for Sibelius

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Last updated September 3, 2008.