Vista, Meinrad, and the Episema
  • AOZ
    Posts: 369
    Anyone notice any differences in Meinrad when working in Vista? I got a new computer about 3 months ago and things just haven't been the same. I'm having trouble with the episema that I never had while working in XP. The little horizontal guy doesn't end up in the correct spaces up and down the four line staff. Someone suggested to me that I just go to the character map and cut and paste it in, but this seems like a lot of hassle. I've ended up using my old computer to most of my work in Meinrad, just because it seems to work more smoothly.

    Oh, there was another funny thing. I didn't have Arrus BT (the font I have typpically used. now using Palatino Linotype most of the time) in Word 2003 that I installed on my new machine. So I had to figure out a way to copy it from my old computer and install on the new one. I finally did it by sending it to myself in gmail and I installed it on the new machine. But the funniest thing of all - once I did this, it was no longer available on my old machine. Can anyone explain this? It is just a font!
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 968
    I haven't had those problems (didn't use that font, so no experience with it), but I have not been able to get it to work properly with my CutePDF printer. I have to copy the file on a flashdrive and save as a pdf using the old computer upstairs, too... would love to know why that happens.
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    The problem is not with Vista per se, the problem seems to be what version of MS Word you are using. Anything later than 2003 will not provide the same sort of WYSIWYG so vital for proper alignment of words and notes. I can't speak to your episema problem directly, unless your new machine hasn't installed the extended character set correctly. As for Arrus, I had to buy a new copy for the new computer (and fonts aren't cheap). If you still have the font listed on your old computer, you should be able to reinstall it.
  • AOZ
    Posts: 369
    Richard - the strange thing is I made a point of installing MS Word 2003 on this new computer. So that's not it. I could try to reinstall Meinrad. It's a puzzle.
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 968
    When I bought my new laptop, I contacted Meinrad directly to ask if they could allow me to install it on the new computer directly again... they were very nice about it. Perhaps that is why I haven't had any problem with the episema...
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 994
    My episemas seem OK, but my standards are probably lower than AOZ's. What I would like to do is close up the distance between the notation and the text below. The Meinrads go in at 48 point and then I generally use Times New Roman at 14. However, I can't seem to get the words to "snuggle up" as close as would help my singers.

    Suggestions?
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    This is the standard problem, mj. The font automatically has a certain amount of space above and below, which you need to suppress by formatting your chant line accordingly. In MSWord, on the chant line, Format/Paragraph/Line Spacing=Exactly/At=44 (for Meinrad font at 48 pt; adjust accordingly for other font sizes). If you use Styles, you can set this formatting as standard for your chant lines.

    You should be able to do similar paragraph formatting in other programs.
  • Hugh
    Posts: 198
    MJB,

    You may already have found this out, but just in case, here's an alternative to Richard R's valuable advice:

    If you're wanting more flexibility & setting long pieces in Meinrad, here's something I've stumbled on over the past few months (I'll explain a bit then come to chant/text after that): Make text boxes, one for the chant and one below for the text. Do this alternately down the page (copying and pasting the boxes rather than creating from scratch, to insure they're all of uniform width ) and then link the chant boxes to each other and the text boxes to each other. I can dump a whole lot of text in to a text box (eg the text of a gloria or credo) and it flows all the way down to the last text box and I can format all the text at once, by clicking in the box, ctrl + All selecting all, and eg making it all bold, or whatever. Rather than working through line by line... And, so, you can can select each individual text box (or all of them at once, by holding down shift and clicking inside each one) and then move it/them as close up to the the chant boxes as I like. Obviously if there's overlap of the boxes there will be a disappearance of relevant text or chant at some stage. But you can control which box, text or chant, is in front or behind in the standard way for text boxes (right click in box, then scoll down to "order" etc.) and in this way get much closer than the text spacing allows. Set them up once, and you have a basic template you can use for ever, of course, not without fiddly adjustments each time, but that comes with the territory, as they say. Working with text boxes in Word is pretty perplexing at the start, but I've found it to be the long run most efficient way for most of the work I'm doing with Meinrad. I'm happy to send you a .doc sample page, but I've heard horror stories of what turns up at the other end, due to the instability of Word docs. Still, just let me know.

    Hope that's a help.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Whichever solution you use, it is very important that Meinrad people do this. I love the Schaefer sung Missal in English but the spacing between the music and words is vast and doesn't look neat. His project would have turned out very different had he known these points. I suspect that the same is true of the Anglican Use Gradual. This is also a reason that the PBC looks so great.
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 968
    I'm wondering about the large beginning letter... did you use a separate text box for that letter, and a smaller font above it to show the mode? These tips are very helpful... I, for one, would love to see a template, hugh. j_gorbitz at yahoo dot com
  • Richard R.
    Posts: 776
    Text boxes are a good suggestion; I've never used them, because until recently, they tend to make documents much too large for my computer. I'm also not sure how well they work with search and replace functions. I also think the alignment of text and music might be somewhat less reliable, and certainly proofreading, if you can't see what text and/or music is unintentionally wrapping at the ends of lines (because the text box is a set height). But with the standard way, adjusting the content of one line requires fussing with all the lines that follow.

    Most WP programs have an drop cap function, which can serve for the initial letter, with some adjustment. However, in MS Word, you can set the text line at a fixed height (same procedure as for music above, probably around 15 pt.), offset the initial letter with tabs, and set its point size to where you want it (36 pt. or so). On the screen, it will disappear into the line above, but will come out complete when printed. Just leave white space in the line above.
  • Arthur Connick
    Posts: 496
    I'm just curious: how long does it take to set up Credo 3, say, using the Meinrad font, start to finish?
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    For Richard, 30 mins. For mortals, 3 days
  • Hugh
    Posts: 198
    Agreed, Jeffrey - though I got it down to about 2.5 hours. Arthur , Janet, here's a rough first draft I've prepared for my personal Meinrad Kyriale (caveat downloader) Word 2003 on XP. Tables technique as described above. No large beginning letter as I do all that in Publisher when I export the tiff there. (Though you can always use a text box for the large letter in Word too, in addition to Richard R's techniques as described above..).

    Off to work...

    (if the posting is too large, I'll put it on my website tonight AEST & let you know.)
    Credo3.doc
    88K
  • Hugh
    Posts: 198
    Just tried to download my own Credo post in Word above. Didn't work. So don't be surprised if it doesn't work for you as well! I'll think about it.
  • Hugh
    Posts: 198
    OK, posting the .doc to my website worked:

    http://www.fidelitybooks.com.au/Hugh/Mass1LuxEtOrigo.doc

    I've put in large initial cap. via text box in case that's helpful to anyone.

    Also note that in my version of Meinrad, I've customised the episemas so they're thicker - & so more visible in the dim light of church to people with poor eyes, like me. You won't see it, obviously, with the standard Meinrad fonts installed, but you can check it on the pdf version of mine here: http://www.fidelitybooks.com.au/Hugh/Mass1LuxEtOrigo.pdf

    I do hope this works.
  • mjballoumjballou
    Posts: 994
    Thanks for the "snuggle-up" strategies, Richard and Hugh. I'll try them out on an upcoming antiphon. I generally end up inputting these because I want to pair them with the appropriate psalms.
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