I've tried to copy and paste but as I made the image smaller it becomes unreadable.
The only way that I got it to look half way decent was to physically cut paper and glue it in place. I felt like I was in Kindergarten again.

I use Scribus, an open source and free high-end-consumer/semi-professional level typesetting program. It's not quite as automated, but if you can figure it out, it gives you a lot of control, which I like (and feel like I don't get with MS word).

For simplicity sake, I find myself reengraving most, if not all the music I use. I always use folded 8.5x11s, so space is at a premium, and by the time I try to resize and squeeze in music from different sources, I could have already just reengraved it to fit perfectly and been done with it.

I use Publisher for worship aids as well. If the music is coming out too small, it probably has to do with the image you're using. I input everything into Sibelius first (even if I already have a graphic of it). That way, I can adjust the measures-per-line, margins, and other size issues.

What is the size of aid you're trying to make?

I use Finale for inputting music, and then I resize the systems to around 125 or 140% and then print the thing out through OneNote. By then I can resize the music to fit the page layout I use. (I'm illiterate in directly placing music into a word or publisher document.)

I use MS word. I press cntrl and prt sc together, then paste that into Paint, then copy it into word. It works fine for me. I find that if I make the original image larger before snapping the printscreen, it comes out clearer in the end, even if I have to break the music apart and paste it a few lines at a time.

I recommend putting the music into Finale if possible and then using the Graphics tool to save an image of the music as a TIFF file at a high resolution. You can then import the image into Word or Publisher just as you would any other image. Similar to what Andrew Motyka said, this allows you to select the font size of the lyrics (keeps things from getting too small) and to select how many measures there are per line (also to keep things from getting too small).

If you're getting the music from a PDF, CTRL+Print Screen and pasting that into Paint is not a terrible way to go, despite how silly (and '90s!) it sounds. If you're doing this, make sure that you zoom into the PDF document so you have the best resolution possible when you move it into Paint and later into Publisher/Word.

Gavin, I agree but in my little church its every ministry for themselves.

When I was doing this I also found it easier to do myself than to explain to a non-musician. I guess I'm a little bit of a control freak that way.

For me, the most crucial step was to expand the PDF output REALLY huge (I have a 1280x2048 pixel screen), capture it with prtsc, then fix it up in Paint. I would often move things together vertically, as some programs insert more white space than I had room for.

Final assembly in Word (if paragraph flow is needed) or PowerPoint. Just because I'm really comfortable with those.

LaTeX - but I learnt it doing computers at Uni, and it's a steep learning curve, but it's free. Also it's what gregorio is most at home in, though you can use modern notation through lilypond or pmx/musixtex.

Gregoire is my favorite too, despite its occasional quirks.

I have used Noteworthy software for quite a few years and have had good results with it. It creates files that can be inserted like artwork into Word documents. The latest version has a feature for "turning off" note stems if you want to use modern notation for chant. The cost is quite reasonable I think. I use the Meinrad fonts in Word for Gregorian notation, it's keystroke-intensive but once you get used to it is quite satisfactory. You can turn the finished Word documents into .pdf format if you wish. Sometimes I use scissors, glue sticks and the copy machine too!

I have always had to produce my own pew bulletins or "worship aids". Our parishes are clustered 3-6 parishes and very lightly staffed, commonly part-time administrative employees, and already overtasked. They are very good at what they do, but not trained in music or notation software. Besides, I rather enjoy doing it.

Actually Finale (from Finale 2005 onwards, at least) does do square notes. Go do Document>Document Options, select "Note and Rests" and on that pane use "Notehead Characters:" to chose the notehead(s) you want to select and/or change.

Here are PDF files of scores that have square notes, which I prepared using Finale 2005:

John Sheppard: Salvator mundi Domine

John Taverner: Gloria from Missa Gloria tibi Trinitas

Remember the mimeograph machines? We've come a long way, baby. :)

Ugly square notes ... does Finale do Solemes-style neumes?

donr

I find Caeciliae the best of the chant fonts, but I use it in Apple Pages. Its advantage is that the codes for each neume can be easily remembered. Other chant fonts have a different keyboard unicode for each possibility (Festa Dies, medicea etc.)

Microsoft Word was not able to run Caecilia, but the new edition should run it, I don't know about Publisher but that may have the same problem.

The Adobe programs will all run Caeciliae.

I have worked with people that use Publisher, and to place chant into the Program, I type the chant in Pages, save as .pdf and then the chant can be cut and pasted into Publisher, in the same way that the .pdf Liber Usualis can be pasted in.

Thank you Ambrosius, these fonts are exactly what I was looking for.

Do you also know of a font similar for round notes without stems?

I see that now. I downloaded the Melody Fonts and they are all there.
Thanks again for your help.

If you keep to a key signature with at most one flat, modern notation is no more difficult to transpose than chant notation ... unless that fifth line is a real problem. Also, if you use only C-clefs and F-clefs, then the meaning of C (Do) and F (Fa) is clear and equivalent to the chant notation set up ... again except for the pesky (?) fifth line. It appears that G-clefs were not used for chant, since traditionally G-clefs were reserved for treble voices ... which were not the norm for male voices.

It is not uncommon to see a hymn presented in one key in a hymnbook, yet accompanied and sung in a different key ... even when the hymnbook presents the music with several flats or sharps; of course, transposition for singers is generally much easier (or should be much easier) than it is for some instrumentalists.

I have done booklets for years, and always used publisher. Here are some examples.

Being technology challenged, I prepare my leaflets in Word.
I wish I had made time to learn to set notes in addition to words!

Daniel,

Yours look VERY good. I really like them.

This one, mostly.

http://www.hymnwiki.org/Main_Page

http://hymnopedia.com/

Don't know if these help ...

I'm in the process of re-training myself, so this is as much directed at me as anyone:
It would be wise for all of us to get comfortable with Lilypond (for common-practice notation) and Gregorio (for Chant). The seeming hassle of text-entry for music is a minor hurdle, and the longterm result (Open Source data formats for Public Domain music) is incredibly worthwhile.

Unlike closed formats (Finale, Sibelius), open formats allow for programmatic data manipulation. This could/will lead to all sorts of cool mash-up applications, for example:
-a utility to pair a text and tune and have the score generated automatically.
-auto-formatting of worship aides using semantic templates
-computerized analysis of musical content, which allows for:
--indexing and searching based on musical content
--large scale analysis of compositional trends
--auto-harmonization based on specific styles or periods
--tutorials and interactive lessons on music theory, composition, and arranging

The possibilities are really quite extraordinary, and have been in-process for decades. But now that "normal" people have the tools and the computer skills to contribute to these projects, and the rendering technology has improved enough to make these tools feasible in production-quality scores, I'm hoping we'll see a turning point for truly Open Source music and a giant leap forward in practical applications. Much like Gregorian Chant and Classical Music- this stuff needs to liberated from the University available to the Masses.

(Pun intended.)

Someday, if I can find the time, I'd love to create a tool to convert gregorio scores into lilypond. It would be so handy, because gabc is so much faster than lilypond, at least for me. Someday...