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Templates for "Blank Pages"
#1
It would be really useful to have a little more control of the blank pages that can be added to a song (or used to create a new song). 
It would be really handy to be able to add blank pages that have some stuff on them (like notation paper or lined paper) that might be portrait or landscape and of a specific page size. It would also be nice to be able to add pages in the middle of songs.

I have a workaround but it isn't very good. I have a few pdfs of manuscript paper (8.5x11 portrait and landscape) that I have imported as songs. I can copy a manuscript song, rename it something else, add a bunch of 1,1,1,1,1.... so that I can have more than one page, and save the new song. Finally, I can annotate some ideas using the pen or stamps. That method works for a new song but not for adding pages to an existing song. It is possible to add a manuscript pdf file (one or more times) to an existing song but you have to keep track where the pdf file is saved on the computer.  

Usually, when I'm sketching out a song on manuscript paper, the sketch will likely be temporary. (I use a notation program like Musescore to create a real version.) I'll add intermediate pdf drafts from the notation program to the song. I will further annotate the drafts with corrections and additions that need to be fixed in the notation program. Once I have a fairly complete version, I will add a pdf of that to MSP and delete the other drafts (though it might be nice to just hide them or turn off their visibility, if that were possible).
Sam

Surface Pro 7 with MSP
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#2
How about creating a new empty page with your notation program, export as PDF, give it a useful name and add that to your song? As soon as you have created a better version you would just have to replace that intermediate PDF.
The intermediate PDF could already contain some elements required for the score like clef, measure bars, key ...
This seems to be much more convenient and flexible than requesting such a feature from MSP
first language: German
Acer A1-830, Android 4.4.2 - HP x2 210 G2 Detachable, Win 10 22H2 - Huawei Media Pad T5, Android 8.0 - Boox Tab Ultra C, Android 11
www.moonlightcrisis.de - www.basdjo.de - www.frankenbaend.de


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#3
Also see my post in the thread

https://zubersoft.com/mobilesheets/forum...4#pid34244
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#4
So I have PDFs of staff paper loaded into MSP. And I do what you suggest after I've worked out most of the song and just have a few things to work out. As I said I do have a system that can work it's just a lot more clunky than adding multiple native blank pages. I think it would be nice to be able to upload some PDF templates that could be used instead of the blank page.
Sam

Surface Pro 7 with MSP
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#5
So what's the problem importing different PDF templates into MSP?
Just give them helpful names. It might be a good idea to mark the templates somehow in MSP so that you can easily find them. I would define a new source type "PageTemplate" or similar, but a collection or a recognisable naming convention could also do the job.
first language: German
Acer A1-830, Android 4.4.2 - HP x2 210 G2 Detachable, Win 10 22H2 - Huawei Media Pad T5, Android 8.0 - Boox Tab Ultra C, Android 11
www.moonlightcrisis.de - www.basdjo.de - www.frankenbaend.de


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#6
I do plan on adding some basic PDF editing type features once time allows so that users can reorder the PDF pages, remove pages, add blank pages, join together PDFs, etc. I'm not sure if I will add anything beyond that like templates for blank pages because I think it would be pretty difficult to find a set of templates that would be widely useful to people. I think it's better for users just to be able to insert their own PDFs. Having said that, perhaps I could support some type of option where you can extract pages from a PDF that you want to use as a template. The difficulty there is then if I want that to be something you can persist when switching devices, it then needs to become part of backup files, and MobileSheets will have to manage the files, meaning I also have to update code related to switching the storage location or clearing the library. So I'll probably handle this in parts - first implement the basic PDF editing, then later I can work on additional options to save/extract pages from PDFs to use to insert into other PDFs. Template support would be further in the future though, as I have a lot of other feature requests that need to be worked first.

Mike
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#7
And for the time being, samibe, are you aware that you can add more than one pdf to a song so they show up a part of it? Why can't you add your blank staff pages to the existing pdf of song. Just use the + in the file tab to add your next pdf.

It's really not problem to put that in front or at the end of the song. It's a bit more tricky if you want blank pages between the pages of the songe pdf, but doable as well. We have discussed this here in the forum already. You might want to have a look at it.
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#8
I am aware that multiple PDFs can be added to a song. Apparently I edited that information out of my previous posts. My issue is more that I can add the number of blank pages that I need in one go but I have to do a lot more to get blank pages with staff lines on them. 

The options I have for that are:
 - create PDFs with different numbers of blank pages that can be imported to songs when needed
 - import single page PDFs multiple times to a song
 - import a single page PDF once but change the numbering to 1,1,1,...
 - import blank PDFs as songs that can be copied and renamed (can't be added to existing songs)
 - or add blank pages and then use the staff annotations to add staffs to the pages (not very useful for other instrumentations)

Mike thanks for your response. I can understand the effort involved in adding options for something like this is probably not worth it (at least at this point). I was more curious about how the blank pages are created. Does MSP reference a letter sized blank PDF/jpg (that could be switched out)? Or is it pretty much a white rectangle added to fit the screen resolution and display settings? Or something else?
Sam

Surface Pro 7 with MSP
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#9
A blank page is nothing more than an instruction to fill a page sized to fit the screen with a white background. There is no actual file on the device.

Mike
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#10
That makes sense. Changing that would be very involved. My workaround is adequate. Thanks for all you do.
Sam

Surface Pro 7 with MSP
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