Allegro 98 Demo INTRODUCTION This demo contains the entire Allegro program with two exceptions: you can't save your document and every time you print the allowed one page, the words "Allegro Demo" share the printed page with your music. IMPORTANT: Read this document before you begin working with Allegro 98 and print a copy of it to keep with your Allegro manuals. This file contains important information about Allegro 98 as well as information about converting older files into the new version's format. Please note that Allegro 98 files cannot be opened in previous versions of the application on either platform. You may also visit our web site, http://www.codamusic.com, for updated information about Allegro 98 and information on new releases. RUNNING ALLEGRO 98 This chapter discusses information that you should be aware of when first running Allegro 98 and when opening Allegro documents created in earlier versions of the program. CONVERTING ALLEGRO 1.0 DOCUMENTS Allegro 98 has a different file format than earlier versions. When you open them in version 98, Allegro converts older files to the new format. You should be aware of the following points: Older Allegro files • Allegro 98 will open and convert older versions' files as "Untitled" files. The first time you save this untitled document, Allegro remembers and displays the original file name, so you can click Save to rewrite over the old file if you wish. However, we recommend saving a newly converted file with a different name than the original, keeping the older unconverted file as a backup. • Allegro 1.0 for Macintosh and Windows cannot open any Allegro 98 file, except Standard MIDI Files. To share Allegro files, the Allegro application must have the same (or later) version number. Allegro Preferences file • The Allegro Preferences file contains many program settings, from the configuration of your tool palette to the display colors you select. Allegro stores this file in your System Folder's Preferences folder. If you install and use both the fat binary and the 68000 or Power Macintosh versions of Allegro, they will share the same Allegro Preferences file. Allegro 98 also shares the preferences file with older versions of Allegro. Allegro 98 will automatically load your older version's settings. If you would like to take advantage of Allegro 98's improved default preference settings such as pallete positions, you could simply remove your older Allegro preferences file from the Preferences folder of your System Folder. Keep in mind that just as older versions of Allegro cannot read the newer version's music files, older versions cannot read the newer version's preferences. Please note that older versions of Allegro will revert to default preference settings each time they sense that Allegro 98 has updated the Allegro Preferences file. Text display In addition to these changes, there are substantial changes to the handling of text with the Text Tool in Allegro 98. Here are some text-related issues to be aware of when converting files: • If you use bitmapped fonts, converted files may display text items at a different point size than the original file. Allegro 98's display of bitmapped fonts is limited to the actual point sizes installed in your system. We highly recommend the use of TrueType or PostScript fonts, which can be scaled to virtually any point size. • Staff Names and Titles are considered text blocks in Allegro 98. As a result, staff names and titles in files created in earlier versions of Allegro will be converted to text blocks. When converting text blocks, Allegro will convert the text so it's unique for each text block. However, if the same shape is used, Allegro will not duplicate the shape. Note that in Allegro 98, both the text and the shapes (Standard Frame or Custom Frame) are unique for each text block that you create. The fonts selected in the Select Default Fonts dialog box for Text Blocks, Staff Names and Group Names will be used when the text block, or staff or group name is first created. Changing the font in the Select Default Fonts dialog box will no longer change the font used for all staff names in your score; nor will it change the first font used for text blocks in your score. To change a font, you must change the font on-score for text blocks created with the Text Tool, or in the Edit Text window for staff and group names created using the Staff Attributes dialog box. • The conversion routines go through great lengths to ensure that the position of text remains the same in converted files. This has the following implications for Text Blocks, Titles and Staff Names. Text blocks are positioned differently starting with Allegro 98. Since titles are considered text blocks, Allegro calculates the position of the title from the top of the name, using the specified font. Earlier versions calculated the position from the baseline of the font. When converting files, Allegro adjusts the values for the positioning of the titles to maintain their previous page positioning. Since staff names are considered text blocks, Allegro calculates the position of the name from the top of the name, using the font selected at the beginning of the name. Earlier versions calculated the position from the baseline of the font. When converting files, Allegro 98 recalculates the values for the default positioning of the staff names based on the font and point size selected in the Select Default Fonts dialog box. If alternate fonts or point sizes have been set for staff names in the score, individual positioning for those staff name will be selected in the Staff Attributes dialog box. This automatic calculation of positioning values, and the selection of individual positioning for names using the non-default font and point size will maintain the correct position of staff names in your converted files. MORE ABOUT ALLEGRO 98 Allegro for the Power Macintosh Before you continue, you should be aware of one screen display issue concerning the Power Macintosh. Due to the system software for the Power Macintosh, some characters in Petrucci (and even more in Sonata) may appear clipped on the screen. They do appear fine on printout, however. To correct the display of all the characters, remove the bit-mapped screen fonts of Petrucci and use only the TrueType font for screen display. Don't remove the PostScript printer font from your system unless you are absolutely sure you don't need it. Stationary pads in System 7 Allegro has always offered its own way of opening "Untitled" template documents. Apple's system software also offers a way of opening untitled documents through its built-in "stationery pads" feature. This feature is available in System 7 or later. To use it, select a Allegro document in the Finder, then choose Get Info from the Finder's File menu. In the window that appears, click the Stationery Pad checkbox, then close the window. If you choose to use the Stationary Pad feature, Allegro offers a document icon to help you distinguish Stationary Pad documents from normal ones.   Allegro does not distinguish stationery pad files from ordinary files, but the system software does offer some automatic support. If you open a stationery pad file from the Finder, the system will ask you for a name, make a copy of the stationery file, and then send the copy to Allegro to open. If you open a stationery pad file with Allegro's Open command, the system will warn you that you are editing a stationery file. (Allegro will treat the stationery file like any other document once it's open, though.) You can also use Allegro's own method of opening template documents — if you select "New From Template" in the File menu, the document you select will be opened as an "Untitled" document. See Installation & Tutorial, "Making the Most of Allegro — Working from templates" for more information. QuickDraw GX Allegro cannot print when QuickDraw GX is enabled. You must turn off QuickDraw GX and restart your computer before you can print from Allegro. FreeMIDI Allegro offers three choices for MIDI systems, the Allegro MIDI Driver, Apple MIDI Manager, and Open Music System (OMS). If you are a FreeMIDI user, FreeMIDI does make compatible modes available, but you may find that these modes do not provide consistent MIDI performance. If this proves to be the case, restart your computer without the FreeMIDI extension.