Inspired by another Sibelius “how to” video on ScreenToaster by J. Simon van der Walt I decided to re-do my own one, on the subject of converting Sibelius files into PDF files using Open Office. Simon’s contains audio (as opposed to subtitles) and, although I’ve experimented with this, I’ve yet to overcome some technical glitches. The reason for replacing the video was more to do with size and visibility. Choosing “full desktop” resulted in drop-down menus being nearly illegible. It turned out to be better to opt for “rectangular area” and to drag that around the top-left of the screen, where most menu activity takes place. I would recommend rehearsing to check that all dialogue boxes (when saving) will also fall within the rectangular area.
Tag Archives: Open Office
ScreenToaster 1
Firstly, thanks to Ewan McIntosh for flagging up ScreenToaster – a free screencasting application. I decided to experiment by creating a short “how to” video, showing how to convert Sibelius files into PDF files using Open Office – a free, open source program. You can see the video here.
I can see some potential here for distance CDP/In Service. Moreover, there are videos in a variety of languages in the ScreenToaster archive, so you can kill two birds with one stone.
In case anyone wonders why someone who already owns Sibelius would want to do this, here are a few reasons:
-
scores/parts can be shared with people who are not Sibelius users
-
they can be printed out even in a location where Sibelius is not installed
-
parts for pupils can be emailed to class teachers in primary schools – the majority of which do not have Sibelius
-
scores/parts can be saved in a format which prohibits further editing – by unauthorised parties
-
files can be uploaded to blogs – allowing pupils with sufficient curiosity to see what others in their ensemble are playing