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