# Sibelius 7



## sbkp (Dec 4, 2011)

Okay, I'm willing to try this a bit more, but I just downloaded the demo for Sibelius 7 (I'm a mostly happy Sibelius 6 user).

And I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate _HATE!_ the new user interface. I'm going to wait until the last possible moment before I upgrade - if I ever upgrade. Good lord. What the hell were they thinking?

Okay, if they want to get away from traditional menus (why?) then they should at least have gone to radial menus. As it is now, you click on the tab for what you want then the button you might need could be WAAAAAY over to the right. It's far less efficient on average than a radial menu. And it's no more efficient than menus. They're just horizontal instead of vertical. Whoopdedoo.

If we could design our own toolbar(s) (ahem... _ribbons_), then I could see this kind of working out. Can we do that?

And what the hell? Everyone has a wide screen now (and now that monitors are 16:9, the problem is even worse). What's the big idea using up MORE of the vertical space for buttons!?!? Somewhere I read that they tried to optimize this for use on a laptop. I call bullshit! They accomplished exactly the opposite! You want to optimize for laptops (and wide screens in general?) use the left or right of the screen for your toolbars (uh... ribbons). With this stupid thing at the top of the screen, I can see even less of my score now! And yes, I see I can hide the ribbon. But then they're just menus, except oriented incorrectly and slower than system menus.

Man, I'm so pissed at Sibelius right now.


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## sbkp (Dec 4, 2011)

Oh, and... The stuff you do once per score is right along the stuff you do all the time. It's such a poorly organized bunch of buttons.

Already uninstalled it. I have work to do. :(


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## JonFairhurst (Dec 4, 2011)

My copy of Sibelius is a few generations old now. But wasn't Sibelius always about shortcuts, rather than menus and mousing. Is that no longer the case? Do you not use the number key shortcuts, or is it that you go to the menus often for secondary (non-shortcut) functions?


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## sbkp (Dec 4, 2011)

I use lots and lots of keyboard shortcuts. And I can make more. But I never minded some of the stuff in menus because I didn't do it very often.

They still have the same note entry method (thank god! if they screw that up, I'm going to pencil and paper). And that's all about the keyboard. I never use the mouse when I'm putting notes in.

I guess I'll reinstall the demo at some point and make some keyboard shortcuts and see what happens.

I'm just astonished at how far backwards the UI went. It's just like when Microsoft changed to this not-quite-menus approach in Office (2003?). I hate that, too. There are lots of non-menu GUI approaches. They should have realized that if Microsoft liked it, it was the wrong one! :mrgreen:


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## JonFairhurst (Dec 4, 2011)

I just upgraded to Office 2010 at work. Gag! I should check to see if there is a "classic mode."


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## bdr (Dec 5, 2011)

There are plenty of 'explanations' for the change on the Sibelius forum. You're certainly not alone in your dislike of the ribbon.

I've gotten used to it pretty quickly, I have it hidden, use key commands/right click most of the time, and the search box in the ribbon is actually faster for me to find less used commands than before. The sounds are a massive improvement (don't only judge the demos).


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## bryla (Dec 5, 2011)

Let them know of your opinion:

http://sibeliusblog.polldaddy.com/s/sib ... urvey-2011


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## dcoscina (Dec 5, 2011)

I actually like the work flow but then again, I didn't use Sibelius 6 as extensively...


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## Mahlon (Dec 6, 2011)

sbkp @ Sun Dec 04 said:


> And what the hell? Everyone has a wide screen now (and now that monitors are 16:9, the problem is even worse). What's the big idea using up MORE of the vertical space for buttons!?!? Somewhere I read that they tried to optimize this for use on a laptop. I call [email protected]#t! They accomplished exactly the opposite! You want to optimize for laptops (and wide screens in general?) use the left or right of the screen for your toolbars (uh... ribbons). With this stupid thing at the top of the screen, I can see even less of my score now! And yes, I see I can hide the ribbon. But then they're just menus, except oriented incorrectly and slower than system menus.
> 
> Man, I'm so pissed at Sibelius right now.



I hear ya! I *FEEL* your pain. This following microsoft's ribbon idea usually ends up creating vasts amounts of wasted space. I don't understand how developers can get miss the ergonomic train. And it's not just Sibelius; there are many others guilty.

As long as I can hide the dang ribbon, I'm ok. :evil: Settle down now, Mahlon. Settle down......

Mahlon


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## JT (Dec 7, 2011)

Get a wide screen that pivots. Use it in portrait mode with notation, in landscape mode with your DAW. Perfect!


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## jsaras (Jan 30, 2012)

Is Sibelius 7 still as slow as it was when it was released? Anyone using it on a PC?


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## nikolas (Jan 30, 2012)

jsaras: No idea... My music computer is not connected to the internet, so I have not been aware of an update of any sort... but if there's an update I'm most willing to try it, cause for me and my big files Sib 7 is almost unusable!


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## Daryl (Jan 30, 2012)

nikolas @ Mon Jan 30 said:


> jsaras: No idea... My music computer is not connected to the internet, so I have not been aware of an update of any sort... but if there's an update I'm most willing to try it, cause for me and my big files Sib 7 is almost unusable!


There are at least 2 updates since the release, AFAIK.

D


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## nikolas (Jan 30, 2012)

Daryl,

I'm pretty certain that I got the first one, but not sure about the second. Tomorrow morning I'll be checking about these... Thanks for the heads up!


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## windshore (Jan 30, 2012)

current version is 7.1.0 for mac anyway


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