You are here: What does this do... > Palettes, Tools, Menus, and Dialog Boxes > Dialog Boxes > Staff Stem Settings dialog box

Staff Stem Settings dialog box

How to get there

Click the Staff tool , and double-click any staff.
Click the Stem Settings button in the Items to Display subsection.

What it does

In this dialog box, specify the direction, staff offset and beam offset for stems in a staff. These settings are particularly useful for TAB notation.

Stem Direction: Default Direction • Always Up • Always Down. Choose Default Direction to use the document’s default stem direction as defined in Layer options (see Document Options-Layers). Choose Always Up to freeze all steps in the staff up. Choose Always down to freeze all stems in the staff down.
Horizontal Stem Offsets: Up Stem • Down Stem. Enter a value in the Up Stem or Down Stem text box to specify the horizontal gap between the notehead (or fret number) and the up and/or down stems in a staff.
Use Vertical Offset For Notehead End of Stems • Offset from Notehead(s) • Offset from Staff • Up Stem • Down Stem. With Offset from Notehead selected, specify a value in the Up Stem or Down Stem text box to define a specific vertical gap between the notehead (or fret number) and the start (notehead end) of up and/or down stems in a staff. With Offset from Staff selected, specify a value in the Up Stem or Down Stem text box to define the absolute vertical position of the notehead end of up and/or down stems relative to the staff.
Use Vertical Offset for Beam End Of Stems (Offset From Staff) • Up Stem • Down Stem. Check this box, and enter a value in the Up Stem and/or Down Stem text box to define an absolute vertical position, relative to the staff, for the stem endpoints (beam end of the stem).
Units: EVPUs • Inches • Centimeters • Points • Picas • Spaces. When you enter the Staff Stem Settings dialog box, Units defaults to the current measurement unit selected in the Measurement Units submenu of the Document menu. If you prefer, choose a different measurement unit for beaming from the drop-down list.
OK • Cancel. Click OK (or press enter) to confirm, or Cancel to discard, your stem settings and return to the Staff Attributes dialog box.