Tip #14 - Use Alt + U/D to Move Notes and Extended Objects

If you've entered a note on the wrong staff line the easiest way to move the note is by placing the caret immediately to the left of the note and then hitting Alt+Up/Down arrow to move the note up or down. This is also handy if you use insertion shortcuts to quickly insert a previous chord, note cluster, or measure, but you need to make small corrections to some of the note positions. This kind of note shifting will be blocked as soon as the note being shifted "bumps into" an already existing note or symbol. If you select a whole note cluster (by double clicking on it) or a full measure, or more, you can then use Alt+Up/Down to move every note within the selection (first example below). Tab fingering moves the same way too.

This technique can also be applied to extended objects, such as phrase lines or staff text. For example, if you enter a phrase line and realize that it cuts across some notes, you may want to raise it. To do this leave the caret where it was when you entered the phrase line and hit Alt+Up arrow. You can adjust any extended object's position in this way by simply putting the caret at the position where it would have been when the object was initially entered (ie. at the left end of the object, at about the same height), then hitting Alt+Up/Down arrow. (second example below).

Actually, I shouldn't have used the word "simply" since sometimes it's a little tough to figure out where the caret is supposed to go when dealing with extended objects -sorry! What I sometimes do is put the caret where I think it should go, or maybe a bit lower than I really think is correct, then I hit Alt+Up Arrow, see if the object moves, hit up plain Up Arrow, then Alt+Up Arrow, etc. until the object moves as I expected. Also, if you're moving an extended object up quite high above the staff you may have to hit refresh (Ctrl+R) to clean up the screen or redraw the object.

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