Stem Direction Alignment

The button (Icon) you will find in the toolbar category < page >.

Pick the registry-tab "stem direction within a line" in order to access the second tab (second Page of this dialogue)

For the case, if you need to represent several voices in a polyphonic stave, here you can set the alignment of stem direction for individual voices .

Attention: The different stem direction alignment is active only in main-lines (polyphonic staves) with merged voices (strands).

With the statement of the voices in own strand (sub-line), the alignment of stem direction is determined again in dependence of the pitch!

If you want to represent polyphonic bars with separated (different stem direction alignment) and homophonous bars with variable changing stem direction alignment in a line simultaneously, (see Picture 2. below.), then, exactly two sub-lines (strands)  must be prepared in which polyphonic and homophonous music can then be entered.

Example: with following input in two sub-lines (strands)

(Picture: 1.)

(Picture: 2)

after executing "merge voices" you will get the following picture:

(Bar with variable stem dir.-alignment) (Bars with fixed stem direction-alignment)

(The stem direction alignment remains variable in the first bar, in the following bars fixed, in accordance with the respective voice.)

Reference: With two voices in a line, changes between the conventional stem direction alignment and the stem separation with polyphonic sections are generated automatically! The sections with variable changing stem direction-alignment are created if a voice is grasped in only one line.

For necessary additional settings you can use the above dialogue:

If you want to fix the stem direction alignment for the voices with polyphonic sections also, make active the corresponding option in the dialogue box. With as well as you can also set the stem direction-alignment manually per single note or beamed group of notes. ( toolbar category < page >. )

You will find here a function which makes the manual moving of notes possible, what could be necessary with three and more polyphonic voices.

Several Polyponic voices (strands) in main (polyphonic)-line (stave)

In Octava standard is possible to represent up to 6 polyphonic voices (strands) in a main-line. To achieve following outlook - see the picture below. Some settings are necessary to be done in the same dialogue (page / voice-group properties / stem-direction alignment). To be sure that the voices are not summarized automatically, stem-direction alignment for the first voice must be set to "Up", the last "Downward" and the inter-voices "manually". (see the picture below)

From three polyphonic voices and more, the stem direction alignment and moving (shifting) notes must be done manually! See toolbar category < page > : stem - direction alignment, move (shift) note(s) etc.