Write

Write is the editor where you write scores in neumaRk, with the score preview updating in real time as you type. It is also the only app that makes sound: audio playback exists only here, View is silent.

The three actors not to confuse

To use Write with peace of mind it helps to keep in mind who does what. These are three different things:

	What it is	What it does
neumaRk (NRK)	the language: the text you write is the song	persists, independent of the app
the editor	the writing environment	colours the text, flags errors in the console, explains via the ? help; leaves your text exactly as you typed it
Speedy Entry	the typing assistant	transforms what you type as you type (automatic spaces, Tab closes the measure…); it's optional and turns off with one click

Speedy Entry only produces ordinary NRK — the same text you could type by hand. If it gets in your way, turn it off from the toolbar and keep typing; your song stays as it is. Details in Speedy Entry.

The screen

Write is split in two halves: on the left the editor where you write the NRK text, on the right the score preview. Above the editor there's a toolbar; at the top of the page the topbar with the logo menu, the file menu and the song title. The console appears at the bottom when needed.

The editor toolbar

Command	What it does
Title · Key · Meter	clicking them opens the Document properties (edit title, author, key, tempo, meter without writing in the text)
▶ Play	plays the melody; long-press to open the playback controls panel
Edit	menu with undo/redo and cut/copy/paste
Find and replace	opens and closes the search bar in the text (also Cmd/Ctrl+F; to replace, ⌥+Cmd+F on Mac, Ctrl+H elsewhere)
EXTEND / COMPACT	two textual transformations of the source (see below); long-press for the options
Speedy Entry	turns the assistant on/off (long-press for the settings)
? Help	opens the neumaRk help panel (also F1)
Console	opens/closes the processing console

On Safari, which keeps some shortcuts for itself, the toolbar also shows Undo and Redo buttons. On a phone, Find and replace, EXTEND, COMPACT and their options are in the Edit menu.

The editor

The editor highlights the syntax, links text and score (hovering a measure highlights it on both sides) and lets you select measures. Right-clicking a measure opens a context menu: cut/copy/paste, insert, replace, delete, transpose, respell to key, isolate into a new row, move to the previous/next row, merge into one. Right-clicking the text offers cut/copy/paste and Comment / uncomment lines: the selected lines (or the cursor's line) go between /* and */ and leave the score without being deleted; with the cursor inside a commented block, the same command removes it. The shortcut is Cmd/Ctrl+/ (on an Italian keyboard Cmd+Shift+7).

Selection modifiers: Shift extends the text selection, Cmd/Ctrl+Shift extends the measure selection.

The note menu

Right-clicking a note on the score opens a menu that writes for you the rows that go with that note, already aligned under it:

• Articulation: accent, staccato, marcato, mordent in one click, or Articulation (type…) to write another one;
• Fingering (type…): creates the fingering row and puts the cursor in the right place;
• Dynamic: p, f, crescendo, diminuendo in one click, or Dynamic (type…).

If the row doesn't exist yet, Write creates it; if it does, Write fills it up to that note. With the (type…) entries the cursor stays there, ready for you to type.

The score preview

It updates on every change. It is the same score as in View, with the same reading commands in its menu: fit, zoom, density, view mode, the rendering Settings and Export PDF are described in View → Reading and fitting the page and Customising the look. In Write the score is also a writing surface (see The note menu, above). To force beaming at a single spot, beyond the settings, use the / (break) and - (join) marks directly in the text.

When review is enabled for the song, the same menu also shows Review... (see Review and comments, below).

On a computer with a second screen, Score in another window (from the logo menu) moves the score to a separate window that follows the editor in real time: selection, clicks, right-click and the playback keys work from there too. In its place Write keeps the Bring the score back here strip; if you close the editor, the window shows Waiting for the editor and reconnects on its own to the next one you open.

Exporting to PDF

Export PDF... opens the same window as in View, with a preview of the pages: page size, margins, page numbers, fitting the piece on fewer pages and the other options are described in View → Exporting to PDF.

EXTEND and COMPACT

The same song can be written in two textual forms, and these two buttons convert the source from one to the other:

• COMPACT — uses duration and octave inheritance to remove repetition (shorter text, quick to type by hand).
• EXTEND — makes everything explicit on every note (easier to read at a glance).

Same notes, same score: only the look of the text changes. From the Extend / Compact options menu you choose precisely which details to expand or compact (row markers, durations, pitches, shorthands, flow signs, chords), with None / Default / All presets. The options also include Align bars (the barlines of the rows in a system line up in columns) and Omit trailing empty measures per row (each row stops at its last non-empty measure, instead of being stretched to match the others).

If the top of the text holds a hand-written title, key, meter and the like, Write asks you what to do with it before transforming: Absorb moves it into the document properties and removes it from the text; Discard removes it from the text and loses it. Cancelling does nothing.

What you write in the text wins over the properties: the score and the Title · Key · Meter buttons show the value from the text. If the text and the properties disagree (for example HK) Gb in the text and D in the properties), an amber frame appears around the three buttons; hover to see which fields don't match, click to open Resolve. There you choose, field by field: Use the text copies the text values into the properties (you can also remove the header from the text); Align the text rewrites the header with the property values (a single ⌘Z undoes it).

A song whose text and properties disagree can't be saved: when you save, export to .nrk or use Update, Write opens Resolve and continues only afterwards. This also applies when the property was never set (C, 4/4, empty field) and the text says something else.

Playing

The Play button plays the melody (also Shift+Space). If you selected a note, playback starts there; if you selected measures, it starts from the first one. During playback, clicking a measure on the score jumps there. Space or Esc stop it.

Long-pressing Play opens the playback controls panel:

• play/pause/stop and back-to-start;
• the tempo in BPM (30 to 400), with the slider or the −/+ buttons (one BPM per click, five with Shift), and a button that returns to the song's tempo. If the song doesn't declare a BPM in its header, the tempo is deduced from the style and the panel says so. Changing the tempo here only affects playback: the document is not modified;
• swing (ratio and offbeat accent). By default it is on Auto: if the tune's style is a swing style, the feel follows the tempo you are hearing and gets lighter at up tempos, even when you change the BPM during playback; other styles play straight. A preset fixes the value until you change the style or go back to Auto;
• the metronome with its volume, and the count-in;
• the chords (whether to play them, and their volume) and the playing of ornaments.

The processing console

As you write, the console shows any warnings (W…, non-blocking) and errors (E…, blocking); the Console icon in the toolbar changes colour accordingly. Hovering the icon peeks at the console; a click keeps it open until you close it again (also with Esc). Click a message to jump to the line it refers to — the console only points you to what to review.

By default the console does not open on its own. With the Auto-open on errors switch (the choice is remembered) it appears when the text goes from zero to one or more errors, and closes again when the errors are back to zero — only if it opened by itself, not if you opened it with a click. Warnings don't open it. During a tutorial, auto-open stays suspended until you have opened the console at least once.

The console also has two more switches: Editor decorations (the underlines in the text) and the button that shows or hides debug entries (technical messages, only useful when reporting a problem).

The ? help

The ? panel (also F1) is the quick reference to neumaRk: searchable, organised by topic (notes, chords, repeats, articulations, dynamics, lyrics, voices, versions…). For the full reference there's the language documentation on neumark.dev.

The panel also includes the Keyboard & shortcuts section: pick your keyboard layout (Italian or US) and see how to type neumaRk's special characters on your system (|, [ ], { }, < >, #, @, ~, ^, $, %…), together with the list of shortcuts given below.

Keyboard shortcuts

Cmd applies on Mac, Ctrl on other systems. The Speedy Entry shortcuts (with Z held down) are described in Speedy Entry.

General

Keys	What it does
F1	opens / closes the help panel (Esc closes it)
Cmd/Ctrl+S	saves (to the source .nrk file if the document comes from a file, otherwise to the cloud)
Cmd/Ctrl+O	opens a document
Cmd/Ctrl+N	new document
Cmd/Ctrl+Z · Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z	undo · redo
Shift+Space	starts / stops playback
Space or Esc	during playback, stop it
double-click on a measure	selects it (in the editor or on the score)
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+A	selects all measures

Text editor

Keys	What it does
Shift+Enter	EXTEND
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Enter	COMPACT
Tab	inserts a measure bar (with Speedy Entry on)
Tab or Enter	accepts the grey suggestion; Esc dismisses it
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+click (or drag)	selects a range of measures
Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+arrows	extends the measure range from the keyboard
Shift+arrows · Shift+click	text selection
Esc	clears the measure selection
Alt+click (⌥+click on Mac)	adds a cursor
Cmd/Ctrl+F	find in the text
⌥+Cmd+F (Mac) · Ctrl+H	find and replace
Cmd/Ctrl+/ (Italian keyboard: Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+7)	comment / uncomment the selected lines with /* … */

Score (after clicking the score). The reading keys (W, H, F, P, zoom, density, pages, scrolling) are the same as in View: see View → Reading and fitting the page. Density with Cmd/Ctrl + +/− works with a note selected too. Write adds:

Keys	What it does
click	selects a note
Shift+click	extends the measure selection
arrows, with measures selected	move the selection (Shift extends it; Esc clears it)

Selected note on the score

Keys	What it does
← · →	previous · next note (and plays it)
↑ · ↓	up · down one step (in the key)
+ · −	up · down a semitone
' · ,	up · down an octave
!	shows / hides the forced accidental
N	enharmonic change (press again to cycle spellings)
Shift+↑ · Shift+↓	in a chord, moves between its notes
Esc	deselects the note

The logo menu

The logo at the top left opens a menu with:

• Library and View — switch to Library and to View (View opens the current song);
• Guided tour — a step-by-step tour of the interface;
• Preferences... — see below;
• Score in another window — computer only (see The score preview, above);
• About... — the app version;
• Help — opens this manual in a new tab.

Preferences

Preferences... (from the logo menu) gathers the choices that apply to all of Write. Each entry turns on and off; Defaults resets them all.

• Editor ↔ score: Page follows cursor (the score goes to the page of the measure you are writing in), Selection follows cursor, Highlight measure on hover.
• Writing aids: Line prefix suggestions (the grey hints such as N) // Notes), Context-aware help (the ? panel follows the word under the cursor), Flag warnings in the editor (underlines warnings too; errors are always flagged).
• Editing: Propagate barlines within the datapack (changing a barline on one row changes the same barline on the other rows of the system).
• Listening: Play note on click (clicking a note on the score lets you hear it).

The Speedy Entry settings are on its button (long-press); the score rendering settings (beaming, enharmonics…) are in the Settings of the score menu, the same as in View: see View → Customising the look.

The file menu

It opens by clicking the document name, in the middle of the topbar:

• New — a new empty document.
• Open... — open one of your songs (with search by name, title, credits and tags). At the top, the Recent box lists the songs you last opened in Write, on any device: three, or ten with Show more. Offline, the ones not stored on this device are greyed out. Each row carries the icon of your role on the song (the same icons as in Library); hovering it shows title, credits, key, the role and, if the song isn't yours, the @username of its creator.
• Import — import an NRK or XML file (MusicXML: .xml, .musicxml and the compressed .mxl format, the one MuseScore uses by default). You can also drag the file onto the Write window. If the MusicXML file has more staves than Write can draw, it asks which parts to keep. The opening style and metronome become the song's settings; later changes become play directives carrying the style and, when the file states it, the metronome.
• Tutorial... — see Built-in tutorials, below.
• Update «name.nrk» — appears only if you imported an .nrk file from Chrome or Edge: see Working on a file on disk, below.
• Save — saves to the cloud (see below).
• Save as new — creates a new song from the current one (useful to start from someone else's song or to make a variant).
• Revert to saved — discards local changes and reloads the last saved version.
• View changes — shows what changed since the last save (see Saving, below).
• Export — export the song as an NRK, MusicXML or Lilypond file. In MusicXML the rhythm figures of the chord row become small slash notes: other programs show them, and re-importing the file into Write brings them back as they were.
• Fly Link — generates a sharing link (see Sharing, below).
• Manage document... — rename the document (creator only, online), manage the tags — public (if you can edit the song, online) and private (only you see them, offline too), with suggestions from the ones you already use — see role, dates and, if the song isn't yours, who created it; open in Library. The creator can delete the document with all its versions (to confirm you type the word DELETE); anyone with another role can resign from the role, and a subscriber can unsubscribe from the song. After either of these, Write asks whether to keep the content as a local document (saving it creates a new song) or clear the page. The creator and the owner also find the Enable review switch here (see Review and comments, below).

Saving

Remember there is no overwrite: every save adds a version to your song. A dot next to the document name means there are unsaved changes. To see them, click the dot or choose View changes from the file menu: it opens a comparison with the last save.

• At the top, the changed properties (title, key, credits…), before → after. The button at the end of the row restores that property's saved value.
• Below, the text, before on the left and after on the right. Spaces at the end of a line count too.
• On a computer you can type in the right-hand column: it is the song text itself, and the text, the score and the comparison update as you type. The arrow in the margin between the two columns restores a single block.
• At the bottom you can save or discard the changes.

The comparison is with the last saved version; if you opened an earlier version of the song, it is with the current version; for a .nrk file imported from Chrome or Edge, it is with the file on disk. On a phone, the comparison opens from the menu, in a single column and read-only.

• Offline, for a song already saved to the cloud that you can edit, Save (from the menu or with Cmd/Ctrl+S) keeps the changes in the browser and syncs them as soon as you're back online. Save as new is disabled ("Saving is not available offline"), and so is Save on a playlist snapshot. An icon next to the name shows the status (pending, syncing, synced, failed). A new song, never saved, can only be saved online.
• On a slow connection, if saving takes too long Write keeps the changes locally and syncs them as soon as it can.
• If another collaborator saved while you were working, Write tells you before saving ("Someone else saved in the meantime"): with Save anyway yours becomes the current version and theirs stays in the history; with Cancel you don't save, and you can go and look at theirs in the version history.
• If you close or reload the page without saving, when you reopen the song Write restores the unsaved local draft.

Working on a file on disk

On Chrome and Edge, when you import an .nrk file Write stays linked to that file: the file name appears instead of the document name, and Cmd/Ctrl+S (or the Update menu entry) writes your changes back into the same file on disk. The menu's Save still saves to the cloud.

On Safari and Firefox this link doesn't exist: the imported file isn't tied to the disk and Cmd/Ctrl+S saves to the cloud. To bring your changes back into a file, use Export → NRK.

Versions and Release

A song evolves through versions (every save adds one). From the topbar you see the current version and its wip / stable states, you can review previous versions and make a Release: it creates a new stable version and permanently deletes the intermediate work in progress ones. Since there's no going back, you confirm it by typing the letter R. In the list of versions, if at least one wasn't saved by you, each one shows the avatar and @username of whoever saved it.

Transposing

Write offers two ways to transpose, with very different effects:

• Changing the song. Select the measures to transpose (all of them: Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+A), then right-click → Transpose: choose by how many semitones and whether to apply it to notes and chords, notes only or chords only. The NRK text is rewritten, and when you save, the transposition becomes part of the song. The context declarations that govern the selected measures follow the transposition too: pitch references, written keys and the harmony in force (@F13, when you transpose chords). Those that govern the measures after the selection stay as they were, so the music that follows keeps sounding the same: where needed, Write writes a reference (or the original key) at the start of the next measure. The HK) header is not transposed.
• Respelling to the key. If after a transposition the song reads in Fb or Cb while the key is E or B, right-click → Respell to key: notes and chords take the key's spelling (Fb → E, Cb7 → B7) without changing the sound. The shift is the same across a whole section in one key, so leading tones and blue notes stay as you wrote them. If in the Properties you switch the same key to its other spelling (Gb → F#: a second tap on the black key), Write offers to respell the whole song.
• For reading only. The key and instrument buttons on the score change how you see it: the song's text is not touched. They are the same as in View → Transposing in View.

Applying a harmony

To add the chord symbols of another song (for example to a melody imported from MusicXML):

• Copying the harmony. In the song that has them, select the measures, right-click → Copy harmony only: the clipboard gets an NRK with just the chord rows (C), C+ and the A) rows that articulate them). If the first measure inherits its chord from before, that chord is written out.
• Applying it. In the target song select the measures, right-click → Apply harmony… and paste the fragment. It can also be typed by hand, with or without C):

| Dm7 G7 | C |

The fragment is pasted measure by measure, exactly as written. If the selection is longer, the fragment repeats: a 12-bar blues over 10 choruses of a transcribed solo is applied in one go. Before you apply, the window tells you how it will fall on the selection (full cycles, partial last cycle, truncated fragment).

Good to know:

• The meter stays the melody's. The meter the fragment came from doesn't matter, and its meter and key changes are not pasted. Implicit rhythm divides itself again in the new measure; an explicit rhythm that doesn't fit stays as it is.
• Existing chord symbols are replaced, including C+ rows and their A) rows. The rest of the text is not rewritten.
• The measure after the selection keeps hearing the chord it had: if it inherited it, Write writes it out (or writes NC if nothing was sounding before).
• A single Cmd/Ctrl+Z undoes it all.

Sharing

Fly Link (from the file menu) generates a self-contained link: from its window you can open it, copy it to the clipboard or share it. A fly link is a snapshot: later edits don't reach it. The kinds of link and their implications are in Links & sharing.

Review and comments

When review is enabled (the Enable review switch in Manage document, which the creator and the owner see), anyone with a role on the song — creator, owner, collaborator or invited reader — finds Review... in the score menu. The panel is the same as in View and is described in View → Review comments. In Write, right-clicking a measure opens the editing menu: to tie a comment to a measure, select it on the score and use Comment on a measure in the panel.

Reactive mode and Lead

Opening a reactive link puts Write in linked, read-only mode (LIVE badge): it follows the edits of whoever holds the lead in real time. If the connection drops, a reconnect button appears next to the badge. Whoever has edit rights can take lead: from then on (LEAD badge) each of their saves appears in real time to those watching in View; release hands the lead back. This is the basis of real-time rehearsals and lessons (see the reactive link in Links & sharing).

Built-in tutorials

From the file menu, Tutorial... opens the list of step-by-step tutorials, each with a short description and its number of steps. The Language filter starts from your language; pick All to see them all. The path has five levels:

Level	Topic	Languages
L1 · First steps	your first notes, chords, your first lead sheet	Italian, English, French
L2 · Song form	sections, repeats, endings and jumps	Italian, English, French
L3 · Gli attrezzi del mestiere	articulations, dynamics and lyrics	Italian
L4 · Notazione avanzata	voicing, second voice, tuplets, noteheads	Italian
L5 · I casi particolari	versions, advanced chords and articulations, page layout	Italian

If it's your first time, start from L1: each level assumes the one before.

During a tutorial, the orange TUT badge appears at the top with the previous / next step and reset step controls (reset reloads the step as it was at the start); clicking the TUT label lets you jump straight to any step. At the bottom of the same menu, Copy link to this step copies an address that opens that very step (to share, or to put in a video description), and Other tutorials… reopens the list of tutorials without leaving (if you have unsaved changes, Write asks first).

There's also a Guided tour of the interface, from the logo menu at the top left.