Instructions

Viewer Mode

Neon2 starts in Viewer Mode and will remain this way until Edit Mode is clicked on a version supporting it (>= v3.x.x). The left screen is a panel containing the rendered MEI file on top of the provided background image. The right of the screen is a control panel, with various options.

View Panel

The view panel has some interactive features in viewer mode.

• Info Box Mousing over a neume, custos, or clef will open an info box below the control panel.
  • This will show the shape and line number for clefs, the pitch for custos, and the shape (if known) and pitches of components for neumes.
• Panning Holding shift, clicking, and dragging the view panel will cause the background image and MEI rendering to pan. If using a touch screen, dragging with two fingers also triggers panning.

Control Panel

In viewer mode, the control panel solely contains a display panel with the following options:

• Zoom The zoom slider allows the user to scale the image between 25% and 400% its original size. The zoom button will reset the scale to 100% and snap the image to center (resetting pan).
• Opacity The opacity sliders control the opacity of the background image and rendered MEI, going between 0% and 100% opacity. The opacity buttons will reset opacity to 100%.
  • The "Neume Opacity" button and slider control the opacity of the rendered MEI.
  • The "Image Opacity" button and slider control the opacity of the background image.
• Display Text When checked, lyrics from the MEI file will be rendered, if available. Click on a text syllable to edit it after entering edit mode. Mouse over it to highlight the syllable it belongs to in the MEI.
  • The lyrics are rendered at the bottom of the control panel. If no text is present, it will not be shown in viewer mode. In edit mode, syllables with no text are represented as a '◊'.
• Display Info When checked, the Info Box will be visible below any panels.
• Highlight A dropdown with options to highlight different musical elements (staves, syllables, and neumes) in the MEI.
  • This is useful in verifying that each element is logically part of the correct system, grouping, etc. It also looks pretty and helps distinguish the MEI from the background.
• MEI Validation In some versions, a version of xml.js is used to validate the loaded MEI file against the MEI 4.0.0 schema. If validation fails, clicking on "INVALID" will download a log of the errors found in the file.

Edit Mode

Clicking the Edit Mode button in supported versions of Neon2 enables editor functionality and adds the insert and edit panels to the right side of the screen below the display panel. The button will also be replaced by a File tab allowing the user to save the MEI, download the MEI, download the background image, or revert the MEI to the original uploaded file.

Insert Panel

The insert panel contains controls to select what elements to insert into the MEI. In insert mode, the cursor over the view panel will appear to be crosshairs instead of a regular pointer. The elements to insert are grouped into tabs:

• Neume
  • Allows insertion of a punctum, virga, inclinatum, or custos.
  • A single click on the point where the center of that element will be triggers the insert. Neon will try to snap an inserted element to the closest pitch.
• Groupings
  • Allows for quick insertion of various grouped neumes.
• Clef
  • Allows insertion of a C or F clef.
  • A single click on the line will insert the clef on that line.
• System
  • Allows insertion of a new system in order (by left-to-right and top-to-bottom).
  • Insert action requires two clicks: first is the upper left corner of the system and second is the lower right corner of the system.

Every type of insert action except system will stay in insert mode. This can be cancelled by pressing the escape button on the keyboard or clicking outside of the view panel. System insertion will exit insert mode once completed.

Edit Panel

The edit panel contains buttons to control what to select by, along with various buttons for different generic editor actions. Selection can be done by clicking directly on a glyph or by drag-selecting.

• Select By Buttons
  • Syllable selection will automatically select all the neumes in a syllable if one is clicked or contained in a drag-select. Clefs and custos can also be selected as if they were syllables.
  • Neume selection will automatically select all the components of a neume if one is selected. Clefs and custos can also be selected as if they were neumes.
  • Neume component selection will allow selection by the component of a neume. Clefs and custos can also be selected as if they were neume components.
  • Staff selection will automatically select the entire staff and every element attached to it. This allows for dragging a staff. Individual elements cannot be selected.
  • Selection can be ended by clicking on a blank area of the page or pressing the escape button.
• Undo will undo the last editor action. This means dragging, inserting, deleting, and other actions. Changes in the display are not handled by this.
• Redo undoes the undo. The redo stack is cleared when a new action is performed.
• Save changes manually writes the file.
• Delete will remove any selected elements from the rendering of the MEI and the MEI itself.

Context Options

A new bar appears on the edit panel when certain elements are selected:

• Syllables
  • When selecting two or more syllables, the option to merge them into a single syllable is given.
  • When selecting a single syllable, the option to ungroup each neume within the syllable into their own syllable is given.
• Neumes
  • When selecting two or more neumes, the option to group them into a single syllable is given.
  • When selecting a single neume, the option to ungroup each neume component within the neume into their own neume is given as well as the option to change the neume grouping.
• Neume Components
  • When selecting two or more neume components, the option to group them into a single neume is given.
  • When selecting exactly two descending neumes within the same neume, the option to toggle them into a ligature is given.
  • When selecting a single ligature, the option to toggle the ligature is given.
  • When selecting a single neume component, the option to change the head shape of the neume is given.
• Staves
  • When selecting two staves on the same line, the option to merge them into a single staff is given.
  • When selecting one staff, the option to split is given. The user can click where the staff should be split into two, or on another staff which will be split instead.
  • When selecting one staff, a box will appear around the staff allowing the user to resize by dragging on the edges of the box.

Grouping

Selecting multiple neume components or neumes will give an option to group them into a single neume or syllable respectively. Note that grouping will only be presented as an option if the second level up of the selected elements is the same (e.g. the selected neume components are in the same syllable). Selecting a neume or syllable will give the option to ungroup them into separate neumes within the same syllable, or separate syllables respectively.

Notifications

Notifications may sometimes appear in the upper left corner of the screen. They will give the user information on if the user is in insert mode or regular edit mode. It will also notify the user about the results of actions performed (see below). Notifications will disappear after 5 seconds or immediately if clicked by the user.

Actions

• Save Save the file stored on the server.
• Revert Revert to the originally uploaded file, discarding any changes even if these changes have been saved on the server. The page will automatically refresh.
• Autosave There is no button for this, but on every editor action (excluding undo and redo) an autosave file will be generated. In the standalone version of Neon, reloading when there is an autosave newer than the regular save creates an option to restore the autosave in case something happened and work may be lost. In the Rodan version, autosave is reloaded automatically since there is no difference between the regular save and autosave.