Re: MsLily - LilyPond Add-In for Word

[Martin Tarenskeen]

I just downloaded and tried the betaversion. Nice :-)

Some quick remarks:

The opening example in the editor shows says something like

%use letters as pitches
c d e f


I assume someone installing and using this plugin
- has some basic knowledge of LilyPond syntax

Or at least:
- soon will need and want to know something about LilyPond syntax

Instead of "%use letters as pitches" I'd rather read "%your LilyPond code 
starts here"

And instead of "c d e f"
I'd rather see "{c d e f}"

I can't see what code is hidden behind the screens of MsLily's template 
but outside of your plugin "c d e f" is not functional LilyPond syntax and 
"{c d e f}" is.

I experimented a little with some simple LilyPond coding but I do not 
understand what LilyPond code MsLily creates automatically behind 
the screens, and what LilyPond code I have to type myself. The result is 
that several attempts that would compile perfectly outside MsLily 
will fail inside MsLily, and incorrect or incomplete code that would fail 
if compiled with LilyPond directly - like the minimal "c d e f" from the 
opening screen - compiles fine with MsLily.

It's a good thing if MsLily does some things automatically. Inserting a 
snippet of music into a Word document is a different task than creating 
full pages of sheetmusic. But the syntax to type in the editor should not 
be too much different from normal LilyPond syntax. For example: I have not 
succeeded creating a simple PianoStaff inside MsLily yet.

I think things could be improved here. Maybe I should try and buy the full 
version?

--

MT