OOoLilyPond
Using musical notation in OpenOffice.org
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With OOoLilyPond (OLy) you can use musical notation within OpenOffice.org. Use it for writing a book on music theory or for writing down exercises for music instruments or voice which need to be commented with text. OLy is not limited to classic musical notation, you can also create guitar fret diagrams with it.
You enter the music notes as text code using the LilyPond language and OLy converts it into an image within OpenOffice.org. You will need some time to get familiar with the LilyPond language but once learned, you can typeset small pieces of music much faster than with any other sofware.
Samuel Hartmann, July 2009
OOoLilyPond has changed a lot with the new version. It is now easier to use and it has many new features:
The line width and the staff size can be set in the OLy dialog.
OLy has a built in template editor.
The templates include example code and documentation (comments).
The LilyPond output is parsed and Oly jumps to the location of the error or warning while displaying the corresponding message.
This is a bug fix release. There are no new features. Error handling has been improved.
Below an example with voice exercices for male choir to start rehearsal with.
As open document (OpenOffice.org): Einsingen_fuer_Maennerchor.odt
You do not need to have OOoLilyPond installed for just viewing the document with OpenOffice.org.
As PDF: Einsingen_fuer_Maennerchor.pdf
You can download the latest version of OOoLilyPond at sourceforge.net:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=177831
You also need:
Make sure that the following software is installed:
- LilyPond 2.10 or newer (older versions may also work)
- OpenOffice.org 2.4 or newer
Download the newest OOoLilyPond extension (OOoLilyPond-0.x.x.oxt).
Start OpenOffice.org
Click “Add...” and select the downloaded package and install it.
Open a new Writer, Draw or Impress Document, the OOoLilyPond toolbar appears (at the moment the only button is “OLy”).
The current release of OOoLilyPond hat not been tested on Mac OS X but it should work as it works on Linux machines. OLy can also be used in NeoOffice.
Follow the installation procedures given for Windows or Linux.
Mac-specific instructions:
- Start OpenOffice.org / NeoOffice
- Click the “OLy”-button to bring up the OOoLilyPond window.
- Click the Config button.
- In the field “LilyPond Executable” type
“/Applications/LilyPond.app/Contents/Resources/bin/lilypond”.
- Click “OK”.
Place the cursor in a Writer document. Click the “OLy”-button in the tool bar to open the OOoLilyPond Editor.
Select a template (you can also keep the default).
Select the Staff Size you like.
Adjust the line width to the value that corresponds to your Writer document. The default should be OK for A4.
Click the “LilyPond”-button. This translates the example of the template and inserts it into the Writer document.
Select the newly created musical notation object and click the “OLy”-button again.
The OOoLilyPond editor window opens again with all the settings from last time. In the large input field, you can change the notes (may be you need to scroll down to see the code for the notes). For learning the syntax of the LilyPond language read the LilyPond documentation. I recommend to start with the chapter Simple notation.
For getting help on how to use or install OOoLilyPond visit the forums .
For learning the syntax of the LilyPond language read the LilyPond documentation. Best starting point is the chapter Simple notation.
Using the eps format on Windows does not to work.
When printing documents containing OOoLilyPond objects in eps format OpenOffice.org asks if the transperency should be reduced. The right option to get high quality results is "yes".
When using OOoLilyPond with the window manager Compiz (default in gnome when using desktop effects) the OOoLilyPond Window and appear too small. To get OOoLilyPond working properly switch to the Metacity window manager. You can do this temporarily with the following command:
$ metacity --replace
When using OOoLilyPond you loose the clipbaord contents. This is because OOoLilyPond uses the clipboard to insert the image. Hopefully this can be avoided in future versions.
The line width is limited to 19.5 cm. It is planned to overcome this limit in future versions.
When Compiling the code I get the following error:
lilypond: /usr/lib/openoffice/program/libstdc++.so.6: version
'CXXABI_1.3.1' not found (required by lilypond)
Edit the lilpond macro code as described in the following:
In OpenOffice.org from the Menu choose:
Tools --> Marcros --> Organise Macros --> OpenOffice.org Basic
Select under "Macro from": My Macros --> OOoLilyPond --> Subs
Select the Macro "CallLilyPond"
Click Edit
find the Line:
& Chr(34) & sLilyPondExecutable & Chr(34)
change it to:
& "env LD_LIBRARY_PATH= " & Chr(34) & sLilyPondExecutable & Chr(34)
Switch back to OpenOffice.org Writer, start the macro.
OOoLilyPond would not exist without the two great softwares LilyPond and OpenOffice.org. Therefore I like to thank all the developers of OpenOffice.org and LilyPond. Many thanks also to Geoffroy Piroux who has written the macro OOoLaTeX. of which OOoLilyPond has been derived. Thanks also to Andy May for the installation instructions for Mac OS X, to Goran Rakic for providing the OpenOffice.org extension package and to Hugo Ribeiro and Francisco Villa for translating the web page into portuguese and spanish.