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INTRODUCTION
I am always excited to receive new features along with each version, and i usually seem to think that each and every new feature will “expand on the way i work” and “make my life easier”. Each new version of Sibelius is fascinating by itself, bringing new features that make you think ‘how could i live without this before!’.

THE PROBLEM
However there is this weird thing that happens over and over again: a while after the initial discovery, i find that im not using them. That i’ve forgotten those features completely, and i’m even invaded by some sense of frustration and confusion. There is something wrong, and it’s not *just* me or whoever the end user is. How come i was excited about something that seemed to be so useful and i seem to love, but in the end i’m not using it at all? Why do i feel that i CAN’T get to use them?

INSIGHT
This is a complex and often very overlooked problem. NEW FEATURES CRASHING AGAINST YOUR HABITS.
No matter how cool or how many new features are introduced, we have an already stablished set of habits and routines for the way we work, and it’s different for everyone, at anything we do. What i can tell from my experience is that i can’t seem to be able to integrate these new features “into” my workflow, into myself… into my way of thinking. They are left out by the way i’m already used to work. I assume i know how to do something, and that task “x” is done in “x” manner, but honestly don’t know at all if it could be more easily done in any other way. And worst of all, sometimes i don’t even recognize what my limitations are and in the end of my session of work, i come out stressed and i blame the program for being not so efficient. So no matter how many tools i have, i tend to so solve everything with the ones i’m used to using. Those are generally the first ones you’ve had contact with. You see the problem then? New features are left out.

SOLUTION
So the solution i’m in need of is a re-training. Not like “a deep re-training”. I just need someone to “show me” easily (i need to see it done and in context) how to make the best use of a new tool or feature; see when, where, under what situation it will serve me the best instead of doing things in an clunky old way i don’t even know im’ doing things. As stated before, no matter how obvious it may seem for new users, i’m an ‘old’ user of Sibelius, not anymore alert to re-thinking because “i’m already on rails”.

DIFFERENCES
You may say that there are video tutorials and a looong bible included but they just don’t cover this. They say ‘this does this’, and after staring at those video and saying ‘aha, ok’ i just disregard it because i can’t find or elaborate the “better than” or “instead of” sense of it. Speaking for what i think are many, we need a wider, more comprehensive panorama of situations where every new feature for each version of Sibelius will make my work easier and more efficient replacing old methods; stuff that i don’t even notice i do. Otherwise, you know, i’ll unconciously keep doing things already cimented in my customes.

IMPLEMENTATION
I suggest video tutorials. So long of a text for that? well, sadly yes. seemingly. Not necessarily long videos, but just showing a broad ‘number of scenarios’ and the ‘advantages’ of using a feature in each case. It is also extremely important to find how, where and when the videos would be presented to the user. In the website? Of course. But then when the user is alone with it’s music in front of it’s computer working… it needs to be at hand. It needs to be inviting. It needs to be suggested. It needs to be encouraged. All that so that the user INCORPORATES, ABSORBS what is new.

These subtle details are what the whole long text was for.

OTHER IMPLICATIONS
As years and versions go by, users don’t or barely PERCEIVE the differences between versions and feel they are in the end “all the same”, so they decide they WON’T UPGRADE (and the decisins is quicker when taking price into consideration – not that Sibelius is the most accessible software out there) because they are already fine with what they have. So it also translates into other areas. Painful ones . Hasn’t it happened to you? that you’ve been through many years and versions of a program, and despite knowing it’s much better than it’s predecessors you feel they end up being almost the same?

The very same solution would apply for Finale MIGRATORS. They would stop thinking Finale, and start thinking Sibelius (sounds catchy eh!). You know they would “try to find Finale inside Sibelius” because that’s what they are used to. -but!- Migration disorientation solved.

Hope it’s been a very useful read for everyone, even if in a weird english.

Best Regards,
thartist

But the magnetic input / staves thing looks INCREDIBLE, especially where it lets you write stuff in the middle of a crescendo. I am really excited to never have to futz with placement, and just watch everything lock into place. wow

Joey O.
Director Of Music Services:
Pageantry Arts Division
Fast Forward Productions

You can submit feature requests and bug reports via the forum on the main Sibelius web site, or you can simply email me: prioritising feature requests and triaging bug reports is one of my key responsibilities.

As for improving the fluidity of input, I agree: I think that Sibelius is a great musical typewriter, but not yet a great musical word processor, and that’s something I want to see us improve further in future versions.