Main Contents

Welcome to the MusicPage music retrieval system.  MusicPage offers high-quality screen display and print-out of sheet music coupled with small file sizes leading to rapid internet download times.

The MusicPage menu bar has four main sections; choose the section for which you want further command details:

 File for printing files

 Go-To for moving around the MusicPage documents

 Windows for creating and arranging the windows inside MusicPage

 Help provides other routes into the MusicPage help system

This help system also has help on some  common problems.


Common Problems

MusicPage problems can arise in negotiating the Web pages, in collecting the music data over the internet once the Web-based selection has been made, or in generating the printed version of the music.

If you have a problem with the Web-based searching and purchasing mechanism, please contact the support email address shown on the Web pages.  At time of writing, the support email address for users outside North America is music@musicsales.co.uk.

Print-out problems can usually be solved by trying the options in the File Menu's  Printed Page Layout command.

Dealing with networking problems is a bit trickier and so the dialog to deal with them is not normally presented in the MusicPage menu.  To access the necessary dialog, first select  "full menu mode" from the Help Menu.  The menu bar will change to show many extra  RealPage commands.  The command you need to alter network settings is the Set-Up Menus' Start-Up Settings command.  Inside this dialog there's a button called "TCP/IP"; press this to access the  network settings dialog.

If you still have a problem with MusicPage itself, rather than with the Web front-end to MusicPage, then please refer to one of the support pages managed by CatchWord, the suppliers of MusicPage.  In North America, access:

 http://www.catchword.com/musicsupport.htm

and elsewhere, access:

 http://www.catchword.co.uk/musicsupport.htm


The File Menu

The File Menu lets you set up your printer and print individual pages or complete pieces of music.  It also has a command to define the exact page layout with which you present the printed pages.

There are therefore two configurable aspects of printing in MusicPage.  Firstly, you should select a printer using the File Menu's Set Up Printer command; this is entirely similar to the printer set up of any other Windows(tm)-based program.  More unusually, MusicPage has a Printed Page Layout command, also in the File Menu, that allows you to  define the layout of printed pages.  This command also lets you adjust the way in which MusicPage generates the page image, which may allow you to circumvent problems in certain Windows printer drivers.


The Windows Menu

Choose a Windows Menu command from the following:

 Cascade cascades all of the non-minimized MusicPage  child windows

 Tile tiles all of the non-minimized MusicPage  child windows

 Arrange Icons rearranges all of the minimized MusicPage  child windows

 Close All closes all MusicPage  child windows


Close All Windows

This command closes all of the MusicPage  child windows.  The last net connection window to close will log you out from your connected MusicPage servers, all page view windows and any error log window will simply vanish.


Arrange Icons

MusicPage  child windows current minimized (typically your net connection windows) will be arranged to lie horizontally along the bottom of the MusicPage window.  Use this command if you resize the main MusicPage window and obscure an existing minimized window.


Cascade Windows

This command arranges the non-minimized  child windows in an offset stack such that the title of each window is just visible behind its predecessor.  It's a useful command for finding windows that have been inadvertently obscured.


Tile Windows

This command has the effect of altering the sizes and locations of the non-minimized windows so that they optimally fill the parent MusicPage window.  Typically, you will have just two page view windows present and tile them so that they appear side-by-side at maximal size.


Go To Menu

The Go-To Menu provides the commands that you need to browse the on-line MusicPage pages. The commands are  First Page,  Previous Page,  Next Page, and  Last Page,


First Page

This is the first page within the current piece of music.


Previous Page

This is the page before the one you are viewing as ordered in the original piece, NOT the page you necessarily looked at before you arrived at your current page.


Next Page

This is the page after the one you're viewing as ordered in the original piece.


Last Page

This is the last page within the current piece of music.


The Help Menu

To have reached here, you must already be familiar with the MusicPage help system.  The MusicPage Help menu a command to let you enter this help system ("Contents"), a command to view the About MusicPage dialog, which includes acknowledgements, copyrights, and details on the version number you are running, plus a command to switch to  "Full Menu" mode.

MusicPage is based on  RealPage, and the extra RealPage commands in the full menu aren't normally useful to MusicPage users, so the full menu is only provided to assist in problem solving in conjunction with advice from technical support.  If you obtained MusicPage in a software package that also gave you the option of installing RealPage, then the full menu commands will be presented to you when you run RealPage.


Firewalling

Many professional establishments set up "firewalls" in their networking interface.  These are special network packet gateways that suppress the transmission of unknown packet types to minimize the possibility of rogue programs releasing secret information or viruses into the building.  You can usually circumvent MusicPage firewall problems by changing settings in the TCP/IP section of the  start-up settings dialog. You may like to ask your system manager to alter your firewall to enable access on the standard MusicPage protocol  ports, which will result in faster page access.


Web Protocol

If MusicPage can only establish a connection to the servers by using Web protocol, there's probably a  firewall problem preventing the more efficient MusicPage network protocols from reaching the servers. If possible, ask your system manager to open the firewall to reach the servers using the standard  MusicPage ports then use the  TCP/IP dialog (from the  start-up settings dialog) to revert to normal access protocols.


TCP/IP Settings

The TCP/IP dialog has a variety of options that may help you improve the network performance you experience with MusicPage.

When the MusicPage program talks to a MusicPage server, it sends packets out to a known "port number".  MusicPage servers can respond to any one of four different ports -- two unassigned ports, plus one (number 23) that's usually used for the "telnet" terminal protocol and one (number 80) that's usually used for the WWW.  Using port 23 is a good idea if your system manager has imposed a  firewall on the other ports that the dialog suggests -- it won't affect your use of any telnet program you may own.  Using port 80 and therefore  Web Protocol is a line of last resort: it's the slowest of the available protocols but in some cases may be the only one that beats your firewall.  If you usually web-surf from your computer via a proxy web server then select the web port option in the dialog and then fill in the proxy server details in the auxilliary dialog that then pops up.

The best response is obtained when MusicPage uses the "UDP" protocol, but some versions of  winsock implement UDP incorrectly and in such cases you should instead select the TCP protocol.  Also, users connected to the internet via a modem link are likely to find that UDP protocol tends to "flood" the modem with too much information and will usually obtain better performance using TCP.  As a general rule, users with direct internet connection should try UDP and revert to TCP only if it won't work with their version of winsock.  Users of modems should start with TCP protocol and perhaps try UDP if they find that the internet is the bottleneck rather than their modem.  If you have to use the WWW protocol (see above) then you'll have to use TCP.

In the case of UDP connections, it's necessary to choose the reply port number range given to the server.  Usually, reply ports number from 1024 and work upwards but if you find difficulties establishing connections then there may be a  firewall problem and you should then try a different reply port number range.  For users of TCP protocol, the reply port is left for the system to determine automatically so the values in the dialog are ignored.

The dialog also lets you adjust four work-arounds for possible faults in your implementation of  winsock.  They are:

 Use RecvFrom Call

 Suppress Duplicate Packets

 Force Asynchronous Requests

 One-Way Traffic


One-Way Traffic

This toggle is a work-around for a bug in some  winsock implementations. If you can get page data but only slowly, and complex pages take even longer than their size would indicate, then there may be a problem interleaving transmitted and received data.  The one-way traffic option tells RealPage to minimize the overlap of data in each direction.  On a correctly-working winsock, this option will actually slow down data transfer so you shouldn't enable it unless necessary. "Trumpet" versions of winsock often work better with the one-way traffic option.


Use RecvFrom Call

This toggle is a work-around for a bug in some  winsock implementations. If you can get no response from any servers, it's possible that the "recv" receive call doesn't work properly.  The alternative "recvfrom" call also present in winsock may work instead.  Generally speaking, most winsock implementations will work with either call equally well, so this option often has no perceptible effect.


Suppress Duplicate Packets

RealPage servers can send more than one copy of page data when the total required data is very small; this saves time if one copy is lost on the way.  If you have a slow link to the internet, for example a modem, then this duplicated data can get in the way of more important data and packet duplication should be suppressed.


Force Asynchronous Requests

This toggle is a work-around for a bug in some  winsock implementations. If you find that you can log in but cannot obtain data, it's possible that the mechanism by which RealPage is told to request data isn't working.  By forcing requests data will be obtained, but not as optimally as with a correct winsock. Don't therefore enable this option unless necessary.  Some versions of the CompuServe internet connection winsock require this option.


Page Print Layout Settings

MusicPage can print documents at any magnification, just as it can show them onscreen at any size.  MusicPage documents are real renderings of the original page, not merely low resolution scanned bitmaps.  This means that if you have a high resolution laser printer, then the full resolution will be obtained in the print-out.  You can if you wish reduce the magnification to a point at which more than one page would fit on a single piece of printer paper; in such cases, the "tile if possible" option tells MusicPage to print more than one original page onto each printed sheet of paper. The grey background option in the print layout dialog is then a pleasing way of showing the multiple pages. The dialog's print page title option allows you to record the exact source from which the print-out was obtained.

The dialog also has options for altering the way in which MusicPage drives your printer, which may allow you to obtain successful print-outs even on printers whose driver program contains bugs; refer to the help on  printer problems.


Page Print Problems

Some Windows printer drivers have bugs in them that prevent successful page print-outs; either the resulting images will be incomplete or in the worst case the program will crash during printing.  MusicPage has two different methods for avoiding these problems, either of which you can try out using the File Menu's Printed Page Layout command.

Firstly, you can tell MusicPage to "avoid complex bitmap calls" -- this avoids problems associated with drawing diagrams and pictures by reducing the graphics drawing operations to a larger number of simpler ones.  Try this option if your diagrams or pictures look wrong or if the program crashes while printing pages with diagrams or pictures.

Secondly, you can tell MusicPage to "print as one large graphic" -- this tells MusicPage to generate in the computer's memory an exact representation of what the printer should put on the page, irrespective of the character sets stored inside the printer. Use this option if your printed characters look wrong, or if the previous alternative doesn't help on pictures.  The principal drawback with this latter option is that the amount of data sent to the printer is greatly increased, which will slow down print-out. Also, much more memory is required in your computer to achieve this method and you may have problems if your computer has modest memory resources.  If your printer driver supports more than one resolution (check the File Menus' Set Up Printer command) then the memory requirements can be reduced by lowering the resolution.  Printing as one large graphic also limits you to monochrome printing.

Lastly, you may have problems printing to certain PostScript printers with sophisticated printer drivers.  In such cases, success is usually achieved by installing a simpler PostScript driver, such as the basic Apple LaserWriter driver distributed with Windows.


Menu Mode

By default, MusicPage runs with a simple set of menu commands that facilitate the viewing and printing of sheet music.  Other commands can be accessed from the more detailed full-menu option, accessible from the simple (or "lite") menu's Help Menu commands.


The Start Up Settings Dialog

This dialog is used to define some important aspects of the MusicPage system that must be known when the program starts up.  Since these settings should only be altered with care, the dialog is not normally visible to the user.  To access the dialog, you must first switch to  full menu mode from the Help Menu.  Once in this mode, the start-up settings can be accessed from the Set-Up Menu.

There are three basic aspects covered by the dialog:

 Initial Window Sizes determine the size of the MusicPage window and its  child windows

 Initial Window Creation determines which additional windows appear at start-up

 Network Log-In determines the degree to which your log-in process is automated

The dialog also covers a few miscellaneous items, such as whether you want to use the system to author your own contributions (inapplicable for MusicPage) and whether you want set-up changes to be saved to disk automatically (if not, then you should use the Save Default Settings command in the File Menu to save your adjustments).


Initial Window Sizes

This part of the start-up settings dialog lets you decide how big the main MusicPage window is at start-up (as a percentage of your total desktop) and also how big the first, automatically-created page view window is (as a percentage of the MusicPage window).  Note that you can if you wish make the first page view window taller than the MusicPage window, in which case MusicPage will provide you with a vertical scroll bar to move the page view window within the parent MusicPage window.


Initially-Created Windows

The start-up setting options include whether you choose to make an error log window at start-up, and also whether it appears minimized or not.  You can also at start-up make a news window (this will appear with the latest news from the MusicPage file servers).  When you enable this option, MusicPage asks you whether you want the same news to appear twice: you should answer Yes if more than one person uses this computer, so that everyone gets a chance to read the news.  Lastly, you can choose to receive a tip from Professor MusicPage (of varying quality) every time you start up the program.


Start-Up Network Configuration

In order for MusicPage to run, it needs to know the  ip address of your computer. If your installation is such that this address never changes, then you can tell MusicPage to save the address in the default settings file; this will speed up start-up.  If your symbolic IP name never changes but your address does (that is, you have a dynamic IP address allocated) then you can tell MusicPage just to save the internet name and not the number; this provides a partial speed-up.

The dialog also has spaces to define your initial username and password.  This is a  RealPage feature that you won;t need for MusicPage, which instead clears purchases at the Web interface.

An important decision is whether you want MusicPage to log in automatically at start-up. Clearing the "use log in dialog" check-box tells MusicPage that you don't want to see the dialog at all, so instead MusicPage just logs in immediately.  If you leave clear the "use log in dialog" checkbox, the "auto server scan" checkbox becomes important, since it tells MusicPage whether to scan for servers each time it starts up.  Generally speaking, you'll find that just one of the MusicPage servers consistently gives you the best service and so repeatedly rescanning every time you run MusicPage won't be necessary.  If you've installed both MusicPage and RealPage, then the "ask for network" option may be useful: enabling this option lets you select what material you're interested in at start-up but doesn't use the entire log-in dialog.

The initial number of network connections, that is, the number of net server connection windows that MusicPage generates at start-up, is also configurable.  If you make too many net windows then you're likely to run out of Windows  winsock sockets (in which case the windows will create but won't connect).  Too few, and you won't be able to upload multiple pages or multiple parts of pages simultaneously.

If the cursor icon changes at any time to a picture of a clock and a double-headed arrow, then MusicPage has run out of net connections and needs one badly.  At such moments, you can either make another net window, usually by duplicating a connected one, or stand back until the problem clears.  Don't try to issue a command (such as changing to a new page) which would make the problem worse.

Other network start-up considerations include news bulletins and the infamous Prof. MusicPage. If you enable the news check-box, then you'll get a dialog at start-up containing short news bulletins whenever we have something new to tell you.  If you enable the "start-up tip" option, then Prof. MusicPage will pop up every time you run the program and give you a handy hint on improving your use of the MusicPage system.


Child Window

The MusicPage program has a number of sub-windows within it; these may show document pages ("page view windows"), they may provide access to the internet ("net server connection windows") or they may list a log of the most recent errors ("Error log windows").  All of these windows come under the general category of "child windows"; the main MusicPage window with its menu, tool bar and status bar is the "parent window".


The Winsock Interface

The "winsock" interface is the Windows(tm) version of the industry-standard "sockets" networking interface first implemented on BSD UNIX systems.  Winsock is provided on your computer as the file WINSOCK.DLL, usually found either in your network programs directory (eg. \NET\BIN) or in your windows directories (eg. \WINDOWS or \WINDOWS\SYSTEM). There are many versions of WINSOCK.DLL from many suppliers, and MusicPage works fine on the current versions from all the major suppliers.  If you have a problem getting MusicPage to work, there may be a bug in your winsock; refer to the  problem-solving section for instructions on working around such bugs.


MusicPage Ports

MusicPage works best if your  firewall permits transmission of packets (TCP or better still UDP) on ports 667 or 39682.  As a fall-back, using port 23 is okay, and lastly MusicPage will resort to using the WWW port 80.  If you want to open your filewall to the MusicPage ports but only for access to designated MusicPage servers, then you can always obtain an up-to-date list of MusicPage server IP addresses by inspecting the top of the readable RealPage.ini file (found in the Windows directory or, if not, in the directory from which MusicPage executes).


IP Addresses and Net Masks

An IP address has four parts to it, each part being a number from 0 to 255 inclusive.  Every computer connected to the internet has a unique IP address.


RealPage

RealPage(tm) is a complete internet document browsing system program that connects to a world-wide network of custom servers.  These servers hold formatted data for a variety of subject fields, one of which is of course the music that you obtain in MusicPage.  For more details on RealPage refer to http://www.catchword.co.uk/.

MusicPage is based on RealPage and is also distributed free of charge under the same terms. For details on how to download the latest version of MusicPage, refer to http://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/.