learning sibelius

Hello
I'm going to be able to use some computers with sibelius 4. I have never even opened the program sibelius, but I have used finale in the past.
I'm afraid that I wont have access to the owner's manual. Is the in-software help files really helpful? Or are there other free resources that work better to learn the program, keyboard shortcuts, and all?

You should be alright with the in-program help files.

one thing that took me awhile to figure out is how to play on the midi keyboard (audibly) but yet not record in the notes I was playing.
The way I made this happen was by toggling off the note input, selecting more than one measure (holding down shift) then clicking off the selection.
There's got to be a faster way, right?

well, you click in the staff (doesn't matter where) you want to come out of the midi keyboard, then you either click away or press escape until the mouse pointer is normal (usually just once), and everything'll be fine.

just on a side note, i LOVE flexi-time input :]. finale's hyper-something-or-other was more detrimental to speed than helpful. thank goodness my music teacher introduced me to sibelius

just on a side note, i LOVE flexi-time input :]. finale's hyper-something-or-other was more detrimental to speed than helpful. thank goodness my music teacher introduced me to sibelius

It might be that your piano chops have improved. HyperScribe in Finale and Flexi-time input in Sibelius deliver similar accuracy. Neither is the best that's available (try some of MOTU's software), but both can do suitably well with relatively simple rhythms.