Most items in StaffPad can be easily deleted with the eraser. The method of using the eraser will depend on the type of pen you are using (see Using the pen).
For Windows, most pens have an eraser tip on the back of the pen. Flip the pen over and erase. If your pen doesn’t have an eraser, you can make a virtual one appear in StaffPad. From the Home screen, tap the Settings icon, and switch Eraser icon on.
For Apple Pencil, just push down a bit harder to erase elements. No toggles or buttons are required - just a small bit of extra force will trigger the erase mode. You don't need to keep pressure on all the time, just an initial activate force is required. Once you get used to this, it's by far the quickest way to erase. If you have an Apple Pencil 2, you can also assign the double-tap gesture (whereby you double tap the side of the Pencil 2 itself) to toggle the eraser. To enable this, set the "Show Eraser in Toolbar" option to ON, and ensure that the "Double tap Pencil 2 to lasso select" option is OFF. This will assign the double tap gesture to toggling the Eraser on/off.
You have a fine degree of control when erasing elements by simply tapping on an element with the eraser. You can also erase large sections at a time by drawing or scrubbing your eraser over entire sections of material. Try it!
Here are some things that can be deleted:
Notes and rests: It’s obvious enough that tapping on a note or with the eraser will delete it. When you delete a note, any of its attendant articulations, augmentation dots, slurs, ties and text are deleted as well. Augmentation dots on notes or rests can be erased separately from a note if you wish, turning a dotted half note into a half note, for instance. In chords, you can delete one note while leaving other notes in the chord intact.
Ties and slurs can be erased individually without affecting the rest of the music.
Accidentals can be erased individually, leaving the note intact in the score.
Articulations can be erased individually, and if you have multiple articulations on a note, you can delete one while leaving the others (you may wish to zoom in for precise erasing of this nature).
Tuplets can be easily deleted without deleting the notes to which they belong; keep in mind that this will likely cause a bar to become overfilled as a result.
Beams can be erased as follows, allowing for some sophisticated notation:
- When a single beam connects two notes, erasing the beam will turn the notes into flagged notes;
- When a single beam connects more than two notes, erasing the beam will separate the beamed notes into two groups (if a single note remains, it will become flagged);
- When more than one beam connects notes, erasing the outermost beam will separate the beamed notes into two groups (if a single note remains, it will become flagged);
- When more than one beam connects notes, erasing the innermost beam will break the innermost beam (secondary beam) only, leaving the other beam(s) intact.It is therefore possible, for example, to turn beamed sixteenth notes into eighth notes by simply deleting the secondary beams.
Flags can be erased, effectively turning eighth notes into quarter notes, for example.
Unrecognized strokes can be easily erased (see Pending bars), as can any stroke in an Active bar that StaffPad has not yet recognized.
Drawings can be erased, but only while drawing mode is active.
Text and symbols can all be erased.
Pedal retakes can be erased.
Bar repeats can be erased.
Repeat endings, D.C., D.S., and Coda signs can be erased.
Playback Expression and Automation can be erased and set to a mid level.