Sibelius Notation for Slightly Changed Repeat Passage

Question

I want to recreate a repeated section of music in Sibelius which I found in an online score. Here is a screenshot of the relevant bar from the repeated passage:

The passage is repeated three times, and each time, the notes change using the small notes inserted above the larger ones, as indicated by the 1,2,3 notation.

My question has 2 parts:

1. How does one create the small notes above the original - they are not parts of chords, but are clearly alternates, so simply adding them above the original and choosing small noteheads does not work - they play back as chords. They are small, and displaced to the right.
2. How does one create the small numbers, 1,2,3 which indicate to the performer which one is played on which repeat.

As ever, the problems are twofold: how to create the notation, and how to get correct playback in Sibelius.

Answer 1

I'd use 2 voltas instead. It's easy to do in Sibelius and it could be argued it's easier to read too.

Answer 2

After thinking about this and trying a few things out, I am now in the happy position of being able to answer my own question! This is what I did:

1. create all the notes I needed as conventional chords.
2. create a special note-head for my needs (called "Alternate"), starting from the standard small notehead on the notepad types panel. As well as being small, I edited it not to have a stem (this is one of the standard options for editing noteheads).
3. After selecting the relevant bar, I used the "Filter" function to select first the top note of all the chords in the bar (and later, the second note).
4. Redefine those notes to have my Alternate noteheads.
5. While still having those notes selected, I entered the Inspector and programmed it to only play the top notes on the 3rd pass and the second notes on the 2nd pass during playback.
6. While still in the Inspector, I used the variable X control (standard in the Inspector) to move the top notes well to the right and the second notes a little to the right
7. Finally, I used simple text to create the 1,2, 3 markings, and edited their size, moving them into position with the mouse.

Here is the resulting bar after printing to pdf.

It is not too far from the original I was attempting to reproduce, and it plays back as required! Thanks for your interest.

Answer 3

You may use two ossia staffs above the treble staff.

Answer 4

A follow-on to @Paul Harrison's answer:

If you want to keep the slight separation between the pairs of small notes you could put them in two different voices with slightly different x-offsets. It's a bit fiddly setting up the group, but once you've done one it responds well to copy/paste.

There's already a suitable notehead, #8 (Stemless). Set it to Cue-sized in the score.

Did you know that repeat barlines and 'Play 3 times' in Tempo Text is all you need to get a simple 3X repeat?

I must share everyone else's dislike of this notation, particularly if anyone is going to have to actually READ it, rather than just using it as an aide-memoire. Apart from anything else, the numbers will be read as fingerings - if rather impractical ones!