Ruler & Clock nonsense

[JeffreyET]

Hello, been using REAPER for 5 years and only now getting around to this newb issue.
I don't use the counter and the ruler display, because they are nonsense! I use the grid to snap measures, and end up counting measures manually and inserting markers to show 8 or 16 bar intervals where the counter says something useless like 5.4 and the ruler is at some location between grid lines. I tried to use the project settings correctly, toggled time and beat settings... nonsense. Only when I set the tempo to 60 bpm, the ruler lines up with the grid - BUT not at any other tempos! All I want to do is use the displays to count measures, and there has to be some basic setup step I missed. Can you help me identify it?

[JeffreyET]

Well never mind my rant... I continued fiddling and achieved a useful display

[juliansader]

Originally Posted by JeffreyET

Hello, been using REAPER for 5 years and only now getting around to this newb issue.
I don't use the counter and the ruler display, because they are nonsense! I use the grid to snap measures, and end up counting measures manually and inserting markers to show 8 or 16 bar intervals where the counter says something useless like 5.4 and the ruler is at some location between grid lines. I tried to use the project settings correctly, toggled time and beat settings... nonsense.

The ruler can display time position in various formats, each of which is useful for a different purpose.

Originally Posted by JeffreyET

Only when I set the tempo to 60 bpm, the ruler lines up with the grid - BUT not at any other tempos! All I want to do is use the displays to count measures, and there has to be some basic setup step I missed. Can you help me identify it?

Right-click on the ruler, and at the bottom of the menu you will see a list of formats from which to choose. To display only the measure numbers, select measures.beats (minimal).

[Coachz]

yup, page 440 of our fine manual
The Timeline and Ruler Context Menu