I don't know exactly what music analysis is. But I can probably help you with Inkscape.
I print to PDF and then open with Inkscape. When I do this, objects get grouped in odd ways.
Often in a file format conversion (PDF to SVG here) objects are grouped. I also don't understand how Inkscape chooses which things to group. And often the most frustrating part is that there are tons of Groups of 1. And if there have been a few conversions, they can be nested groups of 1. There is an extension to ungroup a whole file at once:
https://github.com/cw/inkscape-ungroup-deep (Let us know if you need instructions for installing an extension.)
Sometimes I'm not able to break the groups.
Be sure to use the Selection tool for ungrouping. If you use the Node tool and you happen to select one path out of a group, you can't ungroup it by clicking Ungroup. You have to have a whole group selected before it can be ungrouped. Using the Selection tool, you can only select whole groups. (Well, with key shortcuts, you can select individual parts of a group. But for this problem, don't use key shortcuts.)
Or possibly what you have selected might not be a group at all. Use the Selection tool to select, and check the status bar to find out what kind of object it is. You might have selected part of a compound path. In that case, you'd need to use Path menu > Break Apart. Although that can get real tricky, real fast. But let us know if you need to use that, and we can give you some tips to make it easier.
Or possibly you've selected a clone? Or even part of a symbol? Check the status bar while using Selection tool
to learn what kind of object it is.
some characters in some symbol fonts don't display.
You mean they don't display in the PDF, or in Inkscape?
If you don't have the font installed on the computer, you won't be able to see the font at all. And if that symbol doesn't exist in the font which your computer sustitutes, then it can't be displayed.
Word doesn't display most of the fonts
I'm not sure how Word handles fonts. I would assume if the font is installed on the computer, Word could use it. But I don't really know. If the following info doesn't help, I guess you could look up some support for Word somewhere.
Try converting the text to path, before you save the file in Inkscape. There are a couple of different ways to do it, and it depends on your needs exactly how you do it. If you select all the text at once, Path menu > Union will convert all the text to path, but it will end up being a single object (a compound path). So if you need the texts to be separate objects, you could still use Union, but you'd need to select the text separately.
The other way to do it might take a lot more time, again, depending on your needs. Path menu > Object to Path, might be fine, just by itself. You'll end up with groups, so it depends on if you want the text grouped, and how you want it grouped. Just experiment, and I'm sure you can figure it out.
Converting the text to path might solve the problem of certain symbols not showing up, too.
This takes a long time because I have to do fill for some things and stroke for others.
You could use either the Find dialog (Edit menu) or Edit menu > Select Same, to be able to select everything that's a gray stroke or gray fill. I'm guessing that Select Same will be easier than Find.
