I was rooting around old threads and the only one I really found about sibelius was upgrading from 2-4 and someone making a joke about there perhaps being a Sib. 5 coming out. Well its been out for a while now, I was wondering if anybody had used it and if it has any useful features that Sibelius 4 doesn't. I use it alot for arranging music for small ensembles (much easier than finale!)

That's what I thought. I only really use it for arranging hymns for the church praise band so 4 is really all I need I guess for that. From the blurb that I read about it, all I can see is this new 'idea bank' which looks to be of no use to me just now.
Another one which I thought about was Sibelius instruments, it was on special offer to instrumental teachers a couple of months ago I think, or at least, a voucher came in with my copy of the last Libretto from the AB but thought it was probably a very abridged version of the full package. I've tried Aurelia, which I think is very good, great for aural activities, which is pretty much what it was made for I guess. I found the tuning exercises very beneficial.

My Sibelius 5 upgrade arived today I'm probably going to insatll later today.

The new features porbably appeal to more tech people. Sibelius 5 comes with its own sample library now (good if you don't already have one) but the real power is being able to use any VST. So you have the world's most powerful plugins available if you own them.

Other than that the idea bank looks ok but to be honest I doubt I'll find a use for it. I'll feedback my findings once I install

Pardon the [slight] pun but that's music to my ears! The one thing that's always let me down about Sibelius is the lack of VST compatibility. I'd heard about the idea bank but didn't know about this - that'll be great