Sometimes the composer or editor prefers to use the words crescendo or its abbreviation, cresc., instead of the \< style of crescendo. In LilyPond these are handled by the same source-file notation (\< to start and \! to end explicitly). However, if you want to use text and a "spanner" (dotted or dashed line, for example) instead of the < sign, you need to tell LilyPond. This can be accomplished with the following command: \crescTextCresc.

After changing to this style of crescendo, you can revert to the standard < style with the following command: \crescHairpin.

The \dimTextDim and \dimHairpin commands do the same for a diminuendo.