Upgrading from Songwriter2012 to full Finale

Discuss Finale Songwriter here.

Moderators: Peter Thomsen, miker

Careh
Posts: 3
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 10:21 pm
Finale Version: Songwriter2012 PC
Operating System: Mac

Post by Careh » Sat Sep 28, 2013 10:33 pm

I am a church musician using Songwriter 2012 for Windows, and I absolutely love the software, but I did run into a problem with the 8 staff limitation. (I was writing for SATB plus pipe organ and strings and ran out of staves.) Would it be in my best interest to go to the full version of Finale? Are there more instruments or any other advantages? I do love Songwriter. Thanks! Carolyn


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Peter Thomsen
Posts: 6602
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:47 pm
Finale Version: Finale v27.4
Operating System: Mac

Post by Peter Thomsen » Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:55 am

Basically, all the smaller Finale siblings (NotePad, SongWriter, PrintMusic) are just the full Finale with some of Finale's features removed.
This also means that SongWriter 2012 uses the same .mus file format as the full Finale 2012.

With the full Finale you will find it very difficult to find a layout that Finale can't do.
I believe that the full Finale can satisfy all your layout needs.
Some, very special layouts may be time consuming to create, but they are definitely possible in Finale.

If you find the full Finale too costly, consider the smaller sibling PrintMusic.
It may have enough layout options for your needs.

If you buy PrintMusic, and later decide to upgrade to the full Finale, you will not have wasted your money, since you can get an upgrade offer.
You also will not have wasted your time by learning PrintMusic, since what you have learned, can also be used in the full Finale.

However, the latest version of PrintMusic is based on Finale 2011.
And the Finale .mus file format is not downwards compatible.
This means that an earlier year version can not open a .mus document created in a later year version.
PrintMusic 2011 can not open .mus documents created in SongWriter 2012.

The .mus file format is upwards compatible.
NotePad 2012, SongWriter 2012 and Finale 2012 can open all documents created earlier versions.

If you buy PrintMusic 2011, and want to edit one of your SongWriter 2012 documents, then you will have to open the document in SongWriter 2012, and from SongWriter export it as a MusicXML file.
PrintMusic 2011 can import the MusicXML file.
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

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