Staff disappeared for 1 measure - can't get it back!

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eastercoaster
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Post by eastercoaster » Mon Jan 26, 2015 2:24 am

I'm writing a song with 3 staffs (vocals, treble, bass). I can't figure out what I did, but for just a single measure, the vocal staff has disappeared (there are 3 staffs through measure 35, then the bar line stops and restarts with just the treble and bass clef for measure 36, and then the 3 staffs return again for measure 37). I thought perhaps it was a hidden staff, but if I doubleclick the vocal staff, and then click on "Edit Staff Attributes," there is no checkmark on "Hide Staff" (I clicked it on and off again, but it didn't bring back the missing staff in that one measure) I saw another entry in Finale Forum which discussed using the "Staff Attribute" function for hiding staffs, but I can't find that option, and I'm not sure if it's even a hidden staff. I've also tried to delete the measure (I've tried Delete Measure Stack), but then it simply keeps the same 2-staff structure for that measure, and pulls the content from the following measure into this one. In other words, it only deletes the CONTENT that measure; I'm not able to delete the measure STRUCTURE of having just 2 staffs for that 1 measure. Could someone help me figure out the problem? Thank you so much!
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miker
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Post by miker » Mon Jan 26, 2015 4:38 am

When you select the staff tool, is there a grey beam across the top of the missing measure space?
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eastercoaster
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Post by eastercoaster » Mon Jan 26, 2015 7:30 pm

Thanks for your reply. No, when I select the staff tool, it does NOT have a grey beam across the missing measure space (there's a grey beam on the vocal line of all the other measures, but nothing where the missing measure should be). What do you think that means?
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eastercoaster
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Post by eastercoaster » Mon Jan 26, 2015 7:40 pm

I should also mention that when I switch to Scroll View, I can see all staffs of the measure including the notes on the vocal staff. But as soon as I switch back to page view the vocal staff of that one measure disappears again.
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miker
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Post by miker » Tue Jan 27, 2015 1:02 am

If you see a gray beam, that means that a staff style has been applied. Try selecting those measures, and, in the staff menu, or in the staff tool context menu, choose Clear Staff Style...
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eastercoaster
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Post by eastercoaster » Tue Jan 27, 2015 1:43 am

I'm having trouble finding a "Clear Staff Style" option in the menu, or any menu items related to Staff Styles. How do I get to that in Finale Songwriter 2010? If I highlight the staff, then under the Staff menu the only options appear to be "New Staves; Delete Staves; Edit Staff Attributes; Clear Alternate Notation; Apply Alternate Notation; and Add Bracket." I really appreciate your help on this!
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eastercoaster
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Post by eastercoaster » Tue Jan 27, 2015 1:47 am

BTW, I've also noticed that the right of where the missing staff is, there's a strange symbol, colored blue. It looks like 2 blank staves, one on top of the other, and there's an arrow on the bottom staff pointing both up and down. I'm not able to select or click on this symbol, but I'm assuming it's related to the missing staff - is that an indication of a staff style that's been applied, or something else?
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miker
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Post by miker » Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:06 am

Ah, songwriter! That will ahbe to wait u til tomorrow, when I'm back at my computer.

Please add the program and version you are using to your signature, in the user control panel.
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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Tue Jan 27, 2015 6:00 am

eastercoaster wrote:BTW, I've also noticed that the right of where the missing staff is, there's a strange symbol, colored blue. It looks like 2 blank staves, one on top of the other, and there's an arrow on the bottom staff pointing both up and down. I'm not able to select or click on this symbol, but I'm assuming it's related to the missing staff - is that an indication of a staff style that's been applied, or something else?
What version year is your copy of SongWriter? - 2009? - 2008? - 2007? - 2006?

I have not seen the symbol you are describing, for a long time.

The symbol means that the option “Allow Individual Staff Spacing” is toggled on in that particular
staff system.
The option “Allow Individual Staff Spacing” is a page layout option.
It does not have anything to do with staff styles.

“Allow Individual Staff Spacing” also means “Allow Individual Staff Removing”.
If you can somehow manage to toggle “Allow Individual Staff Spacing” off, then the missing staff should
re-appear.
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eastercoaster
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Post by eastercoaster » Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:22 pm

I really appreciate the help from both of you. I've added my software version to my signature: it's Finale Songwriter 2010 for Windows. I'm not able to find the Allow Individual Staff Spacing option (or the Staff Styles option) as one of the options in the Staff menu. Could you help me figure out where it resides?
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eastercoaster
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Post by eastercoaster » Tue Jan 27, 2015 3:28 pm

The only option I've found so far is "Apply Music Spacing" as an option under the Edit menu. However, if I click it on, all it does is eliminate the rests that I've currently placed in the measure with the missing staff (it pulls the content from the following measure into that one). It won't actually fix the measure so that it gets the vocal staff back
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miker
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Post by miker » Tue Jan 27, 2015 4:41 pm

The setting Allow Individual Staff Spacing is in the Page Layout menu. (That's where it is on a Mac; I'm pretty sure it's in the same place in windows.)

We might need to see the file. In order to post a file on this forum, it must be compressed (zipped) and the total size must be under 100KB.
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eastercoaster
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Post by eastercoaster » Tue Jan 27, 2015 6:24 pm

Yes, that worked! In Page Layout, I unclicked the "Allow Individual Staff Spacing" option and the vocal staff came back - thank you so much!

However, that one measure won't join up again with the rest of the bar. It has its own clefs, time signature, and right now it's hanging way past the margin on the right of the page. I can't find a way to simply adjust the right margin of that measure to fit within the page. I'm able to move that whole measure stack elsewhere on the page, but that's not what I want to do. I'm sure there's some setting still on that I'm not aware of. Could you tell me what that might be - e.g. what's keeping this measure separate from the rest of the score?
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miker
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Post by miker » Tue Jan 27, 2015 6:50 pm

I think we'd really need to see it.

If you don't want to post it, you can email it to wawoodman at aol dot com, and I'll have a look.
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eastercoaster
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Post by eastercoaster » Tue Jan 27, 2015 9:32 pm

I just emailed it to you. Thanks for taking a look!
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eastercoaster
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Post by eastercoaster » Wed Jan 28, 2015 1:21 am

In case anyone else reads this with a similar problem, here's how Mike helped fix it:
1. Select Page Layout view
2. Select the measure that was standing off on its own
3. Pull the measure to the next line (to create a new bar)
4. Fix the margins of the lines by dragging to the right edge of the page

Thanks so much Mike! This problem was plaguing me for days, and I'm so happy to have it fixed!
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