Staff Optimization?

[McQDew]

Hi everyone,

I just upgraded to Finale 2007, and am experiencing an issue with optimizing staves. I have a piano part that consists of 3 staves at the beginning of the piece, then reduces to 2 staves for the rest of the piece. Despite mutiple attempts, I can't get the extra staff to disappear. When I have Finale ask before deleting staves, I have the option to delete this extra staff, but when I click yes, the empty staff remains.

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Michelle

[at8ax]

The empty measures have to be truly empty. If you replaced the default rests with actual rests, you need to undo that. (99% of the time, that's the problem. If not this time, we'll need more information.)

[michelp]

2 more things to verify :

1) each staff, in the staff attributes window, should have the checkbox "Allow optimization" selected

2) Staff tool, staff menu :
Edit group attributes : make sure that for the piano group, "optimize normally" is selected.

[McQDew]

Hi, thanks for your replies.

I hadn't entered anything in that staff, but just to be safe, I selected all of the measures and did a "Clear All". All individually staves were already set to optimize normally, but the group was set to only optimize if all systems were empty.

The new problem is that when I edit the piano group attribute to optimize normally, that setting won't stick. I've done this several times - I change the setting, go immediately to the first system where I want the extra staff gone, do an optimization on that system, and - nothing. When I then go back into the group, the setting has reset itself to optimize only if all systems are empty. Bizarre!

I also tried redefining the group to include only the 2 staves I want to stay in the piano group. But when I try optimizing, that setting resets too and I'm back to a 3-staff group. Now what?

[michelp]

The new problem is that when I edit the piano group attribute to optimize normally, that setting won't stick. I've done this several times - I change the setting, go immediately to the first system where I want the extra staff gone, do an optimization on that system, and - nothing. When I then go back into the group, the setting has reset itself to optimize only if all systems are empty. Bizarre!

I also tried redefining the group to include only the 2 staves I want to stay in the piano group. But when I try optimizing, that setting resets too and I'm back to a 3-staff group. Now what?

I made the test, and things are OK for me. With "optimize normally" selected for the group, optimization is performed correctly, and the setting "optimize normally" is still active for the group after the optimization.

Try again, and make sure that :
1) you hit OK and not Cancel after selecting "optimize normally" for the group (the same applies to the redifinition of the staff group to 2 staves instead of 3)
2) you select the correct system(s) for optimization

[McQDew]

I'm definitely hitting "OK" and I'm definitely selecting the right systems. It seems to me that there's something seriously wrong with staff optimization in Finale 2007!

[michelp]

If you accept the idea of sending the file by email, or a fragment, I could take a look at it, no garantee, but who knows.
Use the pm button below to send me a private message.

[Peter Thomsen]

...The new problem is that when I edit the piano group attribute to optimize normally, that setting won't stick. I've done this several times - I change the setting, go immediately to the first system where I want the extra staff gone, do an optimization on that system, and - nothing. When I then go back into the group, the setting has reset itself to optimize only if all systems are empty. Bizarre!...

You should remove optimization before you change the staff group attributes.
Attempts to change group attributes in an optimized score lead to results like the results you have described.

Peter