Staff names in Finale 2012

[csansom]

I've just recently upgraded from Finale 2010 to 2012 and have run up against something I didn't expect. In Finale 2010, once staves had been optimised (yes, I know, we hide empty staves now instead), not only could you respace them on a per-system basis - which I'm pleased to see is now the default behaviour - but unless I'm imagining it I'm sure you could rename them on a per-system basis too. I can't see a way of doing this in 2012. The alternative is to hide the staff names and use expressions, which would be a royal pain!

In case you're wondering why I might want to do this, I'm working on a large orchestral score in which the strings are divided up many different ways at different points in the piece. So while I have a first violins group labelled 'Vn I', the staves within it might be labelled with a single number where the section is divided into solo strings; or a range, e.g. '1–6' if the first six players play the same thing; or indeed no label at all if the section is playing in unison.

Any ideas about this?

[csansom]

Hmm... answering my own question, I see I can do it by means of a staff style applied to the first bar of the system (or indeed all the way across, but there's no point), but this strikes me as a clumsy way to do it, because I'm liable to end up with an awful lot of fiddly staff styles which do nothing but change the abbreviated staff name and are possibly used just once. So if there's a better alternative I'd still like to know.

[csansom]

...and a follow-up concerning group names. How can I show these or not on a per-system basis? Example: I have three oboes, the third of which doubles on cor anglais. If, say, oboes 1 and 2 are shown in a given system, then yes, I want the group name 'Ob.' and staff names '1' and '2' to be displayed. If, however, oboe 1 and the cor anglais are shown I'd prefer to have staff names 'Ob. 1' and 'C. Ang.' and no group name. Similarly, if only one of them is on the system I'd rather just have a staff name and no group name - especially if it's the cor anglais, as 'Ob. C. Ang.' would just look silly. There should at least be an option for group names similar to 'Show bracket if group contains only one staff', which you can (and I do) turn off.

Should I throw in the towel and just do all my staff and group names with expressions? Yikes! Or is there something basic I've yet to discover in the 2012 version? I certainly can't find anything in the on-line docs.

[csansom]

In the absence of any response from anyone else, here I am yet again... and it seems I was wrong in one respect. I've just set up a little test score in Finale 2010, and I can’t rename staves individually per system after all, so my apologies there - it does require a staff style, so I must have misremembered. However, I can definitely name groups separately and show the group names or not, or re-position them, system by system which, as far as I can tell so far, is impossible in 2012.

[michelp]

Here are a few suggestions among which you may find something useful :

For Staff names :
You can change a staff name several ways :
• Create several staff styles (Staff menu, Define Staff Styles, New...)
• or change an instrument mid score in the Utilities menu (new in 2012). It appears in the ScoreManager, where you can change its name.

For groups :
• Groups can be defined for the whole piece or for a region, which means that the same group can have different names during the piece (via Groups & Brackets -> Edit)
• Measure tool : double click on a measure. There is a checkbox to "Show Full Staff & Group Names" before that measure (instead of the abbreviated version)

[SweetSue]

Hello,
In Finale 2012c is there a way to display always the full staff name instead of the abbreviated name?

[michelp]

Just type the full name into the abbreviated name box.

[SweetSue]

I have a full orchestra score with 26 staves... So I was hoping there would be another way to do it.
I want to keep the possibility to be able to choose to display the full name on some systems and the abbr. one some others.

[michelp]

In this case, 2 possibilities :
1) Measure tool
In Page View, select the measure stack of the first measure of a system where you want the full name again.
Select the checkbox "Show full staff and group names".
2) create staff styles, each one with the full name in the abbreviated name.
The first solution is faster.

[SweetSue]

Thanks a lot, Michelp!
The Measure Tool method is exactly what I was looking for.
It's flexible and works perfectly.