Angled hairpins

[John Ruggero]

When I angle hairpins, the two open ends remain perpendicular to the staff lines. This gives the hairpin an off-balance appearance that I don't think I've seen in well-engraved music. Is there a setting to correct this?

Hairpins.jpg (17.32 KiB) Viewed 2861 times

[motet]

Not that I can find. I never noticed that before, but I agree it doesn't look good.

[John Ruggero]

Thanks for looking into that, Motet. I couldn't find anything either. The only workaround that occurs to me is a little masking rectangle to cover the offending area.

What seems curious to me is that programming Finale's actual hairpin behavior would seem more difficult than simply allowing the shape to rotate from the horizontal as it stands. Occasionally I have the impression that the Finale programmers never looked at actual engraved music in making a certain decision and just guessed. I've done that too; usually with incorrect results.

[zuill]

Before Smart Line hairpins, we had hairpins as shape expressions. You might try one of those and see how it behaves.

Zuill

P.S.: I just tried one and it works fine. You'd have to create a metatool for it so that each occurrence is independently adjustable.

[John Ruggero]

Thanks so much, Zuill. That would work perfectly except that I don't know how to rotate the expression after it is created so it will fit each situation; and there are many.

[zuill]

If applied via a metatool, each occurrence can be edited independently. If you create it with the multiline tool, it works. You double click the handle, then double click in the area, and you get 3 handles. One is the point where the lines meet, then you get the endpoint handles.

Zuill

[John Ruggero]

Ah, Zuill, that is the perfect solution! It works brilliantly. I didn't use the multiline tool the first time. I always forget about that one and also how to use it! This is why there must be a forum with you and the other powerful users on it! Thank you so much.