Finale Forum

Windows 7 Finale 2014.5

I've hidden staves in my full orchestral score, but on some pages the program isn't going funky when I try to adjust space between staves: I'm trying to move my bass trombone stave up a bit, and I select either the entire stave (for that page) or just one measure with the Staff stool. Then when I try to drag the box at the top of the stave, the highlight jumps up to my combined horn staff and adjusts that instead.

What happens if you click on the bass trombone staff with the Staff Tool (one measure highlighted) and use the up arrow key to nudge the staff?

It sounds like there is something amiss with the optimization. I would remove the hidden staves entirely from that page (select all staves > show empty staves from Staff menu) and redo (select all staves > hide empty staves from Staff menu). You're sure you're not using any Staff Styles that hide empty staves that may be conflicting?

N.

So yes, it seems to be something about the optimization. The only way to make the adjustements is to keep unhiding and re-hiding the staves. Which is horribly cumbersome and time consuming.

I'm going to post the issue to MM's support site, but any other suggestions greatly appreciated, as it can take them months to respond.

There is a bug with dragging staves when there are hidden staves in the system. ("Optimization" is a thing of the past.)

However, hightlighting a measure or region and using Respace Staves to set a value (relative or absolute) works.

Buontempi, can you give more detail?

E.g. my top violin line in one system is now squashed in to the vocal line, although it is generally placed 1.3" from the bottom of the vocal line. I've tried highlighting one measure of the specific stave, or the entire stave on that system, and gone Respace Staves -> Select -> Chosen the stave in question -> typed in the height I want... and nothing.

Can you load the document, or a screenshot? The Violin 1 is below the vocal line? Are there hidden stave between them?

Document too big to load, but in this one instance, yes there are hidden staves above it. But the same thing happens when I try to adjust the bass trombone, which is below the tenor trombone, and neither stave is hidden, so this problem happens in all situations.

Pic of the system in question attached.

But here's the weird / frustrating / puzzling thing: I've just gone back in to the document after three days to check out some other suggestions... and now the adjustments are happening. I haven't changed anything in three days when the problem was occurring, so I've no idea why the situation has changed. Any suggestions?

I'd suggest if this happens again, simply quit Finale and restart to see if that gets things back on track. If the problem is more inconsistent, I'd trash the Preferences and generate a new set.

Have you contacted Make Music? It might be interesting to see what their advice might be, if any.

N.

I have contacted MM, but they're also stumped...

N, stupid question: where would I find the Preferences file stored?

You might try reproducing the problem with a small file of empty staves. If you can do that, then that can be submitted to MakeMusic and also uploaded here for others to experiment with. I don't think MakeMusic will track down a problem from a description.

ewindels wrote:N, stupid question: where would I find the Preferences file stored?

According to your forum user Profile you are using Windows.

However, I can not see, what Windows version you are using.

Here is a shot in the dark (it may be different in your version):

1. Go to C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\MakeMusic\Finale
The AppData directory is hidden by default, so you will have to set the option to display hidden files before you can see it in the Explorer.
2. Look for the "FINMIDI.ini" and "Finale.ini" files
3. Drag them to your desktop
4. Restart Finale and you will be set to go.

It says he's using Finale 25.2, so there must be a "reset preferences" button, though your way is recoverable if that doesn't solve the problem.

If you look up at the original post, I clarify that I'm on Windows 7 and using 2014.5. I gave up on 25 during the document corruption issue earlier this year, which I don't believe was ever solved, or at least I was not notified and am not eager to test my luck with it again. How do I change the version of the program in my profile?

Go to User Control Panel and find it. Peter's instructions should be correct, then.

Deleting the two files seems to have done it. Thanks, team.

What I and others here do is, once you've set the preferences they way you want, make copies of those files to keep. That way, if you run into another of Finale's bugs involving those files, you can just copy those good copies in and still retain your preferences.