Suzanne,I am not sure I remember right, but I seem to recall that in Finale 97 you could create a pickup measure at the beginning of the document by going to
Options menu - Document Settings - Document Options
You can also create the pickup with the Mirror Tool. Since Finale 97 was so long ago, I will only suggest that you look it up in the manual. The easiest way to find the section about the Mirror Tool is probably through the Index file:
FinIX.pdf
By clicking the hyperlinks you can navigate quickly through the manual. Note that the Mirror Tool can also create a pick up measure in the middle of a document.
By The Way: I think that the Placeholders dialog box belongs to the Mirror Tool.
Peter
