Search found 40 matches

by Christopher Smith
Tue Oct 10, 2023 3:05 pm
Forum: Playback Issues
Topic: Playback causes FINALE to crash
Replies: 3
Views: 4468

Re: Playback causes FINALE to crash

Hi Mike, I was having persistent crashing problems with Finale 27, Mac OS Ventura 13.5.2, on all files, even ones that had previously played back correctly last week. Every time I hit Play it would immediately crash. Your suggestion to Clear Selected Items > MIDI Data cleared it right up; thank you ...
by Christopher Smith
Tue Feb 16, 2021 5:02 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Uninstall Past Software?
Replies: 6
Views: 3029

Re: Uninstall Past Software?

I got a solution for Chinese characters showing in older Finale files. This is an Apple limitation on not be able to use Adobe Type 3 fonts in 64-bit mode. To be fair, Adobe Type 3 was a 1980s format. When Finale changed the way they did fonts, some older fonts broke. I removed the TimesLyrics font ...
by Christopher Smith
Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:23 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Uninstall Past Software?
Replies: 6
Views: 3029

Re: Uninstall Past Software?

Mike, can you elaborate about the Chinese lyrics? I've just had this happen to me on a folder full of files from 2009 and I'm not looking forward to re-entering all the lyrics. I don't have any older versions installed, so I can't open them there.
by Christopher Smith
Tue Mar 24, 2020 9:10 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Placement of dynamics above/below by layer
Replies: 18
Views: 7668

Re: Placement of dynamics above/below by layer

This is a bit of a kludge, and may cause problems when you re-open this file many years from now (ask me how I know!) but before our modern dynamic placement abilities, we had a way to deal with it. Create a set of dynamics as articulations, with the Articulation Tool. You can set them to normally g...
by Christopher Smith
Thu Nov 21, 2019 4:29 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Finale 26.2
Replies: 29
Views: 10788

Re: Finale 26.2

So, they're able to fix the tie-end bug in "short order" along with the grace note bug, but I've been kludging grace notes in voiced linked parts for TWELVE years now after they broke it?

I think the operating procedure is if they don't fix it IMMEDIATELY then it's going to be broken forever.
by Christopher Smith
Wed Jan 02, 2019 1:53 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Drum Set Rhythm Cues
Replies: 3
Views: 2643

Re: Drum Set Rhythm Cues

If you want cues to appear over slashes, you need to allow items in other layers to appear in the Staff Style. You seem to have done this. But this allows items in Layer 2 (your bass drum) to appear as well. So the solution is to create a bar of drums where ALL the instruments are in Layer 1. Since ...
by Christopher Smith
Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:19 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Enlarging chord symbols
Replies: 5
Views: 3060

Re: Enlarging chord symbols

The so-called "chord improvements" are just a few extra libraries that include larger suffixes. There is no guarantee that the size you want will be there. Michel P's suggestion of a no-line staff that only shows chord symbols is the best bet. You can resize that staff to any size you want without a...
by Christopher Smith
Tue Nov 20, 2018 5:33 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Can't Delete Chords
Replies: 2
Views: 2035

Re: Can't Delete Chords

I think this might be just a screen anomaly. In other words, the chords ARE deleting, but they will show onscreen anyway until you redraw. Try it out. Delete the chords using the Chord Tool, then hit command-D on Mac (probably control D on PC) to redraw the screen. Are the chords still there? I've n...
by Christopher Smith
Thu Nov 08, 2018 1:50 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Organizing beats in measures
Replies: 7
Views: 3665

Re: Organizing beats in measures

If there is no vocal staff in the bass part, then it won't be taken into account for music spacing. I am wondering if you actually executed the "space music" command? In the bass part, select the Selection Tool (shortcut is the esc. key). Select All (command A on my Mac, probably control A on a PC)....
by Christopher Smith
Mon Nov 05, 2018 1:50 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: I mean, really. A rant about chords
Replies: 9
Views: 4423

Re: I mean, really. A rant about chords

You should set your chords to "Left Align". Centre aligning doesn't matter much when the chords are simple, but the extended chords rapidly get to the point where they appear to be attached to the wrong beat. You also have the E7(b9) attached to a rest in rhythmic notation. Strictly, it should be at...
by Christopher Smith
Sat Oct 27, 2018 1:55 am
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Importing scanned score
Replies: 14
Views: 5984

Re: Importing scanned score

Wow, all these posts from people I know are smart, talented Finale users about scanning is giving me hope! Mike or John (or anyone, really!) who has success with this, is there a guide published anywhere beyond what you've shared here? I have never been able to save time at all over manual entry, ev...
by Christopher Smith
Thu Oct 25, 2018 12:05 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Moving measures
Replies: 11
Views: 4789

Re: Moving measures

Sorry to ask the obvious question, but are you sure you're in the Selection Tool when you hit the arrow? I've certainly made that mistake many times myself. It only works in the Selection Tool.
by Christopher Smith
Mon Oct 22, 2018 11:00 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: How can I control the consistency of slur contours?
Replies: 6
Views: 3276

Re: How can I control the consistency of slur contours?

I use about double the lift you have there. In EVPUs, 48 instead of 24, or .17 inches. I also like my slur ends to be a trifle thicker, 1 EVPU. This saves me from some of the worst exaggerated curves, but I still have to edit sometimes. Especially slurs on tied notes on ledger lines ending a system ...
by Christopher Smith
Mon Sep 24, 2018 12:55 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Does this Style of Double-Chord Notation Work?
Replies: 6
Views: 3885

Re: Does this Style of Double-Chord Notation Work?

I've never seen the backslash convention that Bobby Cruz mentioned. In Berklee's own course materials they use the perfectly normal horizontal slash to delineate upper-structure triads. G Fmaj7 That is hard to do in Finale, and involves kludges to get the lower part of the polychord to show chord su...
by Christopher Smith
Fri Sep 14, 2018 12:29 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: New F26 announcement
Replies: 23
Views: 7927

Re: New F26 announcement

Hey, Vaughn!


Do you know something we don't about improvements to linked parts? Or were you being sarcastic?
by Christopher Smith
Thu Sep 06, 2018 3:36 am
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Dot placement question...
Replies: 27
Views: 12905

Re: Dot placement question...

I got a reply back from David Cusick at MakeMusic. It IS related to the way Finale treats dots when Jazz is the default font, and doesn't show the bug when the default font is Maestro, as in my example file. Thanks to my friends here for examining my files and coming to a pretty savvy conclusion! He...
by Christopher Smith
Wed Sep 05, 2018 3:28 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Dot placement question...
Replies: 27
Views: 12905

Re: Dot placement question...

I have attached two almost-identical documents here. In one (a pre-2008 document), the dots are correct. In the other, a recent JazzFont Default document, the dots are wrong. I have also attached a .png file (maximum 3 attachments) in case they display differently on your machine. If I save a librar...
by Christopher Smith
Wed Sep 05, 2018 2:37 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Dot placement question...
Replies: 27
Views: 12905

Re: Dot placement question...

Hi, this has been bugging me for YEARS. I seem to remember someone (Motet? Giz Bowe?) tracked down the arcane document option that corrected this problem, but I stupidly did not keep a record of the conversation. I know it MUST be a document option, because pre-2008 files do NOT show the problem, wh...
by Christopher Smith
Mon Aug 20, 2018 12:30 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Copyable staff styles in parts
Replies: 6
Views: 3493

Re: Copyable staff styles in parts

This is a long-standing bug that has existed since linked parts were first created (version 2007). They claim to have fixed it, but they didn't, as Zuill pointed out. His fix works, but I find it a little too complex for general work. Here's what I do: Once I have finished the score, I am in the Sco...
by Christopher Smith
Mon Aug 21, 2017 10:17 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Page numbers for linked parts of multi-movement work
Replies: 2
Views: 1948

Re: Page numbers for linked parts of multi-movement work

In this particular case, I would do ALL page formatting as linked parts, then just before printing, extract the parts and adjust the page numbers in each part. Normally, I prefer to do backflips rather than extract, but if all the work except page numbers is done as a linked part, then if any edits ...
by Christopher Smith
Thu Aug 03, 2017 9:39 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Main Tool Palette jumps around, sometimes offscreen?
Replies: 2
Views: 2108

Re: Main Tool Palette jumps around, sometimes offscreen?

I had rebooted and then some, but I hadn't trashed the preferences. Thanks for the reminder; of course I should know that flaky behaviour like this is a sign of corrupted preferences. I did the procedure, then I copied my clean preferences to a labelled folder so I won't lose them all next time I ha...
by Christopher Smith
Thu Aug 03, 2017 4:58 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Main Tool Palette jumps around, sometimes offscreen?
Replies: 2
Views: 2108

Main Tool Palette jumps around, sometimes offscreen?

I just updated my version of Sierra (on Mac) to 10.12.6, the latest version, and within a couple of days updated Finale v.25 to the most recent version. I noticed some funny behaviour. My main tool palette would sometimes jump around onscreen. Sometimes it seemed to disappear, but there was an edge ...
by Christopher Smith
Sun Jun 18, 2017 1:09 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Changed Instrument Lines to always be non transposed
Replies: 11
Views: 6145

Re: Changed Instrument Lines to always be non transposed

Which is only available in 25, right, N? Which I suppose will answer which version of the program I'm doing this project in... The old-fashioned way to have octave-transposing instruments appear in their reading octave on a concert score was to use octave clefs. A treble clef with an "8" on top of ...
by Christopher Smith
Sun Jun 18, 2017 1:04 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Missing measures in linked parts
Replies: 5
Views: 3533

Re: Missing measures in linked parts

If you regenerate parts, then you lose all the formatting you've done in the parts. If you haven't touched the parts yet, this might be acceptable to you. However, the reason that cues aren't showing up is most likely because they are hidden in the multi measure rests. Simply "Create Multimeasure Re...
by Christopher Smith
Fri Jun 09, 2017 7:13 pm
Forum: General Finale Help
Topic: Scoring for orchestra - best practices
Replies: 9
Views: 5815

Re: Scoring for orchestra - best practices

It sounds like you don't know about voiced linked parts. You can have your flute 1 and 2 on the same staff in the score, and set the Flute 1 part to only use the top note when they share a stem, or use Layer 1 when there are two layers. Then set Flute 2 to use the SAME score staff, but only the bott...