Wierd problem with lyrics tool

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Melisande
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:09 pm
Finale Version: Finale NotePad 2012
Operating System: Windows

Post by Melisande » Mon Jan 29, 2018 1:50 am

I went ahead and added a 2nd voice to one of my staves, not for the entire piece, just in selected measures here and there. Later I went back and added back in some lyrics that got erased when I made the changes. I had no problems for the first 4 (non-consecutive) measures I did like this. However, when I tried to type the lyrics back into the the 5th measure, this is what happened:

First, I kept trying to click the text of the lyrics I wanted to edit, but for some reason I couldn't get the cursor to select/highlight that text. I tried in a different layer, but still nothing happened. I tried about 15 times because when I edited the lyrics in the other measures, Finale didn't seem to "get it" the first time, but eventually did "get it." Maybe I wasn't double-clicking on exactly the write spot or something. In any case, nothing was happening in this measure, so I gave up with the double-clicking and just started to type in text anyway to see what would happen. Well, the word I typed ended up bizarrely in the middle of the staff -- in one of the measures that did not have layers, so I don't think I can blame this snafu on the layers. I tried doing CTR-Z for erase lyrics, but nothing happened. So, now I have a strange bit of text floating in the middle of a staff with no apparent way of erasing it. Plus I still can't seem to "get into" the lyrics that are placed normally for me to edit them.

I have been saving drafts, so I can always backtrack and just do everything again. However, I will have to redo about 15 mins. worth of work (since I apparently didn't save as often as I should have).

Ideas?


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miker
Posts: 5993
Joined: Fri Mar 13, 2009 4:28 pm
Finale Version: Finale 27.4
Operating System: Mac

Post by miker » Mon Jan 29, 2018 2:10 am

I would have to see the file to be sure, but I suspect that the layers and verses have become confused. Normally, this is inadvertant user error.

If you would like us to have a look, post the file.
Finale 27 | SmartScorePro 64
Mac OS 13.2.1 Ventura
Copyist for Barbershop Harmony Society

Melisande
Posts: 36
Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 10:09 pm
Finale Version: Finale NotePad 2012
Operating System: Windows

Post by Melisande » Mon Jan 29, 2018 3:20 pm

LOL -- "inadvertant user error" -- I'm sure it was.

It turns out that I had a much more recently saved version than I thought, so I only had to re-do 2 measures. I re-did them the same way I was trying to do it last time and this time it worked. Moral of the story == don't just go and make a series of more or less random key strokes in some complicated software you are just starting to learn, or something weird and not easily fixable might happen.

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