usability

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rockacello
Posts: 4
Joined: Tue Mar 12, 2019 8:50 pm
Finale Version: 2014d
Operating System: Windows

Post by rockacello » Tue Mar 12, 2019 9:08 pm

I'm coming to Finale very recently, after using MuseScore for a while. You can accuse me of simple beginner's blues, but I find the Finale usability to be very poorly designed. Everything is SO HARD; things are buried in menus rather than up front in the default interface. I had to consult the manual to carry out a simple copy/paste starting half way into a measure: Finale insisted on pasting into beat 1, not beat 3 where I'd already selected the existing rest.

Maybe the following is MuseScore's "fault", but I'm moving arrangements from MuseScore into Finale, and initially the export/import process seemed easy and smooth. No luck, tho, because I noticed in Finale that notes would display nicely in Scroll view and then become hopelessly squashed in Page view; nothing I tried in Finale would expand the Page View note spacing.

Another glitch in that process is that Finale would get hopelessly confused as to the specified tempo of the imported material, and would playback at glacially slow tempi.

I really dislike the way Finale gets set somehow on a certain measure number, say measure 12, and then when I use the Hand Grabber tool to move earlier than M12, and the interface won't display the measures before 12 until I click into Measure box at the bottom of the screen and type in 1. There can't be a good reason for that design decision.

Why is it so tricky to simply stop a Playback!? If you start Playback by clicking the right pointing triangle in the playback box, there doesn't seem to be a simple keystroke to stop. You have to do Alt+D, O. Or use the mouse to click the square stop icon. Ridiculous. Start and Stop should be easy. (MuseScore uses Spacebar for both.)

I can tell that Finale has superior compositional and layout features and in any case is the tool being used by my composer (I'm doing some arrangements of her compositions). So please don't attack me or point out the obvious ("you're still learning, so calm down already"). I know I'll eventually get the hang of it. Thanks for letting me rant.


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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 » Tue Mar 12, 2019 10:34 pm

If you haven’t done so, please watch the videos. You will learn quite a bit.

Take it slow, and don’t try to jump in at an advanced level. Finale is a remarkably powerful and complex program, and those of us with a decade or more of experience still hit a wall occasionally. (Except for a couple of people I won’t name.)

As we say, the first 10 years are the hardest.
Finale 27 | SmartScorePro 64
Mac OS 13.2.1 Ventura
Copyist for Barbershop Harmony Society

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ebiggs1
Posts: 1424
Joined: Tue Dec 06, 2016 8:57 am
Finale Version: Finale 27.3
Operating System: Windows

Post by ebiggs1 » Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:02 pm

Any software with the extreme ability of Finale, especially compared to a limited Musescore, is going to have an extreme learning curve, also. If you don't spend time preparing by watching the vids, reading the manual/tutorials or by sitting with an experienced Finale person, the learning curve will be longer.
Ridiculous. Start and Stop should be easy. (MuseScore uses Spacebar for both.
Things like this is just a matter of unlearning Musescore and learning Finale. It will become second nature as you progress. it will get better. :D
Finale 27.4.1 - Perfect Layout Silver - Note Performer 4.4 - SmartScore Pro 64 - Windows 11
President, The Shawnee Concert Band, Composer/Arranger, retired Music Teacher.

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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 » Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:07 pm

And, just an FYI: the spacebar pauses and restarts playback in Finale, too!
Finale 27 | SmartScorePro 64
Mac OS 13.2.1 Ventura
Copyist for Barbershop Harmony Society

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