Finale Forum

Hi,
I'm selecting the handles on objects and moving them around with my arrow keys so that I can be accurate and consistent (as opposed to dragging around with my mouse). Is there a shortcut for moving by ten pixels or increasing the distance of the arrow key moves? In photoshop you can:

Arrow key: Move a layer by one pixel or
Arrow key + Shift: Move a layer by ten pixels

,,, is there something similar to that for Finale? I know I can use guides and drag quickly longer distances... but I'd rather not.

I'm doing this with staffs and expressions specifically.

Thanks for your help!

Very unlikely such a feature exists in Finale, but take a gander at the Metatools section in the manual. When my OCPD trait gets the better of me, I find myself using screen calipers to space some things for symmetry, even while knowing Finale moves them as a result of editing or simply saving, closing and re-opening the document. Look in "Edit" section of preferences (Program Options), where you could temporarily change the value of "Arrow Keys Nudge By...".

>take a gander at the Metatools section in the manual

A metatool is a shortcut for selecting an item, such as an expression, articulation, or clef, from a menu, and is not going to provide a method for nudging with the arrow keys.

You could probably, with a macro program, write a macro that sends 10 arrow keys.

Right-click on an expression's handle and pick "Edit Expression Assignment." There you'll find horizontal and vertical offsets you can apply, if that helps.