Finale Forum

Hi forum,

Is there a feature that allows me to swap (filtered?) content of two staves quickly? Like a window that lets me select two staves and then exchange the content?

Thanks

Jari's JW Staff Polyphony plugin can do it in one click.

Zuill

JW Staff Polyphony, definitely. If the 2 staves are contiguous, 1 click.
As far as I know, Finale cannot select 2 staves that are not contiguous. In this case, the plug-in swaps the top and the bottom staff of the selection.
Things get a bit more complicated, and in this case you could use a temporary additional staff to duplicate the contents of the first staff before replacing the contents of the first staff by the contents of the second. Finally, copy the contents of the temporary staff and paste it into the second staff.

I think an easier way might be to create a new Linked part with just the 2 staves needing swapping. In the linked part, they are now contiguous. Do the swap in the linked part. Then, back in the score, they are now swapped, avoiding, I think, too much extra work.

Zuill

Great idea, zuill !

Easy:

1) Select one of the staves. Press Ctrl-C,which will put in on the clipboard.

2) Select the other staff. Copy it to the first one with ctrl-click, which will leave the clipboard alone.

3) With the second staff still selected, press Ctrl-V, which will paste the original first staff from the clipboard.

I think this is even easier than opening up the JW plug-in and locating the proper section.

Thanks, motet, a good reminder.

This also has the advantage of employing the filter if desired, which I think apkyburz requested.

I always swap staves in that way.

The instructions by motet are for Windows.

Here comes “the Mac version”:

1) Select one of the staves. Press Cmd-C, which will put the selected on the Clipboard.

2) Select the other staff. Copy it to the first one with Option-click, which will leave the Clipboard alone.

3) With the second staff still selected, press Cmd-V, which will paste the original first staff from the Clipboard.

By The Way:
Unless I am mistaken, the Ctrl-Click (Option-click) copying trick was added to Finale in version 2006.

There's a JW Lua script that does exactly what you're looking for:

http://jwmusic.nu/jwplugins/wiki/doku.p ... wap_staves

Cool. Top and bottom staves is a clever way to get around the non-contiguous problem. Do CopyMusic() and PasteMusic() employ the filter?

Edit: From the comment, it sounds like not.

motet wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 23, 2019 7:22 pm

Top and bottom staves is a clever way to get around the non-contiguous problem.

Unless I miss something, it looks like the JW Lua script has the same limitations as the JW Staff polyphony plugin (top & bottom staves are not contiguous if there are more than 2 staves). But anyway, we have several solutions.

michelp wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 23, 2019 10:53 pm

motet wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 23, 2019 7:22 pm

Top and bottom staves is a clever way to get around the non-contiguous problem.

Unless I miss something, it looks like the JW Lua script has the same limitations as the JW Staff polyphony plugin (top & bottom staves are not contiguous if there are more than 2 staves). But anyway, we have several solutions.

What do you mean by "non-contiguous" in this case?

You are right. Swapping 1-2, 1-3, 2-3 is always 1 click. The script and the plug-in function the same way.

You're right--JW Staff Polyphony swaps top and bottom selected staves as well, so the two you want to swap need not be contiguous (I didn't read carefully above).

But the copy-and-paste method seems not only easier (no plug-in to find, open, and navigate), but it uses the filter if desired. I guess if you were doing a bunch of swaps in a row, the plug-in might be better.

If you're looking to use the JW Lua script and combine it with a keyboard shortcut, I just realized I made a video about it a while back.

https://youtu.be/muqHt_X2oFY

This will allow you to:
- swap staves instantly
- use a keyboard shortcut
- avoid opening up a plugin every time
- avoid using extra staves

Thank you everyone for the competent answers.

@motet: particularly good answer, sometimes we can't see the forest for the trees; thanks.