Finale Forum

It is customary to place suggested accidentals for Renaissance music above the stave ("musica ficta"). The procedure is rather tedius when frequently needed. I'm looking for a single key-stroke to do the trick. This requires automation of the following steps:

In Speedy, select the note, add a sharp (or a flat),
In Special tools / Accidental Mover Tool: Allow vertical positioning; Resize to 80%,
Move the handle to above the stave.

The easiest would be to have separate scripts for adding a sharp and for a flat, and thus separate key-strokes.

Any help would be great.

Another idea:

1) Hide the real accidental. (It will still play back correctly)

2) Add the {above staff} accidental with the Articulation Tool.
Customize the articulation’s Positioning settings so that it defaults to the needed position.
If you program a metatool for the articulation, then you can quickly add the articulation by holding down the programmed trigger key on the computer keyboard, and drag across the staff.

Instead of the Articulation Tool you can use the Expression Tool.
The metatool trick works in the same way with expressions:
Hold down the programmed trigger key, and drag across the staff.

What works best (= articulation or expression), depends on the actual demands for the Positioning.

Thanks Peter,

This will do the trick. Placing and hiding the suggested accidental (your point 1) is only required if one wants it to be played back, e.g. in a midi file. Otherwise your 2nd point suffices.

Why not create them up as articulations, with a metatool to apply them? Do it in your defaults, or save them as a library, and they will be there whenever you need them.

Miker,
I just managed to create them as articulations, same as in your attachment, but I found that they do not work in another piece. I guess that this is what you mean by saving them as a library. However, how do I do that?

To save a library of custom articulations:

Make a duplicate copy of the document containing your custom articulations.
Open the duplicate copy.
You can trash this duplicate copy when you are done.

In the duplicate copy, in the Articulation Selection, delete all articulations except the articulations you need to save in a library.

When you have deleted all the other articulations, return to the score.

File menu > Save Library…
In the dialog box Save Library, select only ‘Articulations’ *)

To load a saved library into a document:
File menu > Load Library…

But wait, here comes the really smart thing to do:
Load your new library into the template you use for creating new Finale documents.
In this template, program metatools for your custom articulations.
Save your template.
From now on, all new documents (created from the template) will have your custom articulations, with metatools and everything.



*) Assuming that all your custom articulations are of the type {font character articulation}.
If one or more of your articulations are of the type {shape articulation}, then you should also select ‘Shapes’.