Swapping A Group of Old Expressions for New Ones

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BurtGoldstein
Posts: 135
Joined: Sat Apr 15, 2023 8:32 pm
Finale Version: 27
Operating System: Mac

Post by BurtGoldstein » Mon Feb 03, 2025 9:11 pm

I am upgrading many olkd Finale files by pasting them into a new v27 template in which all my Expressions and Articulations have custom-made positions. After pasting the old document into the template, there of course will be duplicate exressions and articulations.

Is there a method to swap out all old Expressions for Template expressions?

The Template expressions:
1- have exactly the same character, ie FF for FF
2. have a much lower Expression number in the list of Expressions

I know I can delete all Expressions not in use all at once, but that is NOT what i want! I want the old expressions (which are in use) to be swapped out in favor of the Template Expressions (which are NOT in use.)

If FInale can;t do it, do you know of a Lua script that can?


User avatar
Peter Thomsen
Posts: 6759
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2003 6:47 pm
Finale Version: Finale v27.4
Operating System: Mac

Post by Peter Thomsen » Tue Feb 04, 2025 8:17 am

If I understand you correctly, you have pasted an old document into a new template - right?

In the pasted score (layout) there are some expressions from the old document - right?

Back then (when you did the document) you edited edited these (old) expressions, so that they got custom-made default positioning settings - right?

Now you need to swap these old expressions with the Template Expressions, while - in the Expression Selection window - retaining all expressions (old expressions and Template Expression) - right?

Obviously the Template Expressions may have different default positioning settings than the old expressions.
Which means that the Template Expressions may default to a different positioning.

One way to do it:

1) Make a duplicate copy of the document, and save an expression library containing only the old expressions.
Which means that you, before saving the expression library, delete from the Expression Selection all the other expressions except the expressions meant for the library.
When you have saved the library, you can delete this duplicate document.
You can - anytime - load the saved expression library into any document.

2) To swap the expressions:
In the Expression Selection, select one of the old expressions, and click the Delete button.
Finale will warn you that the old expression is in use in the layout, and offer to replace it with another expression.
Obviously you need to replace the old expression with the corresponding Template Expression.

3) When step 2) is finished, load the saved expression library - to get the old expressions back in the Expression Selection.
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

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