Finale Forum

motet wrote:Please submit this to MM. Telling you to trash your document by running it through MusicXML seems thus irresponsible.

How does exporting via .xml "trash" a document? It doesn't. How is this somehow "irresponsible"? It isn't.

Software gets updated. Things change. That older templates are not going to be fully compatible is part of the process. At least they can be opened.

My Finale 1998 and earlier documents still open. Yes, I get orange stems but they print black. Using Graphics/Export Pages they are black in .pdf files.

There are things to get worked up about with Finale (the movie window comes to mind) but I can't see how this is one of them.

MusicXML is lossy. If you read the thread, you'll see that the bug exists in V25-created documents, so blaming it on importing from a old version is unfounded.

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If I apply copy/paste. and enter Speedy on a measure in the Score, stems stay black. But when in the part, they turn orange.

Hmmm. Score and parts are fine for me. In which version of Finale did you create your test document. Mine was F2007.

motet wrote: so blaming it on importing from a old version is unfounded.

Yea... whatever floats your boat. You would certainly benefit by learning more about it before telling others that they are incorrect. Dolet 5, released 2010(?) supported MusicXML 2 and the plugin added that functionality to Finale 2007 or 2004 depending on the platform.

MusicXML 3.1 is due to be released next month or so along with a new version of the Dolet plug-in and Finale 25 update incorporating it. I was told I wouldn't be telling tales out of school if I posted this as it is being discussed elsewhere. It would surprise me if the next update to Dolet goes back to Finale 2007.

My understanding is that MM told michelp to export and then import both from Finale V25, not from Finale 2007, so you may be laboring under a misunderstanding. Perhaps he can clear it up.

But again, if you read this thread carefully, it looks to be a new bug in Finale 25--he was able to create a new Finale 25 document and cause the bug. So MusicXML, while it might get rid of the orange stems, is not germane, no matter what version of Dolet it is (exporting to and from MIDI would probably get rid of orange stems, too!). If you reread this thread carefully you see he tried MusicXML and reported

• My own libraries are absent (chord suffixes, expressions, staff styles etc...).
• Staves with zero line now have 5
• Some text blocks are missing, such as titles, some text inserts (Date, Hour...)
• Default rests are now selected. Not what I had in the original.
• All the metatools have to be recreated for each library (not a surprise)
• Page sizes are lost in Page Format
• Parts have to be redone
• Sounds have to be redefined in the ScoreManager

so I maintain it was a bit thoughtless of MM to suggest that rather than taking the bug seriously. As we've seen, a copy and paste is a much easier and less destructive solution.

Again, I think MusicXML is a great thing, but not as a catch-all work-around of bugs.

motet wrote:Again, I think MusicXML is a great thing, but not as a catch-all work-around of bugs.

I suspect that Support offer the "XML-rinse" solution as an answer to many oddities in documents, where the alternative is "just put up with it until it gets fixed."

However, if they just offered the latter, there would be much more vocal complaint. They need to prefix the suggestion with "if you really want to make this go away...." and suffix with ".. but this might introduce other issues too".

motet wrote:My understanding is that MM told michelp to export and then import both from Finale V25, not from Finale 2007, so you may be laboring under a misunderstanding. Perhaps he can clear it up.

That's correct. Originally, an older document showed the problem when opened in Finale 25. Then MM suggested the MusicXML procedure, which I applied within Finale 25.

motet wrote:But again, if you read this thread carefully, it looks to be a new bug in Finale 25--he was able to create a new Finale 25 document and cause the bug. So MusicXML, while it might get rid of the orange stems, is not germane, no matter what version of Dolet it is (exporting to and from MIDI would probably get rid of orange stems, too!). If you reread this thread carefully you see he tried MusicXML and reported

• My own libraries are absent (chord suffixes, expressions, staff styles etc...).
• Staves with zero line now have 5
• Some text blocks are missing, such as titles, some text inserts (Date, Hour...)
• Default rests are now selected. Not what I had in the original.
• All the metatools have to be recreated for each library (not a surprise)
• Page sizes are lost in Page Format
• Parts have to be redone
• Sounds have to be redefined in the ScoreManager

Correct, too. I have created a brand new document in Finale 25, and it showed the problem. I've thus reported this 3/4 days ago (Sunday) to MM support, and I am still waiting for a reply (I'll keep you posted).

motet wrote:...copy and paste is a much easier and less destructive solution.

True (thank you for that solution), with the downside that I mentioned : all edits are lost in the parts.
P.S. : I can follow your global point.

I promised to report about my exchanges with MM support. I have sent them 2 files, an old one imported into 25 and a new one made in 25.

In short, they acknowledged the orange stems problem is a bug, which they seemed to discover.
Excerpts from their replies :

"The problem is that Finale is considering these notes' stems to be unlinked from the score, but their behavior isn't in line with that...

... I went through these (files) and -- to my surprise -- I was actually able to make orange stems on a new Finale document on both of my computers here.
So what you've found is a bug in Finale that needs to be fixed.
I will write it up and submit it for our team to address...

...There will be no problem with them in the finished product -- you can print and they will print black the same as everything else....

...In the meantime, the fastest way is to correct that is to address each note individually. If you would like to get rid of the orange color, choose the Stem Direction Tool, CONTROL + click those notes and choose Relink to Score...

...It would definitely be best to avoid those steps that creates the stems to begin with, if possible. Then you wouldn't have to change them at all."


P.S. : the suggestion to re-link the orange stems one note at a time is of course not very convenient.

To get rid of colored stems go to:

The Display Colors dialog box can be accessed in two ways:

Choose Finale > Preferences and select Display Colors.
Choose View > Select Display Colors.

Turn colors OFF.

That seems like throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I'm guessing that being a first time poster, he/she didn't read through the entire discussion to see what the real need was.

Zuill