Finale Forum

Is it possible to notate the French baroque time signatures 3 and 2 (single numeral placed in vertical centre of the stave)? If so, how is it done?

Florio



Finale 2012c
Windows 7 Home Premium

Document menu > Document Options > Time Signatures

For the Top Symbol, set the Vertical Adjustment to -6pt.
This step will position the “numerator” in the vertical centre of the staff.

For the Bottom Symbol, set the Vertical Adjustment very low, like e. g. -1000pt.
This step will position the “denominator” way below the bottom edge of the page.

Many thanks, Peter.

Florio

Further to my original post, Peter, I've just discovered that I need to use French and Italian time signatures (i.e both 3 and 3/4) in the same document (file). How can I go about this, since I've used document options to set up the French time signature? If I now change back to Italian time signatures, the French time signatures already in the document will be altered.

Florio

A solution would be to define the most common time signature appearance as default, and for the less frequent, to create an expression and force-hide the time signature in those measures (Measure tool).
If the single number is the default one, the "regular" 2 number signatures would need to be defined as expressions.

michelp wrote:If the single number is the default one, the "regular" 2 number signatures would need to be defined as expressions.

.
Yes, in this case the single number is the default. How can I define a 2 number signature as an expression? I know how to insert single Maestro characters, but how do I get one above the other to use as a time signature?
Thank you.
Florio

I've managed to do it, michelp!!

Florio

Good that you found a solution.
I was thinking of 2 ways to do it :
• 2 expressions (1 for the numerator, 1 for the denominator)
• or create a shape expression combining the 2 numbers, and group them.
(Save the library if you have to deal frequently with this kind of situation).

I figured out making a French time signature as an expression on my own, making its placement definition at the 'Start of Time Signature,' left justified and -12 vertical offset.

The problem is, when I hide the functional time signature, the notes in that measure move left, overlapping my expression time signature. Other than manually altering the note positions in the first measure of each new time signature, how can I suppress that realignment of the notes?

I found a semi-solution, but it only allows for two French time signatures (replacing C [common time] and c [cut time] characters).


What to do when I need a third French signature in a document?

bachelorbob wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 31, 2023 1:34 pm

… The problem is, when I hide the functional time signature, the notes in that measure move left, overlapping my expression time signature …

Instead of hiding the “functional” time signatures I would move all the time signatures vertically down below the bottom of the page.
In that way no time signatures will print, even if they are not - technically speaking - “hidden”.

This is done in
Document Options - Time Signatures.

However, this solution will affect all the time signatures in the entire document.