Finale Forum

This is probably in the arena of first-world problems, but it is annoying, nonetheless:

Ever since switching to Finale 25, the windows for Edit Page Margins and Edit System Margins, under the Page Layout menu, open up right in the middle of the screen, and I have to move them over to the left side, where I can use them without their covering up the music.

In previous versions, they would always automatically open in the same place I last had them opened, in other words, on the left side of the screen. But now, they always open in the middle. I even just now switched between two files, and when I came back to the first file, those windows had moved back to the middle; I had just moved them over to the left. I was incredulous and thought I must be imagining it, so I tried it again, and the same thing happened.

Does anyone know a setting to have them stay put?

Thanks,

Mark

Mac 10.11.6
Finale 25

Have you saved your preferences? They stay put for me.

If you reposition these windows they should stay where you put them as long as Finale is open, in as many files as you care to open. That seems to work on my setup. I would consider trashing the preferences altogether:
https://usermanuals.finalemusic.com/Fin ... references

N.

OK I'll try trashing the preferences. But are you saying that there is a setting in Preferences that has to do with windows opening in the same position all of the time? I'm finding that this bug is associated with specific files and doesn't happen with most.

Thanks!

Mark

That is odd. Perhaps you've hit a bug that was there all along. If you post the file and instructions, I can try it with 2014.5.

I trashed the Preferences, and so far, everything is OK. I tried it out on the files that were giving me trouble, and now those windows are opening in the place I want them.

Thanks!

This keeps happening to me. I'll attach a file which I just now opened up and found the Edit Page Margins and Edit System Margins smack in the middle of the score. So I moved them to the left where I wanted them and saved the file. Then I clicked through to a different file and back to this one, and there they were, smack dab in the middle again. So I moved them over again, saved the file, and closed it. When I reopened it, they were in the middle again.

I should not have to trash my preferences every time I have this happen, should I?

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Mark

Macintosh 10.11.6
Finale 25

If this file repeatably damages the preference file, you might get them to do something about it (works OK on my system).

My suggestion would be to make a copy of a good preferences file and a script to copy it back whenever this happens. At least you wouldn't have to redo your customization every time.

It isn't just this file though, and it isn't every file, but it sure is a lot of them.

mark carlson wrote:It isn't just this file though, and it isn't every file, but it sure is a lot of them.

That's very weird, because as far as I know, the window position isn't document-specific: it's an app setting. So a document shouldn't be able to affect it.

I suggest that something is resetting the window position when the file are opened, but why that should happen, and why that should happen occasionally, I haven't a clue.

Did you delete both com.makemusic.finale.plist and com.makemusic.finale.fprf ??

BuonTempi wrote:

mark carlson wrote:It isn't just this file though, and it isn't every file, but it sure is a lot of them.

That's very weird, because as far as I know, the window position isn't document-specific: it's an app setting. So a document shouldn't be able to affect it.

I suggest that something is resetting the window position when the file are opened, but why that should happen, and why that should happen occasionally, I haven't a clue.

Did you delete both com.makemusic.finale.plist and com.makemusic.finale.fprf ??

Hmmm No, I didn't. I followed the instructions someone else sent for trashing the preferences, done in the preferences window itself. I guess I need to do this!

Mark

I followed Buon Tempi's advice and trashed these:

com.makemusic.finale.plist and com.makemusic.finale.fprf

I also "reset all preferences" in the Preferences menu item under Finale.

And the same crap keeps happening: with certain files, the Edit System Margins and Edit Page Margins windows abruptly spring back to smack in the middle of my screen.

And, as I posted elsewhere, the Time Signature Metatools also stopped working.

This is driving me crazy, but I swear I am not imagining either of these phenomena.

Is there any way I can find a solution? Finale doesn't answer the phone anymore, so that's out of the question.

Thanks,

Mark

As I said, the time signature metatools don't work for me, either.

Can you characterize the files that have/cause the window problem?

Hi, Motet,

Did the time sig metatool used to work for you?

The files that have/cause the window problem, so far, have been songs for voice and piano.

Attached are two screenshots. One shows a song with those windows in the right place. The other, after I switched to another open file, is a song with the windows in the middle of the screen. I couldn't tell you why the two are different.

Thanks,

Mark

My apologies. I've never used time signature metatools, and I assumed they worked like the clef tool metatools--select measures and press a metatool. But, after trying Finale 2011 and 2005, I discovered I didn't know how they worked. I looked it up and discovered you need to select meaures, hold down the key, and double click--who'd a thunk it?

So yes, it works for me after all.

Looks like the key signature metatools work in a fashion similar to the time signature. I'm glad to learn this and will use them. Easy to remember: 1-7 is 1 to 7 sharps, the keys underneath those, QWERTYU, 1 to 7 flats.

This is a very odd problem. At this point, I would be looking at other factors outside of Finale itself, such as keyboard Macro software, or anything else that might be "pressing buttons" or playing with windows. (There are some Mac third-party apps that 'snap" windows to parts of the screen, for example.)

As a test, I would create a brand new user account and see if the problem can be reproduced there with these documents. If it can't, then the problem is something in your original user account -- a user-launched process, some other setting or preference. If it can, then the problem is at the system level and not at the user level. (NB: don't just migrate to a new account to fix it -- you'll probably have to do the same thing over and over!)

It's unlikely that a disk problem would cause a consistent error, but it's also worth running First Aid on your disk.

I got a response from David at Finale regarding this issue. He tested it and said that it is a bug that he has now reported, which happens only when multiple files are opened.

mark carlson wrote:I got a response from David at Finale regarding this issue. He tested it and said that it is a bug that he has now reported, which happens only when multiple files are opened.

Well, here it is a year and a half later, and this is still happening, and it happens for me EVERY time I am toggling between ANY two open files, using the Page Layout tool: the Edit System Margins and Edit Page Margins windows jump smack in the middle of the music I am trying to edit, requiring me to move them over to the left, out of the way. If I click on the Selection Tool and then click again on the Page Layout Tool, they end up in the correct place. But I really shouldn't have to do that.

I see that David at Finale acknowledged that it is a bug, but clearly it has not been fixed. The trouble is, I can't remember how I received this message from him--it's not in my emails, so it must have been something done on their site. Any advice on how to follow through on this to get it fixed, at last?

Mark