finally upgraded to 25 and it still has annoying tab bug!

[jzucker]

This one has been around for probably 10 years.

If I set the filter for articulations/markings only and drag a treble staff over to a tab staff, it changes the fingers and not just the markings. Attached are the markings i'm using. Same thing happens if I copy/paste. Note - i *DO* have the "use filter" checked.

It shouldn't even be prompting for lowest fret either if you are not copying notes.

Also, i reported this bug in 2014.5, it's been around for years and makemusic guys denied reproducing it before. I can only hope after the big sales spiel about 25 that they will finally address this.

finalebug.png (26.39 KiB) Viewed 6957 times

[Peter Thomsen]

… If I set the filter for articulations/markings only and drag a treble staff over to a tab staff, it changes the fingers and not just the markings …

If I understand you correctly, you have a treble clef staff and a TAB staff, right?

In the treble staff you have added some fingerings (= articulations) to the notes, and there are also some markings, right?

When you set the Copy Filter to to Articulations/Markings only, and drag the treble staff over to the TAB staff, then Finale changes changes both the fingerings and the markings, right?

I am unable to reproduce this behaviour.
For me, Finale behaves as it should:
When it is copying from a treble staff to a TAB staff, Finale changes neither the fingerings nor the markings.

I am sure you understand, that it can be difficult to fix a bug, if the bug can not be reproduced.

Could you provide exact steps to reproduce the bug?

[N Grossingink]

Could you post a file showing this behavior? Just a measure or 2 would do.

N.

[Peter Thomsen]

… and, please, let it be an actual Finale .musx document we can examine, not a screen shot (graphic).

[jzucker]

Will do tonight when I'm home.

And yes, the treble clef has notes and markings.

when I drag and drop the an existing tablature staff, it pops up a message asking what the lowest fret number should be which is odd since I'm only copying markings and that dialog shouldn't even be asked but if I key in a number that's different from what is already on the tab staff, it will overwrite my tab fingerings with new fingerings. I tried it previously with different notes and it overwrote the different notes as well...

[Peter Thomsen]

… if I key in a number that's different from what is already on the tab staff, it will overwrite my tab fingerings with new fingerings. I tried it previously with different notes and it overwrote the different notes as well …

If I understand you correctly, you have in the treble staff some fingerings (articulations), right?
Let us call them your treble staff fingerings.

And in the TAB staff you also have some (other) fingerings (articulations), right?
Let us call them your TAB staff fingerings.

And you need the fingerings to be the same in both staves, so you use the Copy Filter to copy only articulations from treble staff to TAB staff, right?

When you do so, Finale changes your fingerings (articulations) to other fingerings, right?
It sounds crazy that specifying the lowest fret number should affect articulations, but hey, this is Finale (!)

One question:
Does Finale change the fingerings in both staves, or only in one of the two staves?

[zuill]

I think there is a mixup of terms. I believe fingerings refer to the numbers on the TAB staff that tell which string and which fret. I can confirm the errant behavior, but I don't see it as causing any problems as long as the lowest fret chosen is the same as was originally chosen.

Zuill

[jzucker]

here's the file. What I noticed is that if you specify the original lowest fret, it does not change the tablature notes but if you put in a different fret, it actually changes the notes.

[jzucker]

Zuill, there's more to it than that. If you specify the exact lowest fret as the original tab, it appears that it doesn't copy the notes but if you specify a different fret, it doesn't just re-arrange the existing tab notes, it actually overwrites them with different notes which you can see if you try it in the sample file i have. Again, this is not a new bug. It's been in the software and reported by me years ago.

I think there is a mixup of terms. I believe fingerings refer to the numbers on the TAB staff that tell which string and which fret. I can confirm the errant behavior, but I don't see it as causing any problems as long as the lowest fret chosen is the same as was originally chosen.

Zuill

[jzucker]

makemusic finally was able to reproduce this after I sent them the document. The support engineer admitted to me he knew nothing about tablature so that's probably why previous attempts at reporting these got rejected as "works as intended".

Unfortunately, the support guy doesn't quite understand that when you are not copying notes, the software should not be prompting you for fret # when pasting to the tablature.

[zuill]

Unfortunately, that's the state of customer service these days. The customer knows more than the service. Long ago, I tried to initiate regional meetings with the developers so that power users could show them, first hand, what does and doesn't work with Finale. They rejected my idea. Too bad they have tunnel vision with the business, and don't want to be confused with the facts.

Zuill

[MikeHalloran]

While it's true that most phone support is unnecessary, there are times when a one-on-one looking at the same file is critical to understanding the problem.

I ran into this when OS 10.6 screwed with scanning and printing on the Mac and a couple of builds of 10.7–10.8.1 broke it completely. It was while on the phone with a senior engineer, when he said with that tone of someone talking to a person who just doesn't get it,

"Now click on __"

with me responding, "___'s not there" and hearing,

"Oh, come on, it's ... damn, you're right"

I had been an infrequent consultant on scanning a printing issues sinde OS 8.1 so I knew whom to call and when. But what about all of the users who didn't have my access?

Unlike MM, Apple has reinstituted phone support. Having or not having AppleCare is only an issue when it comes to hardware warranty. You can now schedule a support call on anything Apple and they will call you. Of course, they can't fix 3rd party issues but often, they can identify the 3rd party app that's really giving you grief.

Some companies need to understand that, if you offer what is supposed to be a premium product, you need to be available when see the page at this link just doesn't cut it.

[jzucker]

Wow, I heard back from support on this issue. Their reply is that the dialog box for "lowest fret" should not be coming up but since it does, they feel this is not a bug as long as you enter in the proper lowest fret that was used in the tablature.

I'M COMPLETELY DUMBFOUNDED. Thanks to the folks here who recommended I upgrade in order to get bugs fixed, lol...

Here's my reply.

Sorry, I can't accept that. If you have a long piece, you would have to look over *EVERY* note in the tab staff to see which one is lowest. That is the most ridiculous solution to an issue I've ever heard. When I agreed to purchase the upgrade to V25, it was with the understanding that you would actually fix bugs, not continue to grandfather them in.

I feel like I've been duped.

[jzucker]

if I can get a refund on the upgrade, i'm going to switch over to sibelius I think...