Finale Forum

Finale 25.5.0.259
Computer: Mac, MacOS 10.13.5 (High Sierra)

I attach an example of a figure that appears in a score I am working on. In the actual score, the tails are upwards because the figure is in Layer 1 and there are rests (which I have hidden) in layer 2, but I want them downwards. I have tried various of the tools in the Special Tools palette, and the distressing effect is always that the 'thirty-second' beam-stub disappears. I have to change the note length to a sixty-fourth to make it appear like a thirty-second — which then potentially creates other problems. And changing the tail-direction from the Utilities menu changes the whole measure.

Why does this happen, and what can I do about it? Thank you in anticipation of help.

Michael Graubart wrote:… In the actual score, the tails are upwards because the figure is in Layer 1 and there are rests (which I have hidden) in layer 2, but I want them downwards. I have tried various of the tools in the Special Tools palette …

You need the stems to be flipped downwards, right?

I do not understand why you are using Special Tools.

All I did, was this:
Simple Entry or Speedy Entry.
Move the “marker” to the dotted sixteenth, and flip the stem (shortcut: the letter L key).

If I misunderstand, then I apologize.

Peter Thomsen wrote:

Michael Graubart wrote:… In the actual score, the tails are upwards because the figure is in Layer 1 and there are rests (which I have hidden) in layer 2, but I want them downwards. I have tried various of the tools in the Special Tools palette …

You need the stems to be flipped downwards, right?

I do not understand why you are using Special Tools.

All I did, was this:
Simple Entry or Speedy Entry.
Move the “marker” to the dotted sixteenth, and flip the stem (shortcut: the letter L key).

If I misunderstand, then I apologize.

Thank you for — as always — your prompt and helpful reply. I did not know about the 'L' shortcut. It worked in the little example that I originally attached, created (in a single layer) purely for the purpose of this forum post. But I now attach a couple of measures of the soprano part, copied from my actual choral score and pasted, in which the soprano part (which, after the initial dyad, represents both Soprano 1 and Soprano 2 parts, and has been entered in Layer 1, Layer 2 having rests that I have hidden. I could not get rid of the sung text, which is irrelevant to the stem-reversal question.

I first tried selecting one of the notes and typing L. The result was that all the beams and the beam-stub were crushed together. I went back and this time first lengthened the stems and then typed L. That did create stems and beams below the notes, but the note-heads were on the wrong side of the stems and the reversal tool in Special Tools did not work.

If you have time, please experiment with this new example (attached).

PS: I tried reversing the stems before typing L, and using the beam-angle tool to extend the stems after, but the thirty-second beam-stub had once more disappeared.

Why not have the notes in Layer 2 instead?
See the attached document.

Under Utilities is something that will flip stems en masse, I think. You may have to invoke Show Active Layer Only first.

Michael Graubart wrote:PS: I tried reversing the stems before typing L, and using the beam-angle tool to extend the stems after, but the thirty-second beam-stub had once more disappeared.

In your file, you had already done some other manual adjustments to the beamed notes. I used the Edit menu (Clear Selected Items) to remove Special Alterations. Then, the L key approach works. I don't know what you did, but it is easily fixable.

Zuill

Peter Thomsen: thank you very much; that is a brilliant solution of my problem. Why did I not think of that? But in principle I think the fact that the problem arose in the first place savours of a kind of bug in Finale, and I shall try to report it to Finale.

Motet: Thank you, but that procedure flips all the stems in the selected measure. Not what I want at all, I am afraid.

zuill wrote:In your file, you had already done some other manual adjustments to the beamed notes.

:
Zuill, thank you very much indeed.What's surprising, though, is that as far as I can remember all I changed was to move the rests preceding the figure under discussion into the centre of the staff. But I suppose I might have modified the stem lengths in the relevant figure a little, though nothing much changed when I applied the 'Clear Selected Items' command. What is more surprising, and very satisfying, is that, as you say, the 'L' shortcut worked perfectly in my score (as well as in the extract I had submitted in my forum post), allowing me to keep the figure in Layer 1 — and saving me the trouble of reporting the original problem to Finale, which I shall now not do.

I see what it is you did. You used the Reverse Stem Tool instead of the Stem Direction Tool. The L shortcut is the same as using the Stem Direction Tool.

Zuill