Expression lines not showing

[mark carlson]

As usual with my questions, I am editing a piece done years ago, and a strange thing is happening: Normally (and for as long as I can remember), when I click on the handle for any expression, a horizontal line shows up, allowing me to place the expression in line with others. In this piece, that is not happening. When I click on an expression's handle, it only shows the line that goes to what it is attached to.

How can I get those normal horizontal lines to show up again?

Thanks,

Mark
Mac OS 10.11.6
Finale 25

[zuill]

I get a horizontal dashed line, as well as a vertical dashed line. I get this in both the Expression Tool and the Selection Tool.

Zuill

[mark carlson]

I get a horizontal dashed line, as well as a vertical dashed line. I get this in both the Expression Tool and the Selection Tool.

Zuill

Strange! I wish I were. I just quit and restarted Finale, just in case that would help, but it didn't. I am getting the horizontal and vertical lines with dynamics, but anything with words, no. I'm particularly trying to get the three expressions (all of them words) on the very last system of the piece to line up horizontally, but no horizontal or vertical lines show there.

Mark

[Peter Thomsen]

Mark,

Just a wild guess:
Take a look in the View menu.
What are the settings for Grids and Guides?

By The Way:
You can adjust the vertical positioning “manually” by (drag-)selecting the expression handle, and hitting Shift-Return.
This will take you to the Expression Assignment where you can set the Vertical positioning numerically.
Try e. g. -3,25pt.

[mark carlson]

Mark,

Just a wild guess:
Take a look in the View menu.
What are the settings for Grids and Guides?

By The Way:
You can adjust the vertical positioning “manually” by (drag-)selecting the expression handle, and hitting Shift-Return.
This will take you to the Expression Assignment where you can set the Vertical positioning numerically.
Try e. g. -3,25pt.

Thanks, Peter. The grids and guides are set for "Show Guides", but if the normal horizontal lines are what the guides are, they still aren't showing for any of the expressions that involve words.

Very strange.

Mark

[Peter Thomsen]

What are the settings in
Document Options - Grids & Guides
?

[mark carlson]

What are the settings in
Document Options - Grids & Guides
?

It's the same: grids is unchecked, guides is checked.

[zuill]

I don't believe this is about grids and guides.

Anyway, have you done a reboot of your computer?

Zuill

P.S.: I just realized you're using Mac and I'm using Windows. Often the two platforms behave differently.

[motet]

Upload the file so someone else can try it.

[zuill]

There's a file uploaded in the original post.

Zuill

[N Grossingink]

The expressions that don't show the horizontal alignment cursor have an enclosure with opaque background. Edit the expression to set the enclosure to "none" and you can see the cursor. This is normal behavior, but I would call it an engineering shortcome.

N.

[mark carlson]

The expressions that don't show the horizontal alignment cursor have an enclosure with opaque background. Edit the expression to set the enclosure to "none" and you can see the cursor. This is normal behavior, but I would call it an engineering shortcome.

N.

Aha! Thank you, N! That did it.

[zuill]

I can't find one that doesn't have the line showing. Even the ones with an opaque background. Again, this might be one of the differences between Win and Mac. All the expressions work as expected for me. Maybe you could point out one that doesn't work for you and I can test it. Otherwise, all the lines show.

Zuill

[motet]

Boy, an opaque background shouldn't hide indicator lines that aren't really part of the music. That's terrible!

[zuill]

Well, they don't, at least for me.

Zuill

[motet]

Gotta be a Mac thing.

[mark carlson]

I can't find one that doesn't have the line showing. Even the ones with an opaque background. Again, this might be one of the differences between Win and Mac. All the expressions work as expected for me. Maybe you could point out one that doesn't work for you and I can test it. Otherwise, all the lines show.

Zuill

It's fixed now, but it should still be the same on the attachment: The very last system (single staff, really) of the piece has three expressions that involve words. In fact, ALL of the expressions that involved words in this piece had the same problem. Evidently, they also all had enclosures, and I can't even begin to tell you how that happened, since I have never intentionally used any enclosures for anything but rehearsal letters.

[zuill]

In the older default files, the rit. had an opaque background. It could be you copied and modified that, and thus those that used the rit. as a starting point have the opaque background as well.

The lines do still show for me, even for those with the opaque background, so it might be just the way Mac handles things.

Zuill

[mark carlson]

In the older default files, the rit. had an opaque background. It could be you copied and modified that, and thus those that used the rit. as a starting point have the opaque background as well.

The lines do still show for me, even for those with the opaque background, so it might be just the way Mac handles things.

Zuill

Thanks! I am glad to know of this weirdness so that I can avoid it in the future.

Mark