Centering of staccato and tenuto articulations

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BugleMe
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Finale Version: 2014.5
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Post by BugleMe » Thu Apr 18, 2019 10:06 am

I am using Finale 2014.5
I am using a Mac running OS High Sierra 10.13.6

Centering of staccato and tenuto articulations within staff lines.
I have tried and tried to center both staccato and tenuto markings within staff lines but to no avail. They just can’t be centered, they tend to favor either the lower or upper lines. Can anyone suggest a fix so that either of these articulations sit exactly equidistant between staff lines.
Thank you so much for your attention to such a minor issue.
Scott


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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Thu Apr 18, 2019 11:18 am

If I understand you correctly, you are talking about centering vertically (= between the staff-lines), right?

Unfortunately I do not have Finale 2014.5 installed anymore, so I can not reproduce your problem.

There does not seem to be a problem in Finale v26 (which has a new Articulation Tool).
See the attached PDF file which was made from a Finale v26 document.
Mac OS X 12.6.9 (Monterey), Finale user since 1996

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HaraldS
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Post by HaraldS » Thu Apr 18, 2019 5:17 pm

BugleMe wrote:Can anyone suggest a fix so that either of these articulations sit exactly equidistant between staff lines.
If you double-click the staccato dot, the Articulation Designer dialog box pops up. There you'll find the Handle Positioning dialog box where you can enter additional up/down positioning values. There is no "center" option, but try out some values and see if it gives you the desired result.
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motet
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Post by motet » Thu Apr 18, 2019 6:15 pm

The out-of-the-box vertical handle position is -4e. Here it is at -2e (Finale 2014.5):

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N Grossingink
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Post by N Grossingink » Thu Apr 18, 2019 6:28 pm

motet wrote:The out-of-the-box vertical handle position is -4e. Here it is at -2e (Finale 2014.5):
Likewise, the tenuto's vertical position is 0. Try -3e and it centers nicely.

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BugleMe
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Post by BugleMe » Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:41 pm

Thank you all for your replies! Success!!!
For the Staccato centering I started with -2e and ended up inputing -1.5e which was very near dead center (close enough for government work as my dad always said). Interestingly though, upon re-opening the dialogue box it didn't show a -1.5e, it showed a numeric value of -0.00347. I don't know how entering -1.5e works, (some Finale VooDoo stuff) but it worked. The same with the Tenuto setting of -3e who's numeric equivalent turned out to be -0.01042 when opened again. Thank you all for you inputs.

Scott

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motet
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Post by motet » Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:03 pm

e = EVPU, Finale's basic unit of measurement. -.00347 is -1e in inches, which is what you must have Edit/Measurement Units set to (1 EVPU = 1/288"). -1.5 was evidently rounded to -1 (fractional EVPUs are only heeded in a limited number of places).
Last edited by motet on Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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motet
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Post by motet » Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:26 pm

To my eye, -2 is closer to centered than -1. -2 is the lower of the two below. But perhaps you're using different staff spacing, or maybe the Mac is different.

fcopaja
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Post by fcopaja » Thu May 28, 2020 4:30 am

Hi all, I'm with Finale 25, on Mac.
I still can't find proper settings for positioning of staccatos, tenutos, etc.
-2 Vertical for main staccato centers dots in the staff, but places them further in notes outside it...
I could create different staccatos for each situation, but I really wouldn't like to...
How Main and Flipped symbols differ here, should they differ?
Could anyone share the best compromise settings for these?


Felipe Copaja

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