Setting parts format in advance never works

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mark carlson
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Post by mark carlson » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:05 pm

Every time I prepare to make a set of parts, I go to the Document menu, Page Format, Parts and set up everything exactly as I want: page margins, system margins, system reduction, page percentage, etc. Then I recheck it when I generate the parts to make sure it's all set as I wish it to be. And then I open the parts, only to find that the page margins and the system margins have changed; until today, the percentage reduction and staff reduction would also change, but today those stayed as I set them.

Does anyone know why this happens and how I can avoid it continuing to happen? It's irritating and a waste of time to have to redo these format settings for each part, one at a time.

Thanks,

Mark
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miker
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Post by miker » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:15 pm

Make a template?
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mark carlson
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Post by mark carlson » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:20 pm

miker wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:15 pm
Make a template?
OK, but why won't Finale just make use of the choices I enter when I set up the page format for parts? Either I am doing something wrong, or there is a bug in Finale.

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Peter Thomsen
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Post by Peter Thomsen » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:23 pm

mark carlson wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:05 pm
Every time I prepare to make a set of parts, I go to the Document menu, Page Format, Parts and set up everything exactly as I want: page margins, system margins, system reduction, page percentage, etc. Then I recheck it when I generate the parts to make sure it's all set as I wish it to be. And then I open the parts, only to find that the page margins and the system margins have changed; until today, the percentage reduction and staff reduction would also change, but today those stayed as I set them …
I have never experienced that.
For me, parts are always generated according to the settings in Page Format for Parts.

Could you attach here a Finale document that gives you the problem?
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michelp
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Post by michelp » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:34 pm

The cause is unclear until we can look at the file.
In the meantime, in the Layout menu, redefine pages (parts only) to apply the parameters of the Page Format -> Pages.
Last edited by michelp on Mon Jul 20, 2020 3:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Michel
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mark carlson
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Post by mark carlson » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:35 pm

Peter Thomsen wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:23 pm
mark carlson wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:05 pm
Every time I prepare to make a set of parts, I go to the Document menu, Page Format, Parts and set up everything exactly as I want: page margins, system margins, system reduction, page percentage, etc. Then I recheck it when I generate the parts to make sure it's all set as I wish it to be. And then I open the parts, only to find that the page margins and the system margins have changed; until today, the percentage reduction and staff reduction would also change, but today those stayed as I set them …
I have never experienced that.
For me, parts are always generated according to the settings in Page Format for Parts.

Could you attach here a Finale document that gives you the problem?
I just tried a movement from scratch, and just like going to the mechanic, it all turned out perfectly *except* for the distance between systems, which I set at 0. These are not 0. But otherwise, it's fine.

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motet
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Post by motet » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:37 pm

Are you pressing the Generate Parts button after changing the format? When you create a document with the set-up wizard, it will create parts, too. Unless you recreate them (which Generate Parts should do), they will have whatever format the wizard gave them.

I always delete all parts at document creation time, then only create them after entering all the music and it's time to work on parts.
Last edited by motet on Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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michelp
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Post by michelp » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:37 pm

There are no parts in your file, just a score.
If I generate them, indeed, they don't match your Page Format -> Parts parameters. Redefine pages fixes it, as I suggested.
Last edited by michelp on Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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motet
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Post by motet » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:40 pm

Your file has "distance between systems" set to 80e. If I change it to 0 and generate parts, they're created correctly.

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zuill
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Post by zuill » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:43 pm

Also, the distance between systems is not set to zero. Maybe we are looking at 2 different settings. I'm looking at the settings for Parts. And, yes, there are no parts.

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mark carlson
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Post by mark carlson » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:44 pm

motet wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:37 pm
Are you pressing the Generate Parts button after changing the format? When you create a document with the set-up wizard, it will create parts, too. Unless you recreate them (which Generate Parts should do), they will have whatever format the wizard gave them.

I always delete all parts at document creation time, then only create them after entering all the music and it's time to work on parts.
Yes, I am setting the page format once I am ready to actually work with the parts, and then I press Generate Parts.

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motet
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Post by motet » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:45 pm

Can't explain it then. Perhaps it's a new bug introduced after my version, or perhaps it's Mac only.

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Post by mark carlson » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:49 pm

motet wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:40 pm
Your file has "distance between systems" set to 80e. If I change it to 0 and generate parts, they're created correctly.
Here's where I set the distance between systems to 0:

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Post by mark carlson » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:52 pm

Apologies. I attached the wrong file with a similar name.

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zuill
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Post by zuill » Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:57 pm

In this file, the distance between systems is still not zero. Maybe there's another file?

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Post by mark carlson » Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:01 pm

zuill wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 6:57 pm
In this file, the distance between systems is still not zero. Maybe there's another file?

Zuill
No, it's the right file. Here again is where I am seeing the setting as 0, in the Document menu, Page Format, Parts. Where do you see it as not-0?

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Post by motet » Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:28 pm

Here's what I see. It may be time to try recreating your Preferences file.

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Post by motet » Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:30 pm

Are you getting the uneven left and right system margins my screen shot shows?

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Post by mark carlson » Sun Jul 19, 2020 9:23 pm

motet wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:30 pm
Are you getting the uneven left and right system margins my screen shot shows?
This is so mysterious! No, I'm not getting that. Weird!

OK I'll try recreating my preferences for page format.

Thank you!

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Post by motet » Sun Jul 19, 2020 11:03 pm

No, I meant this:

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... inale-etc-

It will wipe out all your program customizations (but not file-specific ones). Keep a copy of the preferences file in case this doesn't fix it--then you can put it back and won't have to reset everything.

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Post by Anders Hedelin » Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:45 pm

Have you tried michelp's suggestion to redefine pages after you made the settings? By the way you can redefine all pages in all parts in one go: Page Layout > Redefine Pages > Selected Pages of Selected Parts/Score > Redefine: All Parts.
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Post by zuill » Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:48 pm

I'm guessing that if those of us using Windows aren't having a problem with this, maybe there is something that only happens on a Mac.

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Post by mark carlson » Tue Jul 21, 2020 5:02 pm

Anders Hedelin wrote:
Mon Jul 20, 2020 2:45 pm
Have you tried michelp's suggestion to redefine pages after you made the settings? By the way you can redefine all pages in all parts in one go: Page Layout > Redefine Pages > Selected Pages of Selected Parts/Score > Redefine: All Parts.
I haven't yet. I'll have to wait until the next project, but I don't think I knew about this before.

Thanks!

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Post by mark carlson » Tue Jul 21, 2020 5:05 pm

motet wrote:
Sun Jul 19, 2020 11:03 pm
No, I meant this:

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/ ... inale-etc-

It will wipe out all your program customizations (but not file-specific ones). Keep a copy of the preferences file in case this doesn't fix it--then you can put it back and won't have to reset everything.
Ah, darn! Before I saw this, I decided to recreate my preferences for page layout, but I honestly could not figure out how to do it. So in the meantime, I tried, and now Finale is sending me an error message that it can't open a new page because there are no libraries loaded and I need to load them first. How did I delete the libraries just by setting up (or trying to set up) a new file?

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Post by motet » Tue Jul 21, 2020 5:26 pm

Did you create a new file, or was this with the file you posted above? What exactly did you do trying to redo the page format? When does the error occur? What happens if you open the file above or some other file you already have?

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