How to prevent "Save Changes" prompt

[Roberto]

Is there a way to prevent Finale from launching the "Save Changes" message box when no changes have been made to the file?

Thanks.

[motet]

I'm afraid not. It's terrible.

[N Grossingink]

Actually, there was a change made - the layout was updated "under the hood". You can turn off "Automatic Update Layout" in Preferences > Edit but that presents other problems. The only solution is to specify "Don't Save" when closing the file. I know, that's bad engineering, but hey, this is Finale!

[Roberto]

I'm afraid not. It's terrible.

Indeed. Perhaps someone who knows programming could shed some light as to why the "save file" prompt cannot be bypassed when the file has not been changed. Maybe checking the file for changes would create an unwanted delay before closing so the default action is to prompt to save the file?

[motet]

It used to not work this way.

[ttw]

Maybe the operating system considers the file to be changed; it's "date of latest access" has changed.

[N Grossingink]

As I said previously, Finale runs an auto-update when the file is opened therefore the file "has changed". This has been common knowledge since the days of the old Make Music forum - the forum has been archived so the information is there.
https://forum.makemusic.com

[Roberto]

Actually, there was a change made - the layout was updated "under the hood". You can turn off "Automatic Update Layout" in Preferences > Edit but that presents other problems. The only solution is to specify "Don't Save" when closing the file. I know, that's bad engineering, but hey, this is Finale!

Under Edit-Preferences-Edit I unchecked "Automatic Update Layout" and then under File I clicked Preferences, then exited the program. When I relaunched Finale it still presented the "save changes" prompt on a file that didn't have any changes.

[N Grossingink]

Under Edit-Preferences-Edit I unchecked "Automatic Update Layout" and then under File I clicked Preferences, then exited the program. When I relaunched Finale it still presented the "save changes" prompt on a file that didn't have any changes.

I can't reproduce this. My setup closes the file directly. You're using Windows and I'm on Mac - maybe that's the difference.

[Anders Hedelin]

I don't know how helpful this may be, but when I need to see the date when a file was last changed - as in a list of files I'm working on - I take care to remember if I did changes or not every time when I've opened one. Possibly this is self-evident, but given Finale's idiosyncrasy, this is a way to make sure you don't lose work done. And to make sure you don't have dates in your list which you don't recognise later on.

[dtoub]

Ughh. This has been a longstanding issue for many many years. It's insane. I've complained about it to MM. Others have complained about it to MM. No solution has ever been devised. The issue is that if every time one opens and closes a file, doing nothing in the process but opening and closing it, and you get that prompt, how seriously will people take it when they actually do need to save something but didn't realize they hadn't saved changes? Exactly-this is why it's a problem, aside from the annoyance factor.

I know of literally no other program that does this. I love Finale, but at the same time, I also despise some of its quirks, this being one of them.

[Peter Thomsen]

… I know of literally no other program that does this …

Actually there are other programs that do the same. (Not that it matters)

I suppose that you do not know, e. g. Digital Performer?

[dtoub]

Never used it. Heard of it back in the day...

[motet]

The should be easy to implement. If the user makes an edit, set a flag. When the file is closed, check the flag. If the flag is set, offer to save it; otherwise, close without saving.

[Anders Hedelin]

Ughh. This has been a longstanding issue for many many years. It's insane. I've complained about it to MM. Others have complained about it to MM. No solution has ever been devised. The issue is that if every time one opens and closes a file, doing nothing in the process but opening and closing it, and you get that prompt, how seriously will people take it when they actually do need to save something but didn't realize they hadn't saved changes?

I sympathise with the frustration, but since I've been around for a while I don't put my hopes up to much concerning MM. Some things with this loved-hated program we have to live with. I described my simple approach a little earlier - take it or leave it. I can't say I'm very much helped by the venting of disappointments like in this thread, given MM:s hibernation.

[Anders Hedelin]

The "simple approach" I referred to in my last post was to remember when you'd made changes or not. There was a time when you had to make hand-written notes of things like that, in all kinds of situations. Now that's ONE thing Finale won't do for you. Is that so terrible?

[dtoub]

Yes, actually it is problematic for the reasons I stated. If a user makes an edit to a file then yes, it should cause a Save Changes? prompt. But if it happens every time, even if one just opens a file and closes it after doing nothing (which I often do simply because Finale on a Mac displays the last opened file) then the user isn’t sure if he/she made a change or not and isn’t sure if he/she needs to save. Which leads to the situation where the user is so used to automatically dismissing that prompt that something with changes gets unintentionally not saved.

If every MS Office app can get this right, why can’t Finale?

[Anders Hedelin]

It seems like we talk at cross purposes.

"Why can't Finale" - I think, MM being what it is at present, that's a philosophical question.

[dtoub]

I think, if I’m understanding your recent posts, that we just can’t expect MM to fix a problematic application behavior (I’m not calling it a bug since technically it’s not but whatever you call it, it’s frustrating). And your solution is for the user to simply remember if an edit was made or not. I think that is not really helpful and I could just as easily say in the same vein that the solution is for people to just not use Finale but to go back to writing on score paper (something I probably haven’t done since the early 90’s).

If this is something that is straightforward to program then it should be considered. Just giving MM a pass is why we still have longstanding issues with Finale that get discussed here but for which we just assume a fix will never come forth. MM has good programmers. What they need is to hear from people so they can get a sense of how they should prioritize things. Not just say “the users should keep track of whether an edit was made and hey, it’s no big deal right?”

[Anders Hedelin]

I could just as easily say in the same vein that the solution is for people to just not use Finale but to go back to writing on score paper (something I probably haven’t done since the early 90’s).

Well you can't get everything with anything.

[miker]

I'm on F26 on a Mac. When I open a Finale file and close it immediately, I get no message. Is that a bug? (tongue firmly in cheek...)

[dtoub]

Consider yourself blessed

Would love to understand why it does not happen to you.

[Roberto]

I'm on F26 on a Mac. When I open a Finale file and close it immediately, I get no message. Is that a bug? (tongue firmly in cheek...)

LOL. That's the way it "should" be so perhaps this is a Mac-PC issue.

A work-around (of sorts) is to save the file immediately after opening (CTRL-O followed by CTRL-S) so if I get the Save File prompt I know that I may have inadvertently changed the file.

[motet]

The problem with that, and with the Finale fubar in general, is that you destroy the last modification date on the file, which I, at least, want to preserve.

[ebiggs1]

MM has good programmers.

I don't think so. I think they may have one or so on staff and hire the rest out. I believe this is why we don't see more bug swats, IMHO.
The addition of the "new feature" file sharing could be done as a module, even the smufl fonts. Not really inside Finale.