User-created Templates not showing

[John Ruggero]

Suddenly none of my user-created templates are listed when I try create a new file at File>New>Document from Template. Only Finale's default templates in their respective folders are listed. And strangely enough, it says they were all modified today at 8:32 AM.

But nothing has changed in User>Library>Application Support>Finale 25>Music Files>Templates. My personal templates and the default templates are all there. And none of the templates have been modified.

Yet every thing is normal in Finale 27. All my templates are listed at File>New>Document from Template.

What did I do at 8:32 AM to make this happen, and how do I recover?

[motet]

Look in Preferences/Folders and there should be an entry for Templates (I have Windows, but I think it's similar). It should be similar to Libraries but with Templates in the path instead of Libraries. If it looks right, then navigate to that folder (with the Mac finder or whatever it's called) and check it out.

[John Ruggero]

The Preferences>Folders looks like this:

And when I go to:

User>Library>Application Support>Finale 25>Music Files>Templates

I see something like this (I can't show the whole thing because the screen shot is too big for this forum):

Yet when I go to FIle>New>New Document I see only:

[John Ruggero]

I think I just solved my own problem. I didn't realize that that there is a drop down menu at FIle>New>New Document and there are actually several Template folders listed under Recent. The one that comes up by default at the top shows only the Finale templates. The other two show what is actually in my user library. For some reason FIle>New>New Document is suddenly defaulting to this mysterious Template folder that doesn't contain my own templates. Now I just have to figure out how to make the correct Template folder the default.

[miker]

John, after you find the correct path, you might want to consider putting a shortcut to that folder on your desktop. I’ve done it for both the template and the plugin folders, and it’s a lifesaver when I need to get to them.

[John Ruggero]

Thanks, Mike. I think I will do something like that. I think it is defaulting to the Finale templates in my HD>Library for some reason and I just need to get to to default back to the templates in my user library. I must have inadvertently selected the HD library template folder at some point and may just need to create a new file from the user template file to get it to default to that folder.

[Peter Thomsen]

I think I just solved my own problem. I didn't realize that that there is a drop down menu at FIle>New>New Document and there are actually several Template folders listed under Recent. The one that comes up by default at the top shows only the Finale templates. The other two show what is actually in my user library. For some reason FIle>New>New Document is suddenly defaulting to this mysterious Template folder that doesn't contain my own templates. Now I just have to figure out how to make the correct Template folder the default.

John,

On your computer’s hard drive there are two identically named folder hierarchies with Finale folders.

One resides in the Libraries folder in your user account.
Path:
(your Mac’s hard drive)/Users/(your user account)/Library/Application Support/MakeMusic/Finale 25/Music Files/Templates
This one serves as {your user account}s Finale folder hierarchy (= the one used for the daily Finale work).
When you, in Finale, go to
File menu > New > Document From Template…
then Finale will display a directory dialog box with your user account’s Templates folder.
* Is that Templates folder the folder where you stored your user-created templates?

Often the user account’s Library folder is hidden, but there is a simple way to get there:
In the Finder, hold down the Option key, and look in the Go menu.

The other one resides in the Libraries folder at root level (at System level).
Path:
(your Mac’s hard drive)/Library/Application Support/MakeMusic/Finale 25/Music Files/Templates
This one serves as Finale’s “backup” of important files.
When a file suddenly is missing - say, e. g. the Default File {Handwritten Default.musx} - then Finale will retrieve the missing file by copying it from its “backup” in the root level Libraries folder.


My guess is that somehow the wrong Templates folder was used.

[John Ruggero]

Thank you for the trouble of explaining that, Peter. I do understand the Mac file structure how to get to the hidden user library.

My problem was indeed the Preferences>Folders>Templates were pointing to the wrong template folder. I must have been messing around with it and set it going to the wrong folder. It is all fixed, and I learned something in the process.