expression tool palettes all became blank

[brent3544]

Running Finale 27.3.0.137 on Win 10. I had rehearsal marks (A B C ... ) turned on as well as measure numbering. When I switched to SCROLL view, all the rehearsal marks got converted to the corresponding measure number (A became 17, B became 33, etc). When I went back to PAGE view, the measure numbers (in place of letters) persisted. Also, at the same time, all of the rehearsal marks in the palette (EXPRESSION TOOLS > REHEARSAL MARKS) disappeared. Some time later, I saw that all the other PALETTEs (tempo, dynamics, technique, etc) had also become blank. A few of the items still appeared under the SELECT ALL tab, but they did not work (playback did not respond to them). I re-started Finale and reloaded the file, but it did not help. But when I restarted Finale and started a new project, everything worked normally. SO ... I assume that the file I was working on somehow became corrupt. Its a large file and I sure hope somebody can help me understand how to recover it. I have backups, but I did a lot of work on it before I discovered the problem and I don't want to have to go through all of that again.

Attached is an abbreviated copy of the file.

Thanks for any help.

[N Grossingink]

According to the File Info window, the example file you posted was created with Finale 2003 back in 2011. I assume you're using an older file, cleaning out the entries and using it for a new project. That you're having problems is no surprise to me.

I would make a brand new template using the Finale version you have now and copy in the entries from the old file. That hopefully will clear up your problems. Do as the pros do - make a set of templates that have never been used and use a copy to start a new project.

[bakkumd]

As stated above - this is a pretty old finale file... but... your expressions are still there - at least in the file you uploaded.

Files this old often open in 27.3 with all expressions ending up in the Miscellaneous category. Carefully move them all back to their correct expression categories using the buttons in the bottom row of the expressions dialog box. You should be able to shift-select multiple adjoining expressions to help speed it up.

You might need to reassign the Maestro font to each of the expressions, one at a time, after the move. When reassigning the Maestro font, check the "Use Dynamics Category Fonts checkbox, then click on the popup directly below and choose "Music Font (Maestro 24 plain)". Click on the Positioning tab and make sure "Use Dynamics Category Positioning" is selected here as well. Do not use the font "Finale Maestro", it needs to be just "Maestro".

If you can't get to the expression designer dialog, double click on any dynamic symbol visible in your score to open the expression dialog box. The window should open up into the category the expression is hiding in. They all appeared in the Misc. category when I clicked on them.

Finally - if you find, after reassigning all expressions to their correct categories, that the positioning is off, highlight a single expression, then select all and press the 'backspace' key. This should restore category positioning. You might need to do this on each page until the end of the file. 'Select All' only selects similar items that are visible on the screen.