"Create parenthesized accidentals using multiple characters"

[motet]

Does anyone know what this new option on Document options/Accidentals does? It is not in the contextual help and I couldn't find anything in the manual. I tried it, but all it does is move parenthesized accidentals too close to the notes.

[BuonTempi]

Prior to the move to SMuFL, Finale would use one single character for accidentals in parentheses. E.g. the Maestro font has symbols for accidentals in parentheses, separate from the 'bare' accidentals.

FinaleMaestro, the new SMuFL-compliant font, also uses single glyphs for parenthesised accidentals. The SMuFL standard uses composite constructions from three different glyphs (left paren, accidental, right paren); though it does also allow the option of substituting a single character as a ligature (e.g. like ffi in a text font).

So, some SMuFL fonts might not have the combined characters, and this setting allows Finale to switch between the two modes. (And in fact, just testing this, Finale doesn't recognise Sebastian's composite glyphs, and so forces the checkbox on, until I manually defined which glyphs to use, so I'll have to take a look at that.)

Finale's default is to use the composite glyphs, but it can 'fall back' to the standard if needs be. However, I don't see any movement when I change the setting, so perhaps there are other parameters at work somewhere. (I have 8 8 6 4 0, like you, though.)

[motet]

Mac vs Windows?

Thanks for clearing up the mystery.

[wessmusic]

Mac vs Windows?

Thanks for clearing up the mystery.

Enabling or disabling "Create parenthesized accidentals using multiple characters" makes sense if the particular font being used has alternative options for one or the other type of parenthesis or sq. brackets. Finale Maestro has only one type of predefined accidentals with parenthesis, and turning this on does not result in any positive change. It doesn't matter what version is used, whether for Windows or for Mac.
The following modest "silent footage" demonstrates what the liga-types are to achieve the result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg1uJ17 ... =WessMusic

The reason I changed the ligature assignments was dictated by the need to have rectangular brackets. (A client of mine kept requesting that I use just those, and that's how this decision came about.)

In the video, the focus is on the last two bars, where I place the markers and a semi-transparent ruler for reference. (They all are part of the font.) At high magnification – in this case 4000% (400% page + Zoom 1000%), the relative saving of horizontal space when using the brackets is noticeable.
________

OT
Meanwhile, I ran the same test under Windows and found with deep concern that Win-Finale 27.3 does not support kernings (in this font with real 6022 glyphs, kernings are over 40.000), nor some more specific ligatures, nor color elements, including gradients, masks, transparent layers etc. For now, these are only supported by the Mac version of Finale (v.2012 - v.26 incl.). This is very unfortunate, and I can say conclusively that the reason is not in the MM developers, but in Windows itself, as although it allows SVG fonts to be installed, it does not allow applications to take advantage of them, and of course it cannot properly print all complex glyphs with more than one element/layer, and in the case of this font there are 843 of them. (BTW, Dorico for Mac does not handle them either.)
However, I am looking positive and expecting SVG font support to start soon on Windows, especially since there is already active talk about the first version for the so called COLR font format.