Finale Forum

I've only had Finale for a little while. I used PrintMusic for years.

Printmusic would allow you to set the playback timer to begin anywhere within the piece. Since I got Finale, most of the time, I can't change that playback counter, so to listen to what I've got, I have to start from the beginning of that piece every time. What is happening here and how do I make playback more flexible?

You can set beginning and ending measures in the Playback Control panel. Or, you could set it to start at the leftmost measure.

If you're talking about the "measure counter" box in the playback controls (indicated in the picture), this is untrue. Only old files I created in PrintMusic have that box available to adjust. That box is not changeable in any new Finale files I create.

Your saying “most of the time” may provide a clue. Are you stopping playback with the controls, or the spacebar? The spacebar actually puts you into pause mode, and some settings are inaccessible. Using the playback controls to stop the playback may give you back what you need.

The observation I've made, regarding the "most of the time" comment has to do with old PrintMusic files and new Finale files.

Files created in PrintMusic still have that counter available.

Newly created Finale files do not.

Playback still works in new files, but I cannot change that counter to begin anywhere but bar 1. That counter is entirely unavailable to me on a newly created Finale file.

And I always do my playback (start and stop) on the toolbar controls, not the spacebar.

I just want to be able to verify my work and not have to start at the beginning every time.

I may have found what I needed. With the playback bar docked, "options" was off the screen. I wanted the button "current counter setting." That was not the button highlighted.

I just need to figure out how to make it a part of the basic template, so I don't have to go in and change it every time I make a new file...