Finale Forum

I want Document>Pickup Measure...
- to insert a measure at the beginning
- ask me how long the pickup should be
- change the time signature for the new first measure (only) according to my request, and
- Use a different time signature for display so that the first displayed time signature corresponds to old measure one

The note spacing for your current solution is so messed up I can't use it. I write many short pieces and to have to do this myself is just a pain. Why is my idea so hard to program? It seems obvious.

It seems to me that is exactly what Document menu > Pickup Measure, does. What’s wrong with it?

The spacing is sometimes wrong if you use that feature.

Not if you select it, and apply music spacing.

I don't use it, so OK. I also understand there's a hiccup with playback.

The hiccup with playback is this: using the pickup measure leaves the (for example) first 3 beats of the 4/4 measure there. So when you play back, there are 3 beats of silence before things start to happen. If you have a D.C., there will be those empty beats before the repeat begins. In that case, doing it the long way is better. But if you don’t have a repeat, it really is quicker than changing the TS, only for that measure, displaying it as something else, and opening measure attributes to remove it from measure numbering.