Need Finale help? PM Me!

[holland_oates89]

Hi there!

I just signed up seconds ago, and I can't wait to start submitting arrangements for this awesome website.

But before any of that, I thought I'd let you guys know how I can help in a more immediate way.

I am a professional music engraver - I work for MakeMusic, the company that makes Finale.

I'm here in an unofficial capacity, so please don't expect me to speak on behalf of the company, reveal secret information (I'm not really privy to anything anyway as I work on their other program, SmartMusic), or address any feedback about Finale as a software program.

That said, what I can do is offer help. If you have questions about how to use Finale or are stuck in some way, please feel free to PM me!

Or, if it's ok with the moderators here, I think it might be an even better idea to reply to this thread with questions - that way, other people can see the solutions we come up with as well.

FYI: I currently use Finale 2012 and 2014. I am very familiar with earlier versions of Finale, but I'm probably a bit rusty since the company stopped officially supporting Finale 2011 and earlier so I rarely use it. I mostly use a Mac but we work in both environments all the time so we can test our repertoire to make sure it looks good.

Thanks and I look forward to your questions!

[mikey]

oh wow that's really awesome

[braix]

I read "Need FL Studio Help?" and got super excited for a second LOL

[Maelstrom]

why isn't there a dedicated pedal smartshape tool

Anyway, this is awesome. If I come across any problems, I'll be sure to ask you.

[holland_oates89]

Ha! I wish I were an FL Studio expert... sadly, the last time I used that program it was still called Fruity Loops!

[Sebastian]

Whoa! Welcome Holland!
There are a bunch of people around here that have a hard time with Finale and I'm glad you're here!

[holland_oates89]

Thanks guys!

Hmm.... as proof that I actually know things about stuff, here's my keyboard shortcut cheat sheet:

Shift + Option + (1 - 4) to change layers. (Alt+Shift+Number on Windows)
Command + U to update layout
Command + D to redraw screen (Does your score look weird? Do this)
Command + 4 to Apply Note Spacing
Command + 5 to Apply Beat Spacing
Command + L to lock systems
Shift + Command + M to Fit Measures
Command + ] to Fit view in width
Command + [ to Fit view in Window
Command + K to open ScoreManager (F2012 and 2014 only)
Command + Option + U to open AU Banks and Effects
(On Windows: Control + Alt + I to open VST Banks and Effects)
Command + Option + A to open Document Options

Now, for my two favorite shortcut-related Finale tips:

Do you use a Macbook? Man, it sucks that you don't have a numpad for Simple/Speedy entry right? NO IT DOESN'T!! Choose the Simple Entry tool, then click Simple > Simple Entry Options. Then click Edit Keyboard Shortcuts. If you want, you could customize all of your note entry shortcuts at this window, but instead, look under Keyboard Shortcut Set and change the set from Default Shortcut Table to Laptop Shortcut Table. Now, your number row will choose the duration of your next note in Simple and Speedy, and if you need to add chords (which was the previous function of the number row), you can use the correspdonding F-keys instead, e.g. You add a note and need to make it into a triad, press F3, then F3 again.

Boy those chords sure are tough to enter in. Why do I keep getting the "Could not find suffix. Would you like to add it to the library?" message whenever I type my chords slightly different into the score? Is there a way to see the chords that are in my chord library? Protip: YES. When inputting chords, enter the root of your chord, then type ":0" as a suffix, so your entire chord will look like "C:0". This will cause Finale to open your Chord library, and you can choose the suffix you want from the list. Also, pay attention to that chord's number, because you can replace the 0 with that number to get the same chord every time. An example of this: In the default Maestro Document style, a dominant 7 chord is the 25th chord in the chord library. This means that if you type "C:25" instead of "C:0", then instead of choosing the chord from the library each time, Finale will simply add that chord, so your score will show a C7.

Hope that helps!

[ThatGamer]

Great to have you here, H&O! You'll be seeing me a lot lol, I suck at using finale....

[Olimar12345]

Have any tips for creating portrait-oriented, 8.5/11 size parts from a landscape-oriented, tabloid score? My generated parts always look like shit and take hours (no joke) to clean up before they're presentable.

Using Finale 2012.

[holland_oates89]

@Olimar12345: Definitely! Assuming you're using linked parts:

1. Open your document.
2. Click Document > Page Format > Score.
3. In the window that appears, make sure that you have the basic layout you want for the score (not the parts). This window is basically the "master" list of how your document looks by default. It's possible this menu may have default settings, so you may need to review the changes you've made to your score via the Page Layout tool and make sure you have the same settings here, but it isn't really important for making parts.
4. After you've chosen the settings you'd like for the score, click Document > Page Format > Parts.
5. Change your page size to 8.5"x11" in portrait orientation. You can probably get by with using Finale's default document settings here (let me know if you need me to post them) and then make adjustments as you need. Click OK when you're finished.
6. Click Document > Edit Part > (whatever part you want to look at). You'll see a preview of that part appear.
7. Click the Page Layout Tool.
8. Click Page Layout > Redefine Pages > All Pages of Current Part/Score. This causes Finale to reset any Page Layout settings to the part you're looking at, and it resets them to the defaults you set in step 5.
9. Repeat steps 6 - 8 until all of your parts are in portrait orientation.

From there, you can make much smaller corrections (I think you may have to reflow your measures, but you can do that easily with Utilities > Fit Measures) that hopefully shouldn't take as long to fix.

Also, maybe this is just my preference but if I were you, I'd get used to using EVPUs as a default unit of measurement instead of inches. I can't remember a hundred decimal numbers and EVPUs are designed to work out to a nice even number. You can set this measurement at the Document Level (only for one file) by clicking Document > Document Options and choosing EVPUs from the Units menu at the bottom of the window that appears, or you can set this permanently in your preferences by clicking File > Preferences (Finale 2012 > Preferences on Mac), then changing the Measurement Units menu under Edit.

I hope that helps! If you're still seeing a specific problem cropping up with parts let me know and I may have a solution for you.

[Olimar12345]

What about the header in parts vs the score?  Usually the first page of my scores have a small header, as to more easily accommodate the music, thus squishing the text up more towards the top, but I like the parts have a nicely-spaced header. Is there a way to have Finale do this automatically, or must I continue to painstakingly reenter the text boxes' coordinates manually on each part?

[holland_oates89]

@Olimar: In the Page Format dialog box I mentioned, you can check a box that says "First Staff System Margins" - this is best known as the way to indent the first system of your score/part, but you can also use it to create more space for the title. Click Document > Page Format > Parts, then make sure First Staff System Margins is checked and enter a large value in the "Top" field. You won't see any change when you click OK but if you go back to Page Layout > Redefine Pages > All Pages of Current Part/Score, then the part will update, showing you the larger header. It takes a little trial and error but the good news is that if you keep trying over and over with one part, then all you have to do is go to all the other parts and redefine pages again.

The idea is to set everything correctly the first time (which will be a little more tedious), then use Redefine Pages for all of the other parts.

[Olimar12345]

I think I understand this so far (being away from a computer) but the issue I usually have is not that the header doesn't provide enough room, but that the text boxes for the title, subtitle, arranger/composer and part name are all placed at the very top, squished together as if it were the score. This results in parts that have a giant ocean of white space between the title info and the first system. (Hopefully I've explained this correctly). Is there a way to prevent this?

Also thanks you for your help and interest this far! ^^

[holland_oates89]

@Olimar: OHHHHHHHHHHH. Haha, yes! But it is a little complicated.

You probably already know this, but I'll explain it anyway. Every Finale document has the full score and what are known as linked parts. They're called this because the parts are contained in (or "linked to") the Finale document you're working in. This is different than older versions, which required you to extract parts before being able to edit them.

In a lot of ways, this is a super helpful feature! Who wants to keep track of seventy-five different Finale files for every part?! No one. But the downside to linked parts is that some things (like page attached text, e.g. Title, Composer, Copyright, etc) require careful attention to get them to look right, which can start to be a hassle if you need to deviate from the score.

In your case, you do need to deviate from the score. Since your parts use a different page size and margins than the score, you can't use the same positioning information (known as "Frame Attributes") that the score uses. So, all you have to do is navigate to the full score, right-click the title text (aka "Page-attached Text") that you want to change, and select "Unlink in All Parts." What this does is detach the title text's position information in your parts. You'll notice the text may also highlight yellow when you do this - this is Finale's way of showing you that the text is unlinked. Repeat this unlinking process for every text block that looks wrong in the parts. Once that's done, go back to the parts by clicking Document > Edit Part> (Part), or by pressing Ctrl + Alt + ( < or > ), and simply drag your text back into place for each part. If you're concerned about every part looking exactly the same, you can also right-click the text and choose "Edit Frame Attributes" from the menu that appears. This will give you a numerical editor where you can copy down the "H" and "V" position data for each text entry.

Wow, I am making this sound really complex! Sorry, I'm long-winded. Basically just unlink the text, go to the part, drag it into place. It's still kinda tedious but hopefully faster than what you were dealing with earlier!

[holland_oates89]

I almost forgot! I don't know if this will help or not, but here's Finale's manual on linked parts. I'm posting the 2014 article instead of 2012 - our old documentation guy was kinda wordy, but the new guy is way better. The article applies to 2012 and 2014 equally, so no worries there!

http://www.finalemusic.com/UserManuals/Finale2014Win/Finale.htm#Finale/Linked_Parts.htm

And here's the article specifically talking about page-attached (title, compser, copyright) text: http://www.finalemusic.com/UserManuals/Finale2014Win/Finale.htm#Finale/Linked_Parts14.htm

Good luck!