Mark Lew writes: >Going off an a tangent, may I ask: What good reason is there to use the >ossia tool instead of a separate staff? > >I haven't tried the ossia tool in at least three years. When I did try it, >I remember concluding that it was very clumsy and many things I wanted to >do were either difficult or impossible to achieve. After a while, I gave up >on the ossia tool and created a separate staff just for the ossia, >optimized out for the rest of the score. > >At the time (I think I was in v 3.7 then), this introduced a few other >problems, all revolving around the problem of blanking out the empty >measures in the same system as the ossia. But now that we've got Staff >Styles to blank out measures, and greater flexibility with barlines, >displaying time and key signatures, etc., those problems are pretty much >gone. > >So I'm wondering: Has the ossia tool improved since the old days? Even if >it has, what does it offer that using a separate staff doesn't?
Mark, As far as I can tell, no changes have been made in the Ossia Tool in the past several versions of Finale. When using the Ossia Tool you can enter the source measure on a page at the end of the main file where it can always be found. You simply don't print that page. The Ossia Tool is definitely not useful when an ossia contains more than a single measure. Since FinMac97 I have used the Graphics Tool instead, however. It is useful for things like a line of chant or a staff showing handbells to be used that appears above the first system of the music. I've imported short EPS musical examples when I needed an ossia or an interpretation of embellishment marks. It's actually faster, and you have control over placement and size. To insure that the link to the EPS file doesn't get broken or lost, I usually attach what I want at the end of the main file and simply exclude it from the printout. Hal -- Harold Owen 2830 Emerald St., Eugene, OR 97403 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit my web site at: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~hjowen FAX: (509) 461-3608 _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
