At 5:49 PM -0800 12/06/02, Jim O'Briant wrote:
This question comes from a new Finale (Finale 2003, Windows) user, who has been using Encore for the previous 7 years.Some of my notation software projects involve taking an old (circa 1900) band score, entering it into the software program, and then re-editing it into a modern band score. The re-editing process involves such things as changing Db Piccolo to C Piccolo, adding Saxophone parts where there were none before, changing Eb Altos to Horns in F, and combining "Solo, 1st, 2nd and 3rd" cornet parts into just "1st, 2nd & 3rd" parts. In some cases, where I have only treble clef trombone parts from the old edition, I enter them with the appropriate transposition, and then later change that staff of the score to conventional trombone parts in Bass Clef at concert pitch. In Encore, this was an extremely easy process, with pull-down menus that allowed me to insert or delete staves at will, re-name them easily, and change their playback transposition with great ease. From what I can tell from the Finale Manual, there is no easy, sensible way to add a staff in the middle of a score. And when I add a staff, not only does it appear at the bottom of the page, out of score order, it doesn't play back either.
Use the Staff Tool, double click in between the two staves where you want the new staff, then from the Staff Menu choose Respace Staves so that they aren't pushed up together. You will still have to change the attributes manually, but it isn't so bad. You double click on the upper handle to the left of the clef, and enter the staff name, abbreviated name (for pages after page 1) and select the transposition. For playback, you will have to go to Instrument List in the Window menu and set the playback options there.
But a much easier way to accomplish what you want is to simply go the staff attributes for Db Piccolo, change the name and transposition, and you are done! You don't need to add new staves for that. And if you want to delete a staff (like Solo Cornet) just select the upper left-hand handle and hit Delete on the keyboard, then Respace Staves to close up the gap.
To re-order staves, just drag the staff where you want it to go, then Respace Staves to... well you get it now, I'm sure.
Please tell me that there is an easy way to accomplish these simple tasks, and that I won't need to spend hours building a new template for every variation of obsolete band scoring that I run across. (I can't use the setup wizard, because it doesn't have Db Piccolo or Eb Alto Horn, for example, as instruments to select.)
You can edit the instrument.txt or ensembles.txt document that you find in the same directory as Finale to include Db picc or Eb horn, and to get them in the correct score order through the Setup Wizard, which uses those docs to tell it how to set up.
Or you could choose C picc and Eb alto sax, and in the first case just change the transposition to Db (temporarily while you enter the notes) and in the second case change the name and drag the staff to the correct position, as the transposition is identical. Or use a Custom score setup in the setup wizard, which will enter the instruments in the order you add them, top to bottom.
If you create one template this way, save it and use it for the next score, as this is easier than going through the Setup Wizard or making the same manual edits every time.
Christopher
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