At 1:42 PM 02/03/03, d. collins wrote: >I don't like the way Finale spaces music across a system when there is a >time signature change in the middle of the measure. If the music changes >from 4/4 to 3/1, for instance (as it often does in the music I'm editing), >the 3/1 measures are too widely spaced compared to the 4/4. Is there anyway >I can respace the first half of the system without Finale moving the last >barline of this half, and then the second half without moving this same >barline? Even if I only select say the first three measures and try to >respace them, the last barline gets moved.
I assume you mean the time signature changes in the middle of the SYSTEM, not the middle of a measure. (If it's the latter, I don't really understand the concept, but I assume you'd want to tweak the beat chart.) Your description doesn't exactly match how I approach spacing, but if I understand it correctly, you've got a locked system with a certain number of measures in it; each measure looks well-proportioned when considered on its own, but when considering the system as a whole, some measures are relatively tight and others are relatively loose. Is that right? My usual approach in such a situation is to select the relatively tight measures with the Measure tool, then go to the Measure Attributes dialog and put a number into the "Add [__] to width". Then do a fresh Update Layout and see how it looks. So long as the system is locked, Finale will squeeze or stretch all the measures to fit, in proportion to the measure width values you have provided. You might have to try a few different numbers before you get the right balance, but after a while you get a sense of how much you need just from looking at it. Alternatively, you could select the relatively loose measures and put a negative number into the same box. I use this technique routinely, but most of my work is vocal music, which tends to require a lot more tweaking of the spacing to make it look good. I have Automatic Music Spacing and Automatic Update Layout both turned off. I'm not sure how this would work with one or the other turned on. Perhaps the changes to the measure width wouldn't take. It may help to understand the underlying logic. When you apply beat spacing to a measure, it does two things: it places the individual beats (or notes, for note spacing) in a nice position within the measure, and it calculates an ideal width as the measure's width. When you execute Update Layout, if the systems are not locked, it will use those measure widths to determine how many measures can fit in a system. Once it is determined how many measures are in a system (or if the system is locked to begin with), it will justify the system by adding or subtracting a constant amount to each measure so that the total adds up to the system width, with the effect of uniformly squeezing or stretching all the measures in the system. Note that the measure's defined width remains unchanged (and it will still appear unaltered in scroll view), this is applied only for justification of the system. By changing the measure width in the Measure Attributes, you are changing the basis from which this layout justification is performed. You are effectively adding your own squeeze or stretch, to which Finale's justification squeeze or stretch is added. The part that you apply will affect how the measure appears in scroll view; Finale justification for layout will not. By using the Measure Attributes box to add to the width of several bars at once, you can make your manual stretch or squeeze uniform across several measures. If you re-apply Beat Spacing to an altered measure, Finale will recalculate the measure width on its own, and your width alteration will be gone. If you aren't number-oriented as I am, you may prefer to do this by dragging barlines instead. When you drag an individual barline right/left, it will add/subtract an amount to the width of the preceding bar and subtract/add the same amount to the following bar, exactly as if you had done it by altering the numbers in the Measure Attributes. You can do this to several bars at once, by selecting multiple bars and then dragging any barline. Here the result will be to add/subtract uniformly to all the selected bars, but the offset difference will all be applied to the one bar following, which is generally not what you want [*]. Still, you might be able to achieve the results you want as follows: in the Measure tool, select a group of measures to squeeze or stretch; drag one of the barlines to alter all those bars; re-apply beat spacing to the measure immediately following; and Update Layout. Note that in your initial barline drag you'll want to drag a little farther than where you want it to end up, because the Update Layout will take some of it back in justification. mdl [*] As a feature request, I wonder if it wouldn't make more sense if this were changed, so that when multiple measures are selected and a barline is dragged, the compensating change to the right of the barline is applied divided equally between all the remaining bars in the system after the selection (which may be zero bars). This would only apply in page view, of course; for scroll view it would remain the same. I suspect that most users rarely or never drag a barline with multiple bars selected, but for those who do, I think this result would be more intuitive. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
