Christopher BJ Smith wrote:
This issue has come up before on this list, and there were a whole bunch of things discussed that I couldn't understand because I have little programming experience, but here is my main objection:I'd say that the linking would be strictly for notes. If you change the time signature, then yes it should change all the related parts. And it probably would change the layout.
What would happen to the layout of the parts when you made a change to the score, if parts inherited changes automatically? For instance, what if you changed a former eight-measure rest in one part (takes up about 2 inches of a system) to eight bars of sixteenth notes (takes up 2 or 3 systems?) What about time signature changes? The only possible way to manage this is to have all system adjustments and page breaks in the parts disappear when you make a change, and this is exactly the same as re-extracting the part. What about the myriad things that are placed in one way in the score, but have to be nudged in the parts to avoid collisions? Would parts inherit nudges made in the score? That would be a pain. WOuld the score inherit nudges made in the parts? If not, it's exactly like it is now,and you would have to make nudges in BOTH, which is what you are trying to avoid.
I'm still not getting it. If the layout has to change, then why not re-extract the part? If you are using Finale's default layout, then you should be happy, as it is all done automatically. If you are in the habit of changing the default layout on extracted parts, then you won't be happy with how it looks after you have changed some passages, and you will have to re-do the layout anyway, so why not just re-extract the part? And how does Finale decide when to clear your layout changes, and when to keep them?
How often do you have to nudge things in the score only? Last couple of scores I did I haven't had to do that.
Actually, I usually place things in the score so that I don't have to nudge them on the extracted parts, which looks really stupid on the score most often. Then after the parts are done, I go back and nudge the score, save it under a different name (Mytune print score or something like that) and print it. That way I only nudge an item once, on the score, rather than twenty times on the extracted parts.
BUT, IMHO, there is no real way to avoid different things in parts and score, as the criteria are different. For example, I often use beat spacing in scores, but note spacing in parts. This changes the placement of all kinds of things, and how could you expect the parts to logically inherit any placement changes you made to the score?
No, I think a linking of certain items would be great. Kind of like how Dynamics are now, you can individually place them, or have them be all the same. If you could decide what you want to be linked that would be cool. I'm mainly concerned with notes.
If you have only changed a few pitches, or added a few dynamics (as NOTE-attached expressions), chord symbols, or articulations, then you can update the parts pretty easily (ten minutes for a 20-staff score) with this procedure.
Open the revised score, click on the first staff's clef (let's say flute) to select the entire staff, command-C to copy.
Open the first flute part, lock the layout, select all, hit Delete (on the Mac, don't know the PC key to clear items.) Then hit command-V to paste all the notes, articulations, chord symbols, and note-attached expressions into the part.
Hit 4 to note-space. Update layout. Save it and/or print it. Repeat for the other instrument parts.
This will not work if you have changed keys, time signature, number of measures, page-attached text blocks, or staff-attached expressions. But then, aren't these the things that you don't want linked?
Someone mentioned that SCORE did this. Maybe they can explain how it works with that program and if it is a useful feature or not.
I'd like to hear about that too.
Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
