on 1/15/05 3:24 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I have a question that has nagged me for some time, and is about to become my > current nightmare. I have a multi-movement work in three files, and the > composer who I am working for has asked whether or not these can be put into > one > file. I balked, especially thinking about all the hand adjusting that had > been > done to staves and such to make each score look right. Does anyone have > advice on how to do this without ruining hours of tinkering? I offered to at > least merge the extracted parts (as much as could be done with a shifting > percussion instrumentation); can anyone give me a basic checklist as I go > about this > process so as to not get burned when printing out? Did I mention, my deadline > for parts (the score was finalized today) is next Friday??
I went thru this on an opera score that was 10 files, 1631 measures long. When it came to my attention that the piece would indeed be performed, thinking about extracting parts across those 10 files was galactically stupid. I decided I *HAD* to assemble them in one file. It wasn't easy but I did learn a few things that may help. First, don't copy and paste. Use the Insert command in Finale and start from the beginning. If you're using Measure attached expressions anywhere in the file, they will appear on every staff in the target file. Clef changes will NOT copy over either. These issues were only solved by using Robert Patterson's Mass Copy plugin. Otherwise I don't think I would have attempted it. Any staff optimization will have to be redone as will any page layout. I know of no way to copy staff optimization across two files. I wish TGTools could, but alas, it can't. (Tobias, is that even remotely possible in a future version?) All in all, it is doable, but not pretty. Depending on the size of the files you could be looking at a lot of work ahead of you. In my case, the assembled Finale file weighed in at 3.4 MB. I was using Finale Mac 2003 and things were slow, even though I do have a fast Mac. If you decide to go this route, let me know. I can probably help you further. *************************** J.D. Thomas ThomaStudios West Linn OR http://www.thomastudios.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] *************************** If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches? _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
