I received FinMac2k9 a few hours ago and have had a quick look to
ascertain the damage of the crippled Staff Lists. I've got that ole
sinking feeling... I can see that being able to duplicate Categories
could have opened up some exciting new possibilities if it had been
coupled with unlimited Staff Lists. As it is, there might be some
minor benefits to duplicating some of the Categories that have the 4
SLSs, from the point of view of housekeeping expressions into tidy
groups, but that's about it. Compelling users to think in terms of
tempo, expressive marks, dynamics categories is not necessarily a bad
thing, if only they hadn't neutered the SLs.
The new Expressions UI is OK but it quickly became a drag with lots
of mouse movement/scrolling to navigate around. I don't know about
others, in most dialog/selection boxes (eg the OSX Finder dialogs) I
expect to be able to type in the beginning letter or letters of a
text string and expect the dialog box to automatically scroll to the
entry and highlight/select it. I've been waiting for this for years
in the Measure Expressions dialogs and the saving grace was TGTools'
Staff Expression sorter. But instead MM have opted to give us another
'one size fits all' solution and take us back to the stone age with
the Note Expressions UI, ie a whole bunch of glyphs in a grid (OK the
resize is a nice addition if it were properly implemented). In order
to get the new Expression UI to look like a list I had to zoom out to
max (more mouse clicks!). And still no auto scroll with quick access
via keyboard entry. Sheee. If only MM had opted for something like
the OSX Finder windows which all have three standard views (icons,
list and columns) with keystrokes or radio buttons AND auto scroll on
keyboard entry. Like DUH...
I also checked the old Bookmarks function which went flaky I think
couple of versions back (it doesn't sort alphabetically but something
like reverse chronological but not quite!). I use Bookmarks often as
a quick way to get around a score that often has measured, unmeasured
sections and combos often user-defined measure numbers. I find it a
drag to have to constantly think in either measure or page numbers.
When they sorted alphabetically it was easy to set up a systematic
sequence and zip around the score quickly.
I did some quick tests on other files where I've used extensive
bookmarks and it appears that having the default text "Bookmark" as
the initial string seems to help in making it sort alphabetically
most of the time.
I opened a brand new 2k9 file from a template and added the following
entries in chronological order at a distance of 2 measures apart
(except for the "Scene2b" which is allocated to the measure
immediately following "Scene2): Act1Scene1, Act1Scene2, Act1Scene3,
Bookmark Act1Scene1, Bookmark Act1Scene2, Bookmark Act1Scene3,
Bookmark Act1Scene2b and Way To Go 'Diva' Aria.
And after I closed the dialog and opened it again they appeared as follows:
Way To Go 'Diva' Aria
Act1Scene3
Act1Scene2
Act1Scene1
Bookmark Act1Scene1
Bookmark Act1Scene2
Bookmark Act1Scene2b
Bookmark Act1Scene3
This is a fairly elementary and necessary navigation tool (I'm
thinking along similar lines of the Memory tools in Pro Tools or
Logic Pro which can be allocated to beats or time code along the
usual other assignments such as views, zoom functions etc). The
Bookmarks list in Finale should be able to be sorted (all modes
should have ascending or descending or forward/backward numberings)
according to different criteria such as alphabetically, by measure
numbers (actual or user defined), chronologically in order of entry
or chronologically according to time code (since Finale is moving
ever closer to being something like a DAW with the addition of
imported video playback).
--
cheers, Claudio
****************************************************
Claudio Pompili
composer, sound designer, music consultant
http://www.claudiopompili.net.au/ (**2002-2003 Golden Web Award**)
Skype: claudiop_509
Australian Music Centre http://www.amcoz.com.au;
http://www.amcoz.com.au/composers/composer.asp?id=236
****************************************************
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