On Dec 2, 2011, at 9:30 AM, Doug Walter wrote: > On the subject of hyphenation, since whatever "rules" apply have always been > a mystery to me and I used to sit with a dictionary in my lap as I entered > lyrics, the Dictionary widget included with the Mac Dashboard turns out to be > pretty easy and convenient. Once you have it open, it stays selected when you > return to Dashboard from Finale, and you can just type the word in, hit > Return and, like a regular dictionary, you see both the definition and the > hyphenation.
No hyphenation algorithm can be perfect because some words have identical spelling but hyphenate differently depending on how they are pronounced. (For example, pre-sent vs pres-ent.) Most standard hyphenation dictionaries are incomplete anyway, since they won't hyphenate short words or one-letter syllables (eg, ev-er, e-ven), which is necessary for music. Also, I would further suggest that "correct" hyphenation per standard hyphenation rules is occasionally not the best choice. Hyphenation in vocal music should above all serve the singer. Standard hyphenation will usually do that, but I've run across a few cases where I deliberately made a different choice. (I'd give an example but I can't think of one off the top of my head. The basic idea is that if the notes are long, or across a page break, the singer is going to see only one half of the word, and you want to avoid a hyphenation which will even momentarily tempt the singer into guessing the wrong vowel. Even if they'll still see it in time to not make a mistake, it's a distraction, and choral music especially needs to communicate as quickly as possible so as to let the singers be less buried in their books.) mdl _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
