Another nice facility of the full version of Finale over the very severely limited Finale Notepad is that the full version of Finale does have a fully-functional "Rapid Entry" tool based entirely upon keystrokes. With a little practice, the basics of notation move very quickly with it.
..And did I mention that the pared down Notepad is no longer free!? As a free download, Finale Notepad served purpose as an introduction to notation software. Personally, I don't think paying anything at all for Notepad is warranted. I'd favor darkly penciled staff paper and a decent scanner over actually paying for Notepad. Best, Eugene > -----Original Message----- > From: William Brohinsky [mailto:tiorbin...@gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 9:05 AM > To: Lute Dmth > Subject: [LUTE] Re: Staff notation software - views? > > Caveats for Finale Notepad: > > This is a very very pared-down version of finale. That means that you > get all the problems without the facilities to fix them (spider-thin > staff lines and barlines, which are more than an annoyance to folk > with less-than-perfect vision, including us older folk) and the > limitations can be stultifying. > > You cannot change keysignature once it has been established. > (that alone is stuldtifying!) > Tablature is 'standard guitar and bass', and doesn't include 5- or 6- > string bass (which may not be a problem) > Time signatures are limited, and may or not be changeable within one > score now. When I last tried it, you couldn't. > Only one verse of lyrics. > There are other limitations which are not obvious until you need them: > the FinaleMusic folk are good at telling you what features are > included, and very good at avoiding mentioning what you probably need > and don't get. > > Free is an odd term: you invariably pay, either by giving up what you > need, spending time finding workarounds for what you can't do without, > or taking 11 times longer to do what you need to do quickly. > > If you have access to a student version of Finale or Sibelius (worth > taking a course or two at a local community college, even) you can get > them for about a quarter of what you'd pay, and the feature set rises > to the 'usable' level. For free, Notepad (at least for me) has always > been too expensive. > > Notepad is good for just what is stated: an introduction to Finale, a > way to 'jot' musical ideas, and a way to set the simplest of music > into notation. > > This is a philosophy of dichotomy, by the way, between the > "WYSIWYG"=What you see is what you get and "WYSIAYG"="What you see is > all you get", the binary attitude towards visual music editors, and > the "WYLTDIWYG"=What you learn to do is what you get and > "WYGOOTBISWYSW" = what you get out-of-the-box is what you're stuck > with. Finale and Sibelius straddle WYSIWYG and WYGOOTBISWYSW: you can > pay an expert to provide you with what you actually want, or spend > your life becoming that expert. Lilypond and abc straddle the latter: > you don't get the immediate visual feedback of a GUI, but you can get > to the guts (at least of Lilypond) more easily, and you can donate > money to fund the establishment of features which aren't provided with > Lilypond, if you are so inclined. (I don't know of a big-corporation > WYSIWYG notation editor where you can directly influence the program > like you can with Lily: the corporations do what they think is going > to sell the most copies. The Lilypond guys are more concerned with > doing what is wanted, as long as they get to eat as well.) > > I will disclaim: I am in the "everything from the keyboard" school, so > I find Lilypond delightful. There are things you can't do in Lilypond, > but if you want Broude-Brothers quality scores and parts with a > minimum of learning curve, it's a best-buy, being really free. > Learning to input doesn't take that long, and a proper setup (which > you get in the standard install) gives you quick-enough feedback, by > simply learning to enter music in manageable pieces (so you aren't > leaving something open that will choke the compiler) and compiling and > displaying often. > > For lilypond on windows, you used to have to install Ghostscript > separately, and it seems to now all come as one piece. > > lilypond.org is a good place to visit. > > Ray > > On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 4:32 AM, <denyssteph...@ukonline.co.uk> wrote: > > Dear Martyn, > > There is a simplified free version of Finale called 'Notepad' > > which is worth trying - see www.finalemusic.com > > > > Best wishes, > > > > Denys > > > > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
