I'm crossposting to the list because I think this may be of some interest to others. I'd like anyone else who's having the problem with system margin edits not updating until you click outside the "Edit System Margins" dialog box to report in. Surely it can't be just me and Chuck who are having this issue?
On 16 Apr 2004, at 10:49 PM, Chuck Israels wrote:
On Apr 16, 2004, at 1:49 PM, Darcy James Argue wrote:
On 16 Apr 2004, at 02:34 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I have had the same problem with "command z" failing to work from time to time, and other recalcitrant behavior, like working with the page layout tool, putting in new values for page or system margins, seeing Finale calculate the new data (you can tell it is doing this by observing the "distance needed for new system" or whatever they call that number that appears at the bottom which changes as it's supposed to) but the changes don't redraw (of course, I've checked the redraw options) until I click on the page.
I don't know if I made this clear. If I did, and you have it too, then I feel as frustrated, but less lonely. Of course, the changes are supposed to take effect as soon as you put in new values and hit "enter".
Yes, I have that same problem. I assumed all MacFin2004 users had this problem -- don't they? I didn't even realize it was possible to fix it. Can't Coda reproduce the problem???
I've got that -- I didn't know there *was* a way to make it redraw. The redraw button on TGTools Staff List Manager won't redraw until you close the dialog either.
I don't know how to use that tool. I have TG tools and I have used it in the past to break parts written two or more to a staff into individual parts, and that worked wonderfully well, once I figured it out.
You use the Staff List Manager to adjust the space between staves on a system-by-system basis -- for instance, if you have a system with high trombone parts, all with several ledger lines, slurs and hairpins, etc., you will probably need to widen the space between those staves to avoid collisions, and subtract space from between the other staves so everything still fits within your page margins.
[All of this assumes you have optimized your staff systems -- which you can do without removing empty staves. Before anyone chimes in with, "But why would you *want* to do that," it is customary in jazz big band scores not to remove empty staves.]
You can also do this with the Staff Tool but it's extremely cumbersome because when you want to, e.g., move the Trombone 2 staff down to avoid collisions with the Trombone 1 staff, the subsequent staves stay pit. In other words, when you drag Trombone 2 down to create additional space between Tbn. 1 and Tbn. 2, you are also reducing the space between Tbn. 2 and Tbn. 3. This is almost never what you want. (I've asked Coda to fix this, but who knows?) If you want to increase the distance between two staves but keep the distance between all the other staves constant, you have to drag-enclose the bottom handles of *all* the staves you want to move (starting from the bottom staff of the score). This is an incredible pain if you want to make a lot of adjustments.
The Staff List Manager lets you adjust all of this distances at once, in a single dialog box. It's somewhat like the Staff Usage dialog box, except that there is an option to show the "relative distances" -- i.e., the distance between staves. For instance, let's say all of your staves are 240 EVPUs apart by default. If you want to increase the distance between all of the trombone staves, you just type a higher number -- say, 288, or 312 -- into the boxes next to "Trombone 1," "Trombone 2", etc.
Also, some people -- like Mark Lew -- are particular about the distance between staves -- when they increase or decrease the distance between staves, they always do so by multiples of one staff space, e.g., 24 EVPUs. It's not possible to get this kind of precision by dragging, but it's very easy in the Staff List Manager -- it's just a matter of memorizing the most commonly used powers of 24, e.g., 168, 192, 216, 240, 264, 288, etc.
The Staff List Manager has a "Redraw" button that is supposed to update the distance between staves based on the changes you've made, without closing the dialog box. This button doesn't work in FinMac2004, and I'm almost certain it's related to the Edit Margins problem.
The Staff List Manager is also allows you to show/hide staves on a system-by-system basis -- like, for example, if you were working with an orchestral score where removing empty staves *was* appropriate, and you wanted to also remove staves including only cue notes. It will find optimization errors for you -- in case your layout changed after you optimized+removed empty staves. It can copy the optimization from one system to another, including the distance between staves -- especially useful if you have an extended section of screaming high trombones, for example.
Basically, it's insanely useful, and I can't imagine using Finale without it.
I know it's supposed to work well to align dynamics and hairpins, but I haven't figured it out,
Select a measure or group of measures containing both dynamics and hairpins (or just two hairpins that you want aligned). Press cmd-grey + (i.e., the plus key on the numeric keypad). If the dynamics and hairpins are too high, press cmd-grey - (i.e., the minus key on the numeric keypad) and repeat until they are low enough. If they are too low, keep pressing cmd-+ until they are high enough. Easy as pie.
I think I'll have to get John back here (that is an imposition on him, but he's sweet about it) before i know what to do to fix this.
Please let us know if he finds the fix! I'm dying to have the redraw button in Staff List Manager working again.
- Darcy
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[EMAIL PROTECTED] Brooklyn NY
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