>In the past, when I've had to indicate rolled chords on the piano, I've >used the arpeggio articulation, which has been a real pain [...]
>Now I notice that one of the custom smart shapes looks just like an >arpeggio indication. [...] My primary client requires the arpeggios to play back properly, so I'm stuck with the articulation. Since I'd rather keep just one habit for all my work, I have little use for experimenting with your smart shape method. Regarding the arpeggio articulation, I agree that they're clumsy, but there are ways to lessen the pain. The main thing is to define the articulation as "centered horizontally" and then give it a big negative value for the horizontal handle position. That at least makes it horizontally predictable. I use -36 evpu, which looks fine for standard chords. You still have to move it further left for accidentals or suspended noteheads on a downstem chord, but at least you know you've got a constant starting position to move from. I have not, alas, been able to figure out a way to stabilize the vertical positioning, since every option except "manually" seems to be in conflict with the vertical repeat symbol. But even with dragging to adjust, I find it's helpful to have a logical approach in mind. Because of the way the symbol repetition works, you want to set the vertical position from the top first, and then adjust the bottom to add or subtract iterations of the symbol. I have (in my head, mostly) a specific style I follow with regard to the number of wiggles and where they sit relative to the staff lines, for each of the four chord possibilities (ie, line to line, line to space, space to line, and space to space). That way, I know from looking at the chord where the top of the symbol needs to sit relative to the top note. I can set that by dragging, and from there it's easy to adjust the bottom. Also, I always attach the articulation to the bottom note of a chord, so there's no trouble with remembering where it's attached. (The fact that this is all very algorithmic makes me think it might be a good candidate for a plug-in.) mdl _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
