Hi Martin,
First, make sure you upgrade to Fin2004b -- and make sure you delete the old Fin2004 application, or re-associate all your Finale files to Fin2004b.
The two real biggies -- which are actually bugs from earlier versions of Finale that have gotten much worse in the new version -- are (A) changes to text blocks (such as copyright notices, etc.) in one document bleeding over into other open documents, replacing all kinds of stuff including expressions, staff names, and other text blocks -- so that, for instance, you may find all instances of "mp" in your score replaced with "Copyright � 2004 Martin Banner." And (B) Finale overwriting one file with a different file of the same name. This is rare, but when it happens, it's a real drag. Both of these problems can only be avoided by not having more than one Finale document open at once.
Other problems -- the Message Bar slows things down considerably, and turning it off in Program Options doesn't work (the Message Bar "messages" will continue to draw on top of the rulers -- or on top of the document if the rulers aren't on). Leave it on there, and turn it off on a window-by-window basis. iKey or QuicKeys are great for that. [If you don't have an OS X macro app, get one. iKey is only $20 and you can try it for free for 30 days.]
Having guides slows things down considerably as well, and moving guides is like dragging a mule. Turn off guides if you don't absolutely need them.
Turn off all the automatic stuff -- Automatic Word Extensions, Smart Hyphens, Automatic Music Spacing, Automatic Update Layout. (Turn on the automatic lyric options just before printing, or use TGTools to create old-school extensions and correct hyphens.) Also keep in mind, in Fin2004, you can no longer interrupt the redraw.
AutoSave tends to hang Finale when it tries to autosave a yet-untitled document. Name all new and imported documents right away to avoid this bug.
Human Playback is buggy and slow and often causes crashes, especially when it's set to anything other than "Standard." Turn it off -- unless you really, really need it.
Sometimes, Finale will appear to hang, but really it's just having trouble bringing the Finale window to the front. Use Expose (F9 or F10) and click on your Finale document window to bring it back.
Sometimes, clicking the forward or back buttons in Page View will cause Finale to skip ahead or back by two pages.
To take full advantage of Finale 2004's auto-positioning expressions, you will have to go through your default file and/or templates and edit the default positioning for each expression individually. For example, there is no way to select a group of them and edit the positioning for *all* dynamics at once. Once you've edited e.g., your dynamics, save them as a library so you can load it into all of your templates.
If you have "Make Horizontal by Default" turned on on your hairpins, holding down the shift key when applying them (which should logically *override* this setting, but doesn't) sometimes causes them to not stretch at all. If you're in the habit of holding down "shift" when applying hairpins, if you turn this feature on you'll have to break that habit.
There was a bug that Chuck and I were afflicted by, where changes to the Edit Margins windows would not apply until after you closed the window. That's caused by corrupt preferences. If it happens to you, delete your prefs and restore from a backup.
There's a lot more, but those are the big ones, off the top of my head. (Not including the EPS export thing, which is apparently coming soon.) Good luck.
- Darcy
----- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Brooklyn, NY
On 21 Jun, 2004, at 06:48 PM, Martin Banner wrote:
I just downloaded Finale 2004 on my powerbook, and it even worked with my MIDI interface and synthesizer (special wink, smile and nod to Darcy).
Anyway, having read a lot of posts prior to this about some of the bugs, are there some features in 2004 for Mac that cause problems (crashes, freezes, etc.) that I really don't need and should probably turn off, such as human playback, autosave, etc.?
Thanks for your collective wisdom and suggestions.
Martin
Martin Banner [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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