On 10 Jul 2005 at 11:49, Ken Durling wrote: > At 09:53 AM 7/10/2005, you wrote: > >Thanks again but this does seem to be going in circles. > > > >- The shortcut you describe does not go to a specific predefined bit > >of text. It only opens a text cursor into which you then have to type > >the characters that you want. > > Well, of course - you're not always going to want them same fingering > are you? I would never want to have to change a default fingering, I > would always want to enter my own.
Finale allows the creation of a shortcut for each individual fingering. But I do think I wouldn't mind the step of typing the fingering number, were it not for the extra steps. > >- Such text expressions (as contrasted with articulations) do not > >allow predefined precise positioning relative to the notehead. > > > >So, one fingering number always requires: > > > > 1. click the notehead, > > 2. press the shortcut key, > > 3. type the character, > > 4. always grab and drag the character with the mouse. > > No, not always. You decide what the spacing is that you want to be > the default. If that is intelligently chosen by the user, it should > be an "occasionally drag or nudge" as below. > > >With Finale I just: > > > > 1. press the metatool key while clicking the note, > > 2. occasionally drag or nudge the character. > > > >Last, it does not seem that respacing will correct collisions of > >notes and these fingering numbers. If there really is no way except > >by manually positioning notes then Sibelius is dozens of times > >slower. > > > >What am I still missing? > > I don't see "dozens of times slower" at all. You've combined 1 + 2 in > the Sib example above into 1 in the Finale example - I don't see a big > difference there, click and type shortcut is very fast. . . . Yes, there *is* a big difference. In Finale, you hold down your shortcut key to determine which fingering you want, then click on the note you want it applied to. This feels like one step to me, since nothing happens until the mouse click. In Sibelius, you have to select the note first, then get into text entry mode, then press a separate shortcut key (this is two steps), then type the character, then adjust the spacing. > . . . Does the > Metatool key always give you the same fingering? How do you specify > different fingerings? . . . You can have approximately 36 metatools (alpha keys + numbers) for articulartions, and 36 for shape expressions, 36 for text expressions, each being completely independent. Thus, there are enough to define all 5 fingerings as metatools. The simplest way is to give them the numbers, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, so that you apply a fingering to a note by holding down # and clicking on the note. In most cases, if you've defined the articulation's automatic spacing well, you won't have to move the resulting fingering. But occasionally, you do, but this is made easy because Finale autoselects the handle for the articulation you just entered, so you can use the arrow keys to nudge it to the correct position. In Sibelius, you have to click outside the text item (to get it out of edit mode with the cursor), then click again on the item, then mouse drag or use the arrow keys. You see, I hope, that there are two areas in which Finale is faster: 1. the initial entry of the item, AND 2. the final positioning of it. For 1) it is one combination keyboard/mouse operation (i.e., clicking on a note with a key depressed simultaneously). On Sibelius, the selection of the note is independent from the keyboard shortcut, while in Finale, it's combined into one operation. For 2), because you're inserting a predefined articultion (instead of typing the text each time), there is no need in Finale to leave editing mode, so Finale can automatically select the item you've just entered, allowing you to nudge it (or drag it with the mouse, if you like, though it's usually much easier to nudge). Your step 4 actually should be 3 steps: 4a. click outside the expression to take you out of text edit mode. 4b. click on the item to select it again. 4c. use the mouse or the keyboard to position it. > . . . It seems to me Sib step 3 has to be in the > Finale example somewhere. . . . Yes, you do it once in defining the articulation. From then on, once you've assigned the metatool shortcut, you don't have to type it again. > . . . As for text positioning, there is the > plug-in "Reset text position" which will do a whole passage in one > pass. I don't know, you may still like the Finale MO better, but I > don't think there's quite as much difference as you state. Well, I strongly doubt that a "reset text position" is going to be very good at moving things to account for individual circumstances where you'd want to nudge a fingering slightly out of its original default position. The point is that in Finale you get default positioning in one keystroke/mouseclick, and then need only nudge if it needs adjustment. I can't see how "reset text position" is going to accomplish minute adjustments to individual circumstances that don't fit the default spacing. As you lectured me yesterday, this is what happens in comparisons by someone who doesn't know one of the two programs very well. You seem never to have done the Finale tutorial that explains how metatools work. This is the kind of basic thing that I was doing back in 1991 during the first week of using Finale, because I went through the tutorial and learned this basic Finale feature, which exists in many different areas of the program (and which is much more flexible and powerful today than it was way back when; back then only numeric keys were available for metatools). -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
