On 13/07/05, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm trying to understand better how to manipulate staff systems, or line > grouping of measures. Suppose I encounter a situation where 4 measures > (let's say 33-36) are on a line that is too crowded. I see that I can > reduce crowding by forcing measure 36 to be on a line with the ones > following it (Let's say it has a whole bunch of 16th notes), and force > 33-35 to be on a line by themselves. > > How do I accomplish that?
In the Mass Edit tool, just select measure 36 and hit the down arrow. It will jump to the next system, and lock both systems in place. > Of course I realize that "fit music" will undo what I've done. No, it won't. "Fit Music" can be applied globally, or it can be applied to selected measures. You can select all measures you'd like to appear on one system (e.g. mm33-35 in your example), hit "Fit Music" (shift-cmd-M on Mac), and tell it to place only the selected measures on one system. "Fit Music" only applies to the document as a whole when no music is highlighted. > Ideally, I should be able to tell Finale how to group the > measures "intelligently" such that the real busy ones occur fewer on a > line, and the sparse ones occur more to a line. This is easy to do, if the systems are not locked. Choose "Fit Music," unlock all systems, select all measures (cmd-A on Mac), apply note spacing (hit the '4' key), and then update the layout (cmd-\ on Mac). Everything will be intelligently spaced, and then you can choose yourself how you may want to re-format individual systems. The spacing used when you apply note spacing can be customized in Document Options > Music Spacing. > Is a system the same as a line? Yes. > How do I unlock a system? When I click on the little padlock, nothing > happens. Select at least one measure in that system, then choose "Fit Music" and set it to unlock the selected system. Two other shortcuts bear mention here: cmd-L and cmd-U. Command-L will lock all selected systems in their current arrangement, so if you've flowed the piece exactly the way you want it you can select the whole piece and lock it in its current position (rather than going system-by-system and locking each set of measures in place. Command-U unlocks the selected systems, but it will not respace or update layout. P.S. To those complaining about off-topic discussions, Bill has just shown the most effective method of stopping them. Ask a Finale question, and you'll bring the list's attention to Finale. Don't try to steer the community *away* from topics, but lead it *to* topics, and someone will undoubtedly respond. -- Brad Beyenhof [EMAIL PROTECTED] my blog: http://augmentedfourth.blogspot.com Life would be so much easier if only (3/2)^12=(2/1)^7. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
