On May 3, 2006, at 3:52 PM, Owain Sutton wrote:
Off the top of my head, this is the start of my wishlist for
improvements and extensions to Finale's capabilities, in no particular
order (if any of them can be done in a way I'm not realising, please
tell me!):
Less global document settings. Far too many things cannot be adjusted
for just a section of a document. (Stem lengths,
Staff Styles - the list of things that can be changed includes Stem
Settings (under Items to Display, weird), which seems to include stem
attachments and lengths, which might kill two of your problem birds
with one stone...
stave line widths,
You're right, the thickness of staff lines cannot be individually
adjusted, but the spacing can (if that's what you meant), once again in
Staff Styles. You can also set the staff to be bigger, if that might
help, or hide the staff lines completely in Staff Styles and/or overlay
them with Smart Lines at the appropriate thickness.
4/4
vs. C, just three that come to mind).
This is very easy; I do it all the time (don't ask why). Just set the
Time Signature to 4/4 and click More Options> display as... and check
or uncheck the Abbreviate box. If you need it different for different
staves, just set the Staff Attributes to Independent TIme Sig, and
you're home free. You could also accomplish this with a Staff Style.
I've never found the cross-staff beams to be flexible enough.
You'll have to be more specific. I've never come across anything I
wasn't able to accomplish, but my needs might be simpler than yours.
More flexibility and ease of application of custom noteheads, and
'smart' stem connections which would automatically attach to the edge
of
a notehead (even if they then may need subsequent adjustment).
Once again, in Staff Styles, you can substitute noteheads (under
Notation, choose Noteheads) and the associated stem attachments
(mentioned above). Once you have set it up, it can be as easy as one
click. These aren't "Smart" as you asked, but it can get pretty easy
after the initial setup hassle.
'Beat-attached' expressions. For example, with a semibreve in a 4/4
bar, I may want a 'fff' halfway through the third beat. As far as I
can
figure out, it's either a matter of attaching it to hidden notes in
another layer, or eyeballing it. It would be nice to specify it as
positioned 2.5 beats through the bar.
Darcy explained this one already.
A spellchecker which is designed to deal with common musical
instructions and terminology.
This could be a plugin, if someone wanted to make it.
Time signature options to easily create large numbers across several
staves, or above systems.
You'll need a special font for this, but it IS doable; many listers do
this kind of thing in almost every score. I would give help, but I have
never needed to do this (yet!)
Christopher
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