A number of responses, in no order at all....
> > Duration-linked geometric shapes. > > Custom Lines cover a large number of scenarios, quite likely > including an indicator for improvised sections. > Not with anything like the flexibility I'd have liked. I'll immediately admit that this is one fo the most fanciful items on the list, but the situations I'm thinking of use a continuous horizontal line, of varying thickness, to indicate pitches. (And there's other examples where it's used to indicate dynamics, for examples). The point is that the line itself is the notation, and needs to be aligned in the same way as notes are. > > > > 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). > > How is this different from Stem Connections? > If I choose a new notehead font for a note (without staff styles), I don't get the benefit of stem connections. > > > > > Implementation of irrational time signatures (2/10, 7/24 etc.) > > > > These are trivially implemented these days using expressions > attached to "Start of Time Signature". Set them up once and > copy them. I would be surprised if MM builds them into > Finale's Time Signature dialog, since they do not really > represent a meter at all but rather are shorthand for a > metric modulation combined with a meter change. But MM might > surprise us. > (a) building expressions for such things counts as a workaround to me (and if we're picky, 2/8 and 2/10 have different spacing requirements, and I think that's a global setting ;) ). (b) If it's not necessary to implement, how about playback?! When they're part of independent time signatures?!? Etc. > > Feathered beams, in a way which doesn't involve massive fudging and > > manual tweaking. > > > > Amen. And while we're at it, how about swell and > reverse-swell hairpins? > Amen! > > > > 'Beat-attached' expressions. > > Already there and always has been, at least since v3.0. > > Having read the replies, I still don't get it. It's not there in the Expression Designer (unless it's an anonymous default option or summat). It's there if I double-click to enter an expression, but that doesn't help for pre-defining one. > > 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... > > Doesn't seem to have the same choices as Document Options - Stems > > 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. > Nope, it's staff lines that I wanted to change. Only one occasion, for one situation, but it's a failure of the software if it makes it impossible to do this within one file. > > 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. > I get into positions where I want to use noteheads from various fonts in one passage. This gets *really* messy with staff styles, although it's possible. I'd like it to be not necessary to use staff styles, but for the Notehead tool to *gasp* change the notehead to whatever I want, with all stem connections working correctly. (The idea of stem connections automatically realising they're nowhere near the actual character is something slightly separate, but I suspect not the greatest challenge ever to face the computing populace) > > A spellchecker which is designed to deal with common musical > > instructions and terminology. > > > > This could be a plugin, if someone wanted to make it. > A dictionary needs to be more than a plugin! To be useful, it needs to be good, from day one. That perhaps is the biggest problem. > > > 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!) This, coupled with a really good microtonal implementation, is one of the things that would swing me to *cough* other software _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
