On Dec 8, 2007, at 8:54 AM, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz wrote:
On Sat, December 8, 2007 4:46 am, M LAWLOR wrote:
Eventually I solved the problem (at least it seems to
be working for the moment) by deleting the offending bar,
inserting a new
one and entering the music from scratch.
Is anyone aware of this problem? Is there a "proper" solution?
I've mentioned this fix before. It appears that intractable
measures must
be deleted and new ones created.
In November, I posted a step-by-step procedure that seems to work
every time:
Save the file under a new name, delete the offending measure
completely,
re-save the file, close it, exit Finale, and restart and re-open.
Then do
a data check, re-save, exit, restart and re-open. Insert a new blank
measure where it's needed, data check, re-save, exit, restart, re-
open.
Then re-enter the material by hand into the new blank measure, re-
save,
data check, re-save, exit, restart, re-open. By the time I've gone
through
all these steps, the nasty measures seem to have been scrubbed out.
(In
older version of Finale that support ETF, sometimes saving the ETF and
reloading from there will fix it.)
(I also have workarounds for font crashes, the buggy retrograde
plugin,
and the PDF dashed-line proliferation. All were posted to the list.)
And I'll repeat Dennis's Safe Practices Ass-Saver from early 2006,
which
also provides a trail of versions so you can go back and recover
pre-screwed-up documents:
1. Turn a program's automated backup OFF.
2. Turn a program's backup-when-saving ON (not necessary, but a
stupidity-safeguard).
3. Create my first file of a project with "001" in the name (such as
"HighBirds 001.mus" or "RFID Predictions for 2006-001.doc").
4. At every thought-pause, do a "Save As...", incrementing the
filename by
1. (The thought-pause save is second nature now. In 11 muscle-memory
keystrokes, I've created a safe harbor for my work -- and a running
history if it's something I'm composing.)
5. Save all documents, exit the program, and restart it.
6. Re-open the document and "Save As...", incrementing the filename
by 1.
In Finale, I add these additional safeguards:
1. At every major revision or addition point, do a Data Check for
deleted
items and document integrity.
2. Then "Save as..." under the next incremented name.
3. At every major stopping point (dinner, sleep, Scotch), exit
Finale and
delete everything in the TEMP directory.
4. When extracting parts, immediately save the parts and score
under new
names (not just Finale's names), exit the program, and re-open
everything
to begin actual work.
Dennis,
An excellent resumé of safe computing when using recent versions of
Finale. (I quoted it completely in case anyone failed to keep it!)
I would like to vouch for a few of the points you mentioned above, in
case anyone thinks it is overkill. Your incremental save (Dennis's
Safe Practices Ass-Saver) has saved me many times in the couple of
years since you first mentioned it. Most importantly, it saves me
from ID Ten-Tee errors (ID10t) of the sort I seem to wreak on myself.
I have never lost more than fifteen minutes of work, and mostly less
than that, in the dozen or so times it has saved my ass. It also
saves me from file corruption issues, as well as giving me a file
that I can send on to MakeMusic whenever I have a reproduceable set
of steps that cause a bug-out. I also seem to get through it in five
keystrokes, not 11, unless we are counting differently...
About the last set, the Finale additional safeguards: Exiting Finale
from time to time seems to help prevent file corruption. Most (but
not all) of my file corruption problems have cropped up after Finale
has been open for a long time. Under Mac OSX, things are so stable
that one gets lulled into a sense of false security and one tends to
leave the computer on and apps open for days or weeks, just sleeping
the computer when taking a break. This is a bad idea, even though it
mostly works out fine.
If there is anything in the temp folder after exiting Finale, I think
things have taken a buggy turn. This folder, AFAIK, is supposed to be
empty when Finale has quit. Furthermore, even if there IS something
in it, Finale is not supposed to take notice of it during a new
session. Am I wrong about this? I seem to remember a conversation
with tech support about this a few years ago. Emptying it obviously
can do no harm, but I wonder why it is necessary? Could you comment
further?
About Data Check. On my Mac, Check Fonts has done nothing for several
versions now, and Data Check appears not to do anything either. On
other systems there is a report. This seems to be specific to my Macs
only, though all three of my computers exhibit the same symptoms.
This has been the case since about 2005, and nobody else seems to
have my problem. Otherwise, I would do what you say.
Christopher
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