You could ask the same questions regarding Photoshop, InDesign, Word, iTunes, etc... (almost every application) plug-ins. I don't purchase TGTools to support Tobias. I purchase it because it saves me a LOT of time. It really depends on whether you want to work efficiently or not.
The purchase price is equivalent to the upgrade price of Finale (for the professional version). When using TGTools it will be the biggest upgrade you've ever seen and well worth the money. But if you don't download the software and use it as shareware (5 times use in every session, just quit Finale when you want to use it again) then you will never know. Tobias gives users many pricing options and the ability to use a full working demo (really shareware), he has given the user every option to see if this is something that would work for them. Some highlights: Scale Layouts: I like to assign a macro (using 3rd party macro program) with this feature to scale individual staves in a system by just selecting the staves you want to move with the Selection tool or Mass Edit tool and hit the macro key. The staves will either moved apart or closer together with or without adjusting every staff individually below the highlighted staves. A huge time saver. You don't have to use a macro with this one and use the dialog box but with the macro a dialog box will not show up. Staff List Manager: The only way to manage you systems staves...with numbers. Modify: -Transfer layouts to like parts with just one click. -Transfer metatools to other files easily -Transfer Tie and slur settings to another file Modify Slurs and Fine tune slurs globally or not to your house style specifications. Special Modifications...many nice things to describe but I don't have the time. You can't talk about Plug-ins without talking about Robert Patterson's (30 day full demo). If you have never used Mass Copy you've never experienced how Finale should really be performing copy and paste functions. You can copy the elements or just the attributes. Really nice for lining up those uneven hairpins and for TUPLETS! Also, Force Full Names is a welcomed relief for those pieces with movements, forcing the full names at the beginning of each movement...even group names. These are all free to evaluate. What does it hurt to try them out, unless you are not because of your principals. I'm with you in the age category, (has the screen redrawn yet...how about now...let me get some coffee...how about now). My SE20 was a huge purchase ;-) I still have a machine running 2.6.3 for those really old files. I rarely turn it ON but there are those occasions when I need to. Cheers, Steve 4/2/08 2:16 PM, "A-NO-NE Music" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Fiskum, Steve / 08.4.2 / 0:47 PM wrote: > >> Yes. You need to purchase or try the fully working demo. > > Understood. > > I have a long time question which I was afraid to ask. This isn't the > first time I thought I should buy TG Tools, and I do want to support > Tobias, but every time, I feel the price is a little steep for me to > justify. I don't wish to sound negative toward this. I just wish if I > could justify the cost a little easier. > > I am a Finale user since v1.0 in 1887, and use it almost every day, and > still believe either (a) I can do everything without commercial plug-in, > or (b) these handy tools like copying measure width should had been > supported (was it not before?) by Finale itself instead of commercial plug-in. > > So, what I am hoping here is if anyone could help me justify TG Tools' > cost. Oh, I don't do large scores these days, and I stop doing > professional copying in 1994. _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
