I did a big upgrade from v04 to v10 earlier this year, so adapting to
the new expressions is pretty fresh in my memory.
Caveat: I doubt I'm a typical user. I've found that in general I'm
more detail-oriented than most here, and I tend to be a bit of a
control freak.
If you don't mind sharing, I would like to know the various ways list
members organize expressions into categories. Have any of you added
new categories to the ones Finale provided?
ALL of the expressions I used are in new categories. I didn't like
Finale's definitions in their default categories*, and I was having
difficulty editing them. At the time it seemed like there were some
things that were hard-coded and couldn't be changed. I'm not sure if
that's actually true or I just couldn't find the right dialog box.
(*Is it just me or do Finale defaults have an awful lot of
definitions that are, um, eccentric? In general, MakeMusic's template
style choices always seem so weird to me.)
In any case, I only wanted to use expressions that I myself had
explicitly defined, but I also found it useful at first to keep
Finale's default ones around for reference, so I made my own
categories for my own expressions and I only use those.
I have four categories: tempos, dynamics, generic expressions, and
rehearsal numbers. For me category are purely typographic
definitions, regardless of musical meaning, so for example "dynamics"
is anything I'd put in the music font at that size, like a pedal mark
or luftpause. Expressions default to the usual italic, but I use that
as a catch-all for anything that doesn't fall into another category
and I'll define the specific expression as needed.
I don't put many expressions in my template. Except for dynamics, my
categories start out nearly empty, with just a couple of really basic
ones. They exist primarily for the category definition, then I'll add
expressions as needed in each document. I haven't found it valuable
to have a zillion expressions pre-made. If I need, say, "molto
allargando", it's easier to just type it fresh than hunt through a
list of 50 phrases looking for it.
A couple of related questions about category staff lists (some have
'em, some don't): Is there a way to get a new expression category
with (or without) staff list capabilities besides through duplication?
Is there a way to turn on/off the staff list feature for a given
category?
I remember wondering the same thing. After looking around a bit I
just gave up and used duplication. I also couldn't figure out how to
delete categories I don't want. I'm not sure that's possible either.
mdl
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