Thanks for answering, Chuck. It occurred to me that one possible cause is having started a new score using an older one as a template. So who knows how many incarnations this particular document has gone through? So I opened a new document in 2010, added a staff and inputted some rhythmic notation and, sure enough, it worked fine with stems down. Among other things, I guess this is a good reminder to update my default document(s) with each new version; I have to admit I haven't made a habit of doing that.
I'm almost there. I got the stems shortened, but the final setting that I seem to be missing is for ties. If I tie any notes in rhythmic notation, the ties end up way above the staff. Oddly, if I flip them, they attach to the notes where you'd expect, but as soon as I flip them back, they jump up about half an inch. I looked at all the settings in Document Options > Ties but haven't yet figured out what to change if anything. I'll keep experimenting. Thanks again for the help. Doug On Nov 1, 2010, at 2:42 PM, Chuck Israels wrote: > Dear Doug, > > I always use rhythmic notation with the stems down (and stem lengths adjusted > to -36 evpus) and have had no difficulties. I set this in the staff styles > dialog. I don't know of another place to set this, so I can't tell if that > option is what's causing you trouble. > > I don't usually share Finale files with others, but on the rare occasion that > I need to do that, it is usually with another person who has Bill's fonts. > (For just sending music, I use pdfs.) I'd be miserable going back to the > stock Finale slashes and rhythmic notation. I imagine that it might be > possible to create other chord symbol solutions within Finale, though I'm > happy not to need to confront that task. > > If you provide more details about how you define rhythmic notation and where > the trouble shows up, I will try to duplicate it and see what I can discover. > > Chuck > > > On Nov 1, 2010, at 8:27 AM, Doug Walter wrote: > >> Since this subject came up, it reminded me of a couple things I've been >> meaning to ask. One is regarding sharing documents that use the chord symbol >> font with others who don't own it, and the other has to do with stem >> direction in rhythmic notation. >> >> When I know a score I've created is going to someone else to format and >> extract parts, to be safe I don't use any fonts that aren't "native" to >> Finale, but I really hate going back to the look of the default slash and >> rhythmic notation as well as the chord symbols especially. I remember that >> Bill had actually specified that it was OK with him to provide the fonts to >> someone else in such a situation, provided one didn't also include the >> detailed instructions on how to use them, so the recipient could presumably >> simply install the relevant fonts in their system and be able to view and >> print the document as intended. But it has always seemed that one is asking >> for trouble by doing this (not legal trouble, just complications), and >> there's no guarantee that everything ends up looking the same on the other >> person's system as it does on mine, so I haven't pursued it. >> >> The other question is whether anyone has had any luck when using Bill's >> font(s) for rhythmic notation in setting the stem direction to down instead >> of up. It seems that sometimes I can get it to work, but often if I set stem >> direction to down (in both places where it's possible to do so), I end up >> with no stems at all and flags displaced - a real mess. I'm not talking >> about Bill's method of creating another staff for rhythmic notation that >> would eventually be superimposed on the original staff in order to get >> smaller slashes and stems in rhythmic notation; I'm talking about just using >> it in the "main" staff. >> >> While I don't particularly mind the look of stems up, it's not the way I've >> always written it by hand, and of course once you add chord symbols and >> articulations (which for some reason always get placed too high vertically >> and have to be dragged down), things get crowded above the staff. >> >> I know there are some folks on the list who use these things regularly, and >> I'd welcome any advice or perhaps an approach or setting that I've missed >> along the way. FWIW, I'm using Finale 2010 (Mac). >> >> Thanks, >> Doug _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
