FWIW, here is a list of suggestions I sent in today to Makemusic. I
post them here purely in the sense of if you think that any of them
would be a good idea, you might like to cut-and-paste them to Makemusic
as well.
Matthew
Original Message
Subject: Finale 2007 suggestions
Date: Sun, 07 Aug 2005 10:53:27 +1000
From: Matthew Hindson [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: MacSupport [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dear Makemusic support,
In spite of me not owning Finale 2006 yet, I thought it might be good to
make a few suggestions for the next version of the application. These
suggestions I feel would enhance the ease of use of Finale for both
experienced and new users.
(I am a composer with a lot of experience in Finale since 1993 and would
be considered a power user. However I also teach at the University of
Sydney and so have experience in the sorts of issues experienced by new
and inexperienced users).
GENERAL
* Resizeable dialog boxes, especially for articulations and expressions,
I would consider to be very desirable. Especially on the Mac platform
where the number of items displayed is small, and scrolling is almost
always required - quite inefficient and annoying.
* Option/Control copying of musical elements a la Sibelius - how good
would this be for things like hairpin markings, custom smart-shapes and
note-attached expressions!
* Automatic collision avoidance between almost all musical elements is a
very desirable feature. In the vast majority of cases, beautiful score
appearance can be achieved through ensuring that collisions do not
occur. (There are of course certain situations in which such collisions
are necessary). If such a feature was included, it would improve the
ability of new users to achieve a visually pleasing end product.
Such collision avoidance should include the vertical dimension - so that
staves would move up or down to avoid material from adjoining staves.
SMART SHAPES
* There needs to be a box as a smart shape on the palette. Of course
this is currently possible with Shape Expressions but it's such a
commonly used feature these days. Also the ability to have hairpins,
slurs or any other shape as programmable custom Smart Shapes (i.e. not
just lines as is currently the case) would be very helpful in cases such
as a crescendo sign with the word molto associated.
* The ability to allocate staff lists to Smart Shapes would be
fantastic. For example, the flexibility of smart shapes is wonderful
with their resizing capabilities for items like |---10---| markings.
But having to copy them into each staff before part production is
tiresome.
* The metatool keystrokes for smart shapes should be placed upon the
individual icon, to help us remember them (and also so that new users
are more aware of them).
* It would be great if a new automated system of piano pedalling could
be implemented: the basic Pedal-Down/Pedal-Up line could be inserted,
and then by something like double-clicking on this line, the ^ marking
could be inserted in this place. This would be a very powerful feature
that would save a lot of time and frustration.
FILE INFO, SETUP WIZARD
* More transparent use of House styles a la Sibelius would be helpful
and useful. It would not only demonstrate the power of Finale, but be a
much more user-friendly and unified way to transform the appearance of a
document.
* More fields in the File Info section, completeable via the Setup
Wizard - this would be very useful when combined with the Text Insert
feature. Also if there were a user-defined Default Value for each of
these items, which would help to achieve consistency between documents.
* The facility to add your own default files to the Setup Wizard. Also
if there were a greater range of default files produced - perhaps
equating to a different range of house styles?
* The ability to Copy/Paste Text Blocks between documents, including
their placement and page allocation would be extremely handy. I find it
frustrating that this isn't currently available, and that the whole
process needs to be completed manually.
TIME SIGNATURE TOOL
* Perhaps the time signature tool could be redesigned so it's more like
the dialog boxes for the Expression and Articulation tools - more
consistent across the application. Predefined time sigs like 6/8 would
be correctly set up, avoiding the dreaded beaming-in-quavers from
young/inexperienced users. The existing dialog box could be used for a
Create function. (I'm aware that this functionality is currently
available through the right-mouse click, but new users may not think of
this).
* A 'simplify' button in the existing time signature tool which would
automatically rewrite 3+2+2+2/8 as 7/8, without having to do the extra
steps currently required.
* A zero time signature option for bars in which the music will
automatically expand or contract, and be spaced correctly, without there
having to be a time signature in there at all. This
