Finale 27 – Symbol Select for Expressions, Smart Lines, and More

Finale 27 introduced a powerful new feature that is easy to overlook, especially since MakeMusic hasn’t mentioned it in any of their marketing materials.

In almost every place you can add text in Finale, there is now an ‘Insert Symbol’ command added to the text menu:

Insert Symbol in Text menu

Note that this command has the shortcut Cmd+Opt+Shift+S on the Mac (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S on Windows).

Invoking that command will bring up the new and improved Symbol Select window, including the category sidebar if you are accessing a SMuFL font. So why is this such a big deal? Because it makes actually using the ~2600 symbols in the SMuFL spec much easier.

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Finale v26.1 release

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”  ~Goethe

MakeMusic just announced the release of version 26.1 of Finale. This is a solid point release update which refines new features introduced since the initial release of Finale v26 in October of 2018 and earlier, and also squashes some bugs which were affecting productivity for some users, as well as improvements for MusicXML and SmartMusic.

Here’s a quick look:

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Finale’s Text Tool : On-Page Alignment

SibeliusBlog author Philip Rothman recently wrote a helpful article on formatting title pages in Finale. While reading the article, I was reminded that while formatting music notation is very advanced in Finale, formatting text on a blank page isn’t as immediately intuitive as working in your favorite word processor.  (As notation programs go, Finale is not unique in this regard.)

In years past, on many projects done in both Finale & Sibelius, I admit to having taken the path of least resistance; simply cutting quickly to the chase to create dedication pages, composer notes pages and instrumentation pages in a more friendly word processor environment, saving them as PDF files and then prepending them to the music once it is finished.

The disadvantage, of course, is that you have multiple files floating around for something that really should be one project file. And, as it turns out, while Finale doesn’t provide the same familiar work space as your favorite word processor, or the level of detail of a desktop publishing software package, it is perfectly capable of getting the job done. Let’s take a look.

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Page Numbering in Finale & Sibelius : Ranges : X of Y

This tutorial was updated 9/26/12.

Question: A client wants the page numbering to read, page 2 of 7, page 3 of 7, etc., for pdf downloads of some piano pieces (regular numbering for print versions). These would be in the upper outside corners where standard page numbers would appear. If you can tell me whether this can be done and how, I would greatly appreciate it.

Depending on whether you are using Finale or Sibelius, you’ll be using text “Inserts” or “Wildcards: to facilitate this. Here’s how:

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