Top Tip #5 – Don’t Be a Drag
September 10, 2014 7:02 pm
#5 – Don’t just drag an expression around to wherever you want it – always anchor it to the closest item you can.
Yes, this seems a bit picky, maybe. But, if you know me personally, you know that I’m a perfectionist. So it is really not uncharacteristic of me to point out piddly, little editing details like this. On second thought, maybe this isn’t so piddly, is it? Why do I even bring it up? I’m glad you asked. Here’s why:
1 – When you drag an item far from its initial point of attachment in order to place it just where you’d like, Finale remembers the distance that it is from its original “home”. This can prove to be hazardous to your expression’s health when viewing the music in page view vs. scroll view, or on the part only vs. on the score. Remember, Finale is a computer program and only does what you tell it to do, so all it knows is that you dragged that expression 2 inches away from its home. It doesn’t know why and doesn’t care. Many times, I’ve seen expressions that were dragged to a desirable location on a score, but ended up way off of the page when viewed on the part.
2 – The other reason I bring this up is because Finale has made it easy to adjust where an expression is attached. By holding down the option key before selecting/dragging an expression, you can toggle on/off the “Anchor Indicator Lines” option (in your System Preference). I have the Indicator Line set to remain attached and not move. By, holding down the option key before I move an expression, I can easily allow it to move to another location. So, either way you choose to have this preference set, Finale’s made it easy to edit this.
The point is: in the end, you want to be able to edit your music easily and quickly. Expressions that “behave” and don’t act erratically from one view to the next will surely save you time.
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