Selecting music

Selecting regions of measures is required whenever you want to copy music from one place to another or apply changes to a region of music using one of Finale's many editing functions. Although the Selection Tool is the primary tool for selecting and editing music, regional copying and editing can be performed at any time as long as one of the following tools is selected:

Note: In addition to selecting and editing regions of measures, the Selection Tool can also be used to select individual musical elements for moving or editing. For details, see Selection Tool.

 

Finale includes two distinct types of regional selection:

or or

A one measure stack is one measure as played by all the instruments in the staff—in other words, a one-measure vertical slice of a score. (Generally, the term measure in the Finale manual refers to one measure of one staff.) A stack can include any number of full measures.

A full measure selection in a system with a single staff is also a stack selection indicated by highlighting above and below the staff (see below).

Most of Finale's editing commands work with partial measure selections. However, if you try to use a full-measure–only command after selecting only part of a measure, Finale will let you know; you’ll have the choice of canceling the command, or applying the command to all measures that are even partly selected.

To select a region of measures

 

Mouse click or keyboard command

What it does

Click a measure

Selects the full measure

Click and drag diagonally across any measure region (partial or whole measures)

Selects the measure region

When you select a partial measure, Finale highlights an area from the left edge of the first selected note to the right edge of the space after the last selected note, to help reinforce the fact that you’re actually selecting a stretch of musical time.

Shift-click and drag diagonally across any part of a measure

 Selects full measures only

Shift-click before or after a selected region

Extends the selection to wherever you click

Hold down Shift and press the left or right arrow keys

Expands or contracts the selected region in entry-by-entry increments

...measure-by-measure increments if the measures are empty. Specify you want to adjust the beginning or end of the selected region by pressing the left or right arrow key first respectively.

With the Selection Tool  image\Selection_Tool.gif selected, double-click any partial measure selection

Or, Command-click any partial measure selection with any tool that permits regional selection

(The selection can include any number of measures starting and/or ending with a partial measure)

Expands the selection to include full measures.

 

With the Selection Tool  image\Selection_Tool.gif selected, double-click a full measure

Or Command-click any full measure selection with any tool that permits regional selection

Expands selection to include the full stack.

 

Click to the left of the staff

Selects an entire staff

Shift-click to the left of a staff

Extends the selection from any other staves you've selected

From the Edit Menu, choose Select All or press command-A

Selects the entire document

Hold down Option-Shift and press the left or right arrow keys

Expand or contract the selected region by full measures

Hold down Shift and press the up or down arrow keys

Expands or contract the selected region vertically (staff-by-staff)

Hold down the shift key and press End, Home, PageUp, and PageDown

Select all measures right, left, above, or below a selection

To select a large region without scrolling

  1. From the Edit Menu, choose Select Region. The Select Region dialog box appears.
  2. Enter the staff, measure, and beat with which you want to begin and end the selection. For example, you can select the Flute staff, measure 4 beat 2, through the Bass staff, measure 10 beat 1. See Select Region dialog box for more information. The important thing to remember is that this feature lets you select music without having to scroll to it (and wait for the screen to redraw). You can even select music that’s not on the screen.
  3. Click OK (or press return).

See Also

Selection Tool

Edit Menu

 

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