Barlines

Use the Staff Tool and the Group Attributes dialog box to draw barlines and set alternate barlines (instead of the barline style selected in the Measure Attributes dialog box) for groups. Use the Measure Tool to set the barlines for staves, and to override the group barline setting. See also Automatic Barlines Plug-in.

To draw the barline on a group

Grouped staves have an important characteristic: instead of drawing barlines only on the staves, the barlines can either be drawn through or between staves in a group.

Make sure you’re in Scroll View before you begin; if you’re not, choose Scroll View from the View Menu.

1. Click the Staff Tool  . The Staff Menu appears.
2. If you haven’t yet created the group, do so now. See Groups-To group staves .
3. Click a group handle, then choose Edit Group Attributes from the Staff Menu. Or, double-click a group handle. (Or, choose Edit Group Attributes from the Staff Menu without selecting a group.) To display the attributes of another group, use the arrow controls to select another Group ID number.
4. Use the Draw Barlines drop-down list in the Group Attributes dialog box to specify how you want barlines to appear for this group. To draw the barline only within each staff, and not connect each staff with the barline, choose Only on Staves from the drop-down list. To draw a barline as one continuous line passing through all the staves in the group, choose Through Staves. To draw a barline between staves, but not through the staff lines themselves, choose Only Between Staves (Mensurstriche).

Hint: If Group Attributes do not appear in page view, turn off optimization. You can then re-apply optimization as needed.

5. Click OK to confirm your barline settings.

To break a barline between grouped staves

There are several ways to draw or break barlines between every staff in a group. If you don’t want to draw the barlines through any staff on a group, use the Draw Barlines drop-down list in the Group Attributes dialog box to specify the appearance of the barlines (see “To draw the barline on a group”). However, to break a barline above a single staff in a group whose barlines are otherwise drawn through the group of staves, follow these instructions:

1. Click the Staff Tool  . The Staff Menu appears.
2. Select the staff immediately below the desired break, then choose Edit Staff Attributes from the Staff Menu. Or, double-click a staff, staff handle, or staff name handle immediately below the desired break. The Staff Attributes dialog box appears.
3. Click Break Barlines Between Staves, then click OK. The barline is no longer drawn continuously through the space above the staff you selected.

To create one double, dotted, final, or other barline

1. Click the Measure Tool  , and double-click the handle of the barline you want to change. The Measure Attributes dialog box appears.
2. Click the desired barline type. When you select any unusual barline type, Finale automatically selects Break a Multimeasure Rest; that’s so that, when you extract parts, the special barline will break a multimeasure rest (or “block rest”) into two block rests, one on each side of it. (Such block rests automatically break for key and time changes, clef changes, and so on.)
3. Click OK.

To change barlines for groups

1. Click the Staff Tool  . The Staff Menu appears.
2. Click a group handle, then choose Edit Group Attributes from the Staff Menu. (Or, double-click a group handle.) Or, choose Edit Group Attributes from the Staff Menu without selecting a group. The Group Attributes dialog box appears. To display the attributes of another group, click the spin controls to select another Group ID number.
3. To use an alternate barline style instead of the barline style originally defined in the Measure Attributes dialog box, select Use Alternate Group Barline, then select the barline style from the palette for the group.
4. Click OK to dismiss the dialog box.

To change barlines in a selected region (or at regular intervals)

Using this method, you can either change all barlines in a region to a specific type (such as an Invisible barline), or you can change barlines at regular intervals (for example, creating a double barline every eight measures).

1. Click the Measure Tool  , and select the region you want to affect. See Selecting music for some region-selecting shortcuts.
2. From the Measure Menu, choose Edit Measure Attributes. The Measure Attributes dialog box appears.
3. Click to select the barline type you want. In the Change Every Measures text box, enter the frequency of barlines you want to change. In other words, to create a double barline every eight measures, select the double barline and enter 8 in the Change Every text box. (If you’re changing all barlines, leave a 1 in this text box.)

If you’re creating a part that will be extracted, you may also want to select the Break a Multimeasure Rest checkbox (by clicking it twice), so that Finale will break bars of rest at each double barline.

5. Click OK (or press enter).

To hide one barline

1. Click the Measure Tool   and double-click handle of the barline you want to hide. You’re about to hide the right-hand barline.
2. Click the Invisible barline type. Click OK.

To hide all barlines (No-barline music)

1. Create the music normally (with barlines).
2. From the Document Menu, choose Document Options and select Barlines. The Barlines options appear.
3. Click Display All Barlines so that the X disappears. Click OK. Note, however, that Finale “thinks” in measures, even if you’re creating scores with no barlines.

Note: To hide the meter in such a document, see Hiding time signatures.

To move a barline

1. Click the Measure Tool  . A handle appears on each barline.
2. Drag the handle of the desired barline horizontally. The measure becomes wider or narrower. If you move a barline in Page View, you don’t just change the width of the measure whose right barline you drag; you also increase or decrease the width of the measure to its right, making this a useful technique for touching up your page layout. (You can adjust all measures in a system except the last one with this method.)

To insert a false or custom barline

These instructions assume you want to insert a false barline in the middle of an existing measure. This method lets you create a barline of any thickness, size, or shape—curved, dotted, triple, or anything you can think up. You can also use Maestro or Engraver font characters at 24 pt for barlines. The \ character is a normal barline and the alt+0241 character is a dashed barline in the Maestro font. The normal barline is the same in the Engraver font and the dashed line is the alt+0200 character.

1. Click the Expression Tool .
2. Double-click the measure to which the barline will be attached. The Expression Selection dialog box appears.
3. Click Create, then click the Shape radio button.
4. Click Create. The Shape Designer appears. If you want to change the thickness of the barline, use the Line Thickness submenu of the Shape Designer Menu. You can also specify how you want a dashed or dotted barline to look by using the Dash options in the Shape Designer Menu.

The following instructions give measurements in points (1/72 inch). If you’ve been working in different units, choose Rulers and Grid from the Shape Designer Menu and select Points (with gridlines every 6 points).

5. From the Shape Designer Menu, choose Show, then Grid. From the Shape Designer Menu, choose Show, then Staff Template.    
6. Click the Line Tool . Begin drawing on the origin (the small white circle at point 0,0). While pressing shift, drag in the drawing area, straight down, until the V: text box says -24. You’ve just drawn a vertical line (the shift key constrains your mouse to perfectly vertical or horizontal lines) that’s exactly the height of a staff.
7. Click OK to return to the Expression Designer.
8. Click Allow Horizontal Stretching to deselect the checkbox. You’ve just told Finale that the Shape Expression you’ve just created should not be allowed to stretch horizontally along with the measures (when Finale widens measures slightly to make them flush with the page margins).
9. Click OK, then Assign. The “barline” appears in the measure. Drag its handle to move it. Select its handle and press delete to remove it.

To change the thickness of barlines in a document

1. From the Document Menu, choose Document Options, then select Barlines. The Barlines options appear.
2. Enter a new value in either the Heavy Line Thickness or the Thin Line Thickness text box. The units are whatever you’ve most recently selected using the Measurement Units command (Edit Menu). (The default value for barline thickness is 0.46 points.) Note that this setting does not change custom barlines.
3. Click OK (or press enter).

To correct barline display

In the process of creating your document, you may have added or dragged staves between existing staves. Such changes could have unexpected results, especially concerning the appearance of your barlines. If a barline doesn’t appear to be drawn correctly, you can usually solve the problem with this technique. If you keep Auto Sort Staves turned on, the barline display should save you these steps. See Auto Sort Staves in the Staff Menu.

1. Click the Staff Tool . The Staff Menu appears.
2. Choose Sort Staves from the Staff Menu to restore their appearance, based on the new staff order.

To create a double left barline

See Left barlines.