Staff Attributes

 

How to get there

Click the Staff Tool  image\Staff_Tool.gif. Choose Edit Staff Attributes from the Staff Menu. Or, double-click a staff handle, or a staff name handle.

What it does

In the Staff Attributes dialog box, you can specify dozens of staff-specific traits for the staff whose handle you clicked, including its name, transposition, and clef. You can also tell Finale whether or not certain musical elements should appear in this staff—measure numbers, default whole rests, time signatures, and repeat ending brackets, to name a few.

You can create and edit full and abbreviated staff names mixing fonts and styles. You can also allow or prevent optimization of the current staff.

Once you’ve established the transposing instruments’ staves, you can tell Finale to display the full score either in its transposed form or in its untransposed (concert pitch) form. Choose Display in Concert Pitch from the Document Menu to show the score untransposed.

The staves in the full score always print out exactly as they appear on the screen (whether transposed or in concert pitch); when you extract parts, however, the resultant parts are always printed in their transposed form. (The exception is the Special Part Extraction method of extracting parts, which will print staves transposed or not according to your Display score in concert pitch setting.)

Select "Break Repeat Barlines Between Staves" if you want to break repeat barlines that would normally continue through to the next staff above this one. This option doesn’t affect normal barlines.

For example, click Key Signature or Time Signature if you want this staff to be in a different key or meter than the other staves in the piece. When you click the Key Signature or Time Signature Tool, a handle appears on every barline of each staff for which you’ve selected Key Signature or Time Signature. Click the handle to access the Key Signature or Time Signature dialog box for that staff alone.

You can choose any font for your noteheads without affecting flags, rests, and accidentals on the notes in the staff. When the Notehead Font checkbox is selected, Finale uses the font you select for the current staff. When this checkbox is not selected, Finale uses the font specified in the Select Default Fonts dialog box. Click Select to display the Font dialog box. The Maestro Percussion font included with Finale contains noteheads for use on percussion staves, as well as noteheads to use for hymnals requiring shape notes.

Tip: If you don’t want barlines to appear in a particular measure in all the staves in your piece, select the "Invisible" barline in the Measure Tool. Or, if you don’t want barlines to appear in your entire score, deselect Display All Barlines in Document Options-Barlines.

See Also:

Staff Tool

Staff Setup

Percussion Map Selection

Percussion Map Designer

Note Shapes

Tablature

 

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