To move a measure to the previous (or next) system

Before you perform this or any significant page layout action, be sure to choose Update Layout (command-\) from the Edit menu. (If you’re in Page View, be sure to choose Update Layout while you’re viewing the first page, since Update Layout only affects the region from the current page to the end of the piece.)

1. If you’re not in Page View, choose Page View from the View menu.
2. Click the Selection Tool  , and click the measure to be moved. If you want to move more than one measure to the next system—the last two on a line, for example—click the first measure of the group to be moved. If you want to move more than one measure to the previous system, click the last measure of the group to be moved.
3. Press the up arrow key or down arrow key. If you press up arrow, the selected measure (and any that precede it in the system) move to the previous system. If you press down arrow, the measure or measures move to the next system or are consolidated if you are editing the last 2 systems. In either case, Finale then automatically adjusts the layout, just as though you’d chosen Update Layout from the Edit menu.

What you’ve just done is to create a measure group, Finale’s system of locking measures within a system. Be aware, however, that once a measure has been manipulated in this way, the measures in its new system are locked into this arrangement, and won’t be affected by future measure-rearranging commands. To remove measure groups from the piece highlight the systems with the Selection Tool and press Command-U or choose Update Layout from the Utilities menu while pressing shift.

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