To save you extra work, Finale automatically places a default whole rest in every blank measure. It’s important to understand the difference between one of these default whole rests and a real whole rest that you’ve entered yourself using any of Finale’s music input methods.
For example, a chord or a lyric syllable may be attached to a real whole rest (although Finale automatically skips rests when assigning lyrics by itself). Only a real whole rest can be moved up or down with the Speedy Entry Tool.
Finale considers a “real” whole rest an entry—something you placed in the score—just like a note or another kind of rest. Therefore, a real whole rest will not be part of a multimeasure block rest in a part; it will be placed in a measure by itself. Furthermore, a real whole rest counts as “music” when you optimize staves (suppress the display of blank staves within a given system to produce a more compact and readable full score). Even though a staff appears to be empty, Finale won’t hide it if it contains a real whole rest—a fact you can use to your advantage if you want to “force” an otherwise empty staff to appear in a certain system when you’re optimizing systems. Just add a real whole rest, and Finale won’t hide the staff.
Default whole rests are always centered between barlines.
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