There are two ways to add lyrics to your score in Finale. You can type the lyrics directly into the score, so that you know at all times where you are in the music—a feature called Type Into Score. Or you may prefer the Click Assignment method—where you type the lyrics in Finale’s text processor (called the Lyrics window), and then paste them into the score. Regardless of the method you use, the Lyrics window is available for ease in entry and editing.
Finale defines a syllable as any letters separated by a space or a hyphen. When you put the lyrics into the score, Finale places the syllable in your score by the settings in the Lyrics Options dialog box, centers the hyphen between notes, and moves any syllable correspondingly if its notehead moves.
Lyrics are often written in distinct sections—verse and chorus, for example. For that reason, Finale provides three different lyric types—Verse, Chorus, and Section. These types are identical in every respect—you can write the verse of a song and define it as a Chorus, if you want to—except that you can set the default font and positioning for each type differently. You could specify, for example, that all Verses are to be set in boldface type, but that all Choruses are set in italic type. (You can have as many as 512 of each lyric type. You can also change the font and style within any lyric.)
To type lyrics directly into the score
To prepare lyrics in a separate window
To place lyrics into the score (click assignment)
To edit lyrics already in the score
To set the font for lyrics globally
To change fonts within a lyric
To prevent changing the type size for lyrics attached to cue notes
To set the baseline (vertical position) for lyrics numerically
To set the baseline (vertical position) for lyrics graphically
To change alignment and justification of syllables for individual notes
To set alignment and justification of syllables globally
To draw “word extension” underlines
To add “word extensions” on specific syllables only
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