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Note Shapes dialog box

How to get there

  1. To assign note shapes (or AlphaNotes) to an entire staff, click the Staff tool  image\Staff_Tool.gif, and double-click a staff whose note shapes you want to modify. (Or, to assign note shapes (or AlphaNotes) to a staff style, from the Staff menu, choose Define Staff Style.)
  2. Select Use Note Shapes, and then click the adjacent Settings button.

What it does

The Special Tools tool lets you change normal noteheads to X noteheads, diamond noteheads, and so on, on a case-by-case basis. There may be times, however, when you need every occurrence of a certain pitch to have a certain shape. "Shape-note" gospel music uses such a system, for example, as do many drum parts. This dialog box not only lets you specify a different note shape for every note of the scale, but even a different note shape for every rhythmic value for every note of the scale. See also Staff Styles. You can also use this feature for creating rhythm part slashes by using the slash mark instead of a notehead.

Instead of having to look up the alphabetic equivalent for the music symbol you want, simply click Select. Finale displays a palette containing every symbol in the music font; double-click the shape you want to use as the replacement notehead. When you return to the dialog box, Finale enters the symbol’s alphabetic system font equivalent in the text box automatically.

See Also:

Staff Styles

Staff Attributes

 

 

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