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Navigating your music

Customizing your view of the score.

Finale’s basic navigation features allow you to display the score in a variety of formats, or views, and bring any region of the score into focus using zoom functions. Finale has three main ways of viewing your score: Scroll View, Page View and Studio View. Each has different uses and strengths.

By the end of this lesson, you will know how to:

  1. Choose a view that best suits your needs
  2. Zoom to adjust the size of your score on the screen
  3. Change the visual score region using the Hand Grabber tool and switch pages

Noteman says: Also see the Navigating Your Score QuickStart Video to get acquainted with Finale's navigation features.

Scroll View

Scroll View displays your music as one continuous, horizontal stream of music.

To move to Scroll View

  • Choose View > Scroll View. Or,
  • Press CTRL+E (toggles between Scroll and Page View).

Scroll View

By removing the barriers of page breaks, Scroll View offers quick, easy navigation.

Page View

Page View displays music exactly as it will appear on the printed page.

To move to Page View

  • From the View menu, choose Page View. Or,
  • Press CTRL+E (toggles between Scroll and Page View).

Page View

Page View is Finale’s “print preview.” This view is ideal for formatting your music before printing.

Studio View

Studio View is similar to Scroll View in that it displays your music in a horizontal system, but also includes the Staff Mixer Controls on the left hand side for real-time control of volume on each staff.

To move to Studio View

  • From the View menu, choose Studio View. Or,
  • Press CTRL+SHIFT+E.

Studio View

Studio View is specially-designed for auditioning playback.

Zooming

You can change the size of your music on the screen using the Zoom tool, selecting a view percentage from the View menu, or by using a related keyboard shortcut.

To zoom in or out using the Zoom tool

  1. Choose the Zoom tool .
  2. Click on the score to zoom in.
  3. CTRL+click to zoom out.

To change the view percentage with the View menu and define custom zoom percentages

  1. Choose the View > Zoom > Custom Zoom (1, 2, or 3, depending on the desired percentage).
  2. Choose Define Custom Zooms to open Preferences - View where you can set the three custom zoom levels.

To use keyboard shortcuts to zoom

  • Press CTRL+= to zoom in,
  • Press CTRL+- to zoom out
  • Press CTRL+1, 2, or 3 to select one of your custom zooms

Changing the visible score region and switching pages

The Hand Grabber tool and the page view buttons are two effective ways to navigate to a specific portion of music.

To change the visible score region using the Hand Grabber tool, and navigate pages with the page scroll controls

  • Choose the Hand Grabber tool . Then, click and drag to change your view. Or, with any tool selected, right-click and drag to move the score.
  • In Page View, the arrow buttons in the lower left corner of your screen allow you to navigate between pages. You can also type in the page number and press ENTER to change pages.
  • In Scroll or Studio View, this text box allows you to type in a measure number and press ENTER to move to a different part of your score.
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