Staves

This entry contains information on adding, moving, deleting, hStavesiding, and recovering staves. See also: Staff names;  Bracket Attributes dialog box;  Staff size.  

When selecting a staff, you can either click the staff’s handle or the body of the staff itself (to the right of the clef, time and key signature). Drag-enclose or shift-click to select as many staff handles as you want. (You can also shift-click selected staves to remove them from the selection.)

To add or insert a single staff

• Click the Staff tool  . The Staff menu appears and handles appear on every staff.
• To add a new staff, choose New Staves. The Setup Wizard appears. Select the desired instrument then click Finish. To insert a new staff between two staves, select the staff handle that you want the new staff placed above, then choose New Staves. Select the desired instrument, then click Finish. PrintMusic moves the existing staves down to make room for the new staff. For details, see Setup Wizard.

To move staves

• Click the Staff Tool . The Staff menu appears and handles appear on every staff.
• Click a staff handle and drag to move the staff in that system only. Measures in that system are selected automatically. Or, once the staff is selected, use the up and down arrow keys to nudge the staff up and down.
• Double-click a staff handle and drag to move the staff in all systems. All measures of the staff are selected automatically when you double-click a staff handle.

When you drag, PrintMusic displays the distance from the top of the staff you are moving to the top of the previous staff. The units are whatever you’ve selected using the Measurement Units commands of the Finale PrintMusic 2011 menu.You can also select the measures of all staves in all systems you want to move, and then click and drag or use the arrow keys to nudge the staves vertically. Whenever you drag staves, subsequent staves in the system retain their spacing and move uniformly.

Moving the top staff of a system

When you drag or nudge the top staff of the first system, Finale adjusts the distance between the top staff and the top system margin as shown below. (System margins are visible when the Page Layout Tool is chosen). When you drag or nudge the top staff of any system other than the first, Finale adjusts the distance between systems.

To delete staves

• Click the Staff Tool . The Staff menu appears and handles appear on every staff.
• Select the handles of (or measure regions in) the staff or staves to be deleted.
• To remove selected staves without adjusting the position of the remaining staves, choose Delete Staves from the Staff menu. Finale deletes the selected staves, and places the top staff of the remaining staves in the former position of the top staff that was deleted, followed by any other staves.
• To restore the deleted staves, immediately choose Undo from the Edit menu.

To hide staves

See Hiding staves.

To set the attributes for a staff

• Click the Staff tool  . The Staff menu appears.
• Select a staff handle, then choose Edit Staff Attributes from the Staff menu. (Or, double-click a staff handle, or a staff name.) Or, choose Edit Staff Attributes from the Staff menu without selecting a staff. The Staff Attributes dialog box appears. If you didn’t select a staff before entering this dialog box, choose a staff from the Staff Attributes for popup menu. (Or, use the arrow controls to select a staff from the Staff Attributes for popup menu.)
• Change settings in the Staff Attributes dialog box to define the staff’s characteristics. For details, see Staff Attributes dialog box.
• Click OK to confirm your settings and return to the score.

To reorder staves

• Click the Staff Tool . The Staff menu appears.
• From the Staff menu, choose Reorder Staves. The Reorder Staves dialog box appears.
• Choose the staff or group you would like to reorder, then use the up and down arrows to the right to adjust the order. Repeat for any other staves or groups you would like to reorder.
• Click OK to confirm your settings.

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