Making the Most of PrintMusic

If you’ve followed the step-by-step procedures to this point, you’ve seen most of PrintMusic’s tools at work. You’re not expected to remember all this material, of course; you can always re-read the in-depth discussions presented in this volume and consult the User Manual and QuickStart Video Tips at any time (under the Help menu).

But knowing which tools are at your disposal is only half the learning process. Now you need to learn how to maximize the program’s speed and power to produce the most music, with the fewest false steps, and in the shortest time.

Working with Templates

It’s a good idea never to build any score configuration more than once—save any such template, with no music in it, so that you can open it the next time you need a similar system setup.

When you open a template document, Finale opens the last two pages of the Setup Wizard where you can customize the template’s title, composer, time signature, key signature, and other settings. Upon finishing the Wizard, Finale opens a new untitled document based on your settings (so you don’t accidentally change the original). You’ll find various kinds of blank scores (piano-vocal scores, choral setups, chamber orchestra scores, and so on.)

To preserve a blank original template while opening a duplicate to work on:

1. From the File menu, choose New, then Document from Template. The Open dialog box appears, allowing you to choose a template.
2. Double-click the template you want to open and finish the Setup Wizard. When the document comes to the screen, it’s called Untitled. This technique achieves the same result as the Save As technique: It preserves the original template for future use, and brings an untitled copy to the screen.

Order of Entry

In general, you can make the most of your time by creating your documents in the following order. Save your work frequently. The list below is just one possibility; you may find a different order suits your style better.

1. Use the Setup Wizard or a template to define the instruments and basic layout of your piece. If needed, add, delete or edit staves with the Staff tool.
2. Enter the music using the Simple Entry tool, Speedy Entry tool, or HyperScribe.
3. Edit the music with the Simple Entry tool. Get familiar with the numeric keypad commands, including duration shortcuts and keystrokes for selecting other tools. Remember, you can right-click any entry to edit it with a context menu, or -click) to select any note and use a modifier keystroke to edit the note. To see a list of keystrokes, from the Simple menu, choose Simple Edit Commands.
4. Using the Playback Controls, listen to your piece to check for mistakes.
5. Put in the lyrics using either Type into Score or Click Assignment.
6. Use the Repeat tool or one of the Repeat Plug-ins to place any repeats.
7. Add chord symbols and fretboards.
8. Put in all the expression markings: articulations, dynamics, slurs, and so on.
9. Verify that the music is spaced correctly; if necessary, use the Music Spacing command in the Utilities menu.
10. Use the Resize tool to specify the overall size of the music (by clicking the upper-left corner of the page).
11. Look the piece over in Page View. Fix bad page turns or system breaks, using the Fit Measures command under the Utilities menu. Use the Selection tool to move measures up or down systems as necessary using the up and down arrows.
12. Add rehearsal notes, subtitles, and page numbers with the Text tool.
13. Use the Page Layout tool to make final adjustments to your score and parts.

Scanning Music

The SmartScore Lite feature in PrintMusic, like many music scanning products, doesn’t recognize articulation marks, hairpins, double or repeat barlines, or text. It will recognize 3 accidental types, 3 clefs, 16 staves per page, smallest note value is a 32nd note, and a maximum of 1 augmentation dot.

Because scanning is not a perfect science, you will need to clean up any file after conversion. Depending on the music, some users will find it easier to simply re-enter the music via one of PrintMusic's traditional note entry methods: Simple Entry, Speedy Entry, or HyperScribe.

Remember that to take advantage of any of PrintMusic's scanning capabilities, you will need to have a properly installed scanner (contact the manufacturer of your scanner if you have questions). Because scanners and scanning software varies widely, we cannot provide instructions on how to prepare a file for every scanner. For some hints on how to prepare a scanned file from some popular scanners, see Scanning in the User Manual. The scanned sheet music image should be saved as a black and white (or line art) graphic in TIFF format at a resolution of 300dpi.

To open scanned files with SmartScore Lite

• Place a sheet of music on your scanner. Ensure it is placed squarely on the scanner’s bed, and the staff lines are not slanted on the page. Do not use handwritten or photocopied scores. If you have already scanned and saved TIFF files (or want to use our demonstration TIFF file), from the File menu, choose Scanning: SmartScore Lite, and then Import Existing TIFF File (and skip the next three steps).
• From the File menu, choose Scanning: SmartScore Lite, and then Scan and Import. Finale opens the SmartScore Lite scanning software. In most cases, all the settings you need to properly scan the file for Finale import are configured.
• Scan the first page of your score. After the scan, click Yes to scan additional pages. Click No once all your pages have been scanned.
• Click OK. The SmartScore Lite dialog box appears.
• Click Add Files to List. The Open dialog box appears. If you just scanned, your files appear in this list. Click the first file in this list and then hold down Shift and click the last file to select all of them. Then click Open.
• Click the file name to highlight it. A preview of the file appears in the left window.
• Click Begin Recognition. The Instrument Name Assignments dialog box appears, which allows you to configure instrument transpositions, staff names, and the MIDI instruments. It is important to apply this information to ensure your staves are transposed properly. See Instrument Name Assignments dialog box.
• Click OK. PrintMusic transcribes the scanned file(s) and displays the music in a single file. Add the ties with the Simple or Speedy Entry tools. For more information, see Scanning in the User Manual.

Links to the Rest of the World

PrintMusic is the most well-connected program you can imagine. It can share its music with sequencers, or other notation programs. With the Finale Showcase, you can even post your files on the Finale music website www.finalemusic.com and share with friends across the globe.

One of the most useful examples of PrintMusic’s cooperation with other software is its ability to handle standard MIDI sequencer files. These special files contain MIDI playback data. Most sequencer programs (Digital Performer, Sonar, Cubase, and so on) can generate and read them, and so can PrintMusic. That means that you can create your music in your favorite sequencer; when it’s polished and ready to be notated, save it on your disk as a MIDI file and open it with PrintMusic; it will turn into standard notation. When you attempt this process, you’ll discover that PrintMusic offers literally dozens of options for separating and recombining the music on the various tracks of the sequencer file. If you want, PrintMusic will even retain the velocity, rhythmic “feel,” and controller information from the original sequence. See MIDI Files in the User Manual for more details.

Note, too, that PrintMusic can read files created in other music notation programs from MakeMusic, including SongWriter, Finale, Allegro, Finale Guitar, and NotePad. Files created in earlier versions of any of MakeMusic’s notation programs can be opened in PrintMusic directly, even in the opposite platform. For example, files created in PrintMusic! 2006 for Windows can be opened in PrintMusic for Macintosh. IMPORTANT: None of MakeMusic's older products can read PrintMusic files directly. To share your files with others who do not own the most recent version of PrintMusic, have them download Finale Reader 2011 which is available at www.finalemusic.com/reader and will open any file saved from PrintMusic 2011.

The Next PrintMusic

Your response to PrintMusic is extremely important to us; the version of PrintMusic you’re now using reflects the comments and suggestions of thousands of users. Please send us your ideas and “wish lists” as you get to know the program. We’ll read and consider everything we receive; PrintMusic will continue to become better, faster, and easier to use.

In the meantime, you have at your disposal a musical tool of tremendous power and flexibility. You’ve seen some of what Print- Music can do, and you’ll discover other useful features as you become acquainted with it. With this volume and the User Manual as your guides, you should now be ready to work on a project of your own.

A fascinating experience awaits you. Here’s hoping that PrintMusic enhances your musical productivity and creativity in ways you’ve never imagined possible.

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