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Linked Parts

After you have optimized, the score should be all but complete. It’s now time to deal with the parts. In the Finale of old, when the score was finished and you were ready to generate parts, you needed to extract them into autonomous documents, which themselves needed to be cleaned up and individually prepared for printing. Any change to the score required an edit to all respective parts. Today, parts are integrated within the score and the content is intelligently linked. Edits to music in the score also apply to the part. Changes to notation in either score or part applies to the other respectively, but many elements in parts, such as expressions and text, can be edited independently. In this section, you will learn how to create, manage, edit, and print parts using Linked Parts technology.

Whenever you begin a document with the Setup Wizard (or add a staff with the New Staves (with Setup Wizard) command), you have the option to “Generate Linked Parts.” When you check this box, upon completing the Wizard, Finale generates the parts based on the instruments you chose. To view parts, from the Document menu, choose Edit Parts, and then select the part - the part name is always originally the same as the staff/group name from the score.

Note that optimization can be added or removed at any time—before or after parts have been generated.

 

There’s no hurry to create linked parts however, they can be added at any time. You might even wait until the score is complete before generating them (if, for example, you are working with scores created in a version prior to Finale 2010.) Our document does not yet contain parts, so let’s generate them now. To start from this point, open “Tutorial 5a.”

  1. The Page Layout Tool  image\Page_Layout_Tool.gif should still be selected (if it isn’t, choose it now). From the Page Layout menu, choose Optimize Staff Systems. Check Remove staff system optimization, and click OK. Now all staves in the score are visible. (For our purposes, this will make it easier to distinguish between the score and parts).
  2. From the Document menu, choose Manage Parts. The Manage Parts dialog box appears.
  3. Click Generate Parts. Finale populates the list with one part for each instrument. Finale names the part based on the instrument name. If a grand staff were in the score, Finale would have added a single part and used the group name for the part.

Click Edit Part Definition to change the part name, add or remove staves, and make other advanced edits to your parts.

 

  1. Click OK. Finale generates the parts. You can choose a part under the Edit menu. Or, easily navigate between them by holding down (Windows users) and , (Mac users) and , and pressing . (period) or , (comma). Or, choose a part from the View menu.

As mentioned earlier, notation changes (such as changing pitches and rhythms) made to either the part or the score apply to the other respectively. Change the pitch of a note in the part and check the score to see for yourself. Since other markings, such as expressions, often need to be positioned differently in the parts than in the score, the positioning link between an expression in a part and its parent can be broken.

  1. Click the Expression Tool  image\Expression_Tool.gif.
  2. In the score, double-click on top staff, measure 1.
  3. Double-click themarking. You can now reposition this expression—as you do, you are setting the position for both score and parts. Next, we’ll specify the positioning for this expression in a part, but not the score.
  4. From the Document menu, choose Edit Part, then Violin 1. You are now viewing the Violin I part.
  1. Click and drag the marking to the right. By repositioning the expression in the part, you are breaking this expression’s positioning link. The expression changes color, to orange, indicating the link has been broken. When you reposition an expression in a part, your change only applies only to that part, and future positioning changes to that expression in the score do not apply to that part (unless the expression in the score is dragged into a different measure. If this is the case, relink the expression).
  2. From the Document menu, choose Edit Score. The position of the expression in the score remains unchanged.
  3. Click and drag the expression to the right in the score.  
  4. From the Document menu, choose Edit Part, then Violin I. Notice the expression remains where you positioned it previously. Now, let’s say you decide this expression should be linked to the one in the score as it was originally.
  5. Windows users right-click, Mac users, -click and choose Relink To Score. The expression returns to the position specified in the score. Positioning changes to this expression in the score also apply to this expression as they did originally.

Note you can relink an expression in all parts by selecting Relink In All Parts from the Expression context menu in the score.

Expressions are only one of many types of elements that can be edited this way. Text, repeat markings, articulations, chords, and other markings behave similarly. See Linked Parts in the User Manual for details.

When the score and parts are nearing completion, it’s time to transform consecutive empty measures into multimeasure rests.

  1. From the Edit menu, choose Multimeasure rests, and then Create for Parts/Score. The Select Parts/Score dialog box appears.  

  1. Check each part you want to change. Generally, score files do not contain multimeasure rests, so for now, we’ll choose every part except the score.
  2. Click OK. Finale applies multimeasure rests to consecutive empty measures based on your settings in Document Options-Multimeasure Rests (under the Document menu).

After creating multimeasure rests, you may want to visit each part to ensure the measure and system layout meets your approval. For example, if a measure occupies a whole system at the end of the part, you can use the Selection Tool to fix it (select the measure and press the up arrow key on your keyboard).

When parts are complete, print them directly from the project file. Simply choose Print from the File menu and check the parts you want to print. See Printing linked parts in the User Manual for details.  

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