Finale 2014 is here, and it’s full of new features. In this new blog series we’ll briefly highlight some of these features, one at a time, and offer some tips as well.

Today we’ll look at rests in layers. When creating music with independently rhythmic lines in Finale, the trick is to use layers, putting each independent voice in its own layer. Here’s an example of what that looked like in Finale 2012:

But what if you don’t like the duplicated rests as seen in beat two of the first measure? In Finale 2012, you might manually hide one of the rests and drag the other into place – unless you knew of a plug-in that could address this – but either way it was extra work.

Finale 2014, on the other hand, can consolidate rests automatically. Here’s what this looks like:

Now, of course, if you prefer that your rests not be consolidated, that result is easy now too – simply go to Document > Document Options… > Layers and uncheck “Consolidate rests across layers.”

While you’re in that dialog box I have another tip to share, which also works in earlier versions of Finale. If you recreate the examples above you might notice that your rests appear higher and lower than mine. You can control this using “Adjust floating rests.” The default setting of 6 steps for layer one and -6 steps for layer two may be just right for choral or keyboard music, but for this kick and snare example, my friend Mark Adler might suggest  4 and -4.

Let us know how Finale 2014 is working for you by clicking on “Comments” below.