Staves

Noteman says: View the Add, delete, and reorder staves QuickStart Video for a demonstration.

1. Choose Window > ScoreManager. The ScoreManager appears.
2. In the Instrument List tab, click Add Instrument and select the desired instrument (or blank staff) from the list. The new instrument appears in the appropriate position based on the selected score order (chosen under the adjacent Score Order pop-up menu).

   If Custom is selected, the new instrument appears below the selected instrument.

When you choose the Staff tool in Page View, staff handles appear on the left side of each staff.

• Either click the staff’s handle or the body of the staff itself (to the right of the clef, time and key signature) to select the staff.
• Click the staff handle and drag to adjust the staff's position for that system only (measures in the system are selected automatically when you click a staff handle).
• Double-click the staff handle and drag to adjust the staff's global position: Finale adjusts the spacing for every staff system in the piece (all measures of the staff are selected when you double-click a staff handle). When dragging staves, subsequent staves in systems reposition uniformly.
• You can select more than one handle at once by holding SHIFT and clicking the handles. You can also drag-select any visible handles in Page View, selecting either all the top or all the bottom handles as desired. SHIFT-click selected staves to remove them from the selection.

You can also select specific measures prior to dragging or nudging to adjust staves in specific systems. See Selecting Music.

• In the ScoreManager, find the row of the instrument you would like to delete and click the adjacent icon (under the rightmost column).

Or…

1. Choose the Staff tool . The Staff menu appears and handles appear on every staff.
2. 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 Staff > Delete Staves.
   • To delete the selected staves and reposition any remaining staves, choose Staff > Delete Staves and Reposition. 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.
3. To restore the deleted staves, immediately choose Edit > Undo.

Once you delete a staff, you can restore it by choosing Edit > Undo, or choose Edit > Undo List and highlight Staff/Group delete and click OK. Actions done after the staff was deleted will also be undone. See Undo for more information.

See To hide empty staves.

Noteman says: Watch the Reordering Staves QuickStart Video for a demonstration.

• In the ScoreManager, click and drag the icon of the instrument you would like to reorder to the correct vertical position.

  Note that when you do this, the Score Order changes to Custom, which means that future instrument additions are added beneath the selected instrument. You can choose a score order to instantly update the order of instruments at any time.

1. Choose the Staff tool . The Staff menu appears.
2. Choose Staff > Reorder Staves. The Reorder Staves dialog box appears.
3. Select the staff, staves, or group(s) you want to reorder.
4. Use the up or down arrow buttons to move the staves vertically.
5. Click OK. The staff order is updated in the document, and the Score Order pop-up menu in the ScoreManager changes to Custom to reflect the updated staff order.

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.

For a more in-depth discussion of system margins and spacing distances, see Page layout.

1. Choose the Staff tool . The Staff menu appears and handles appear on every staff.
2. 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 or DOWN ARROW keys to nudge the staff up and down.

   Subsequent staves in the system retain their spacing and move uniformly.

1. Choose the Staff tool . The Staff menu appears and handles appear on every staff.
2. 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.

   Subsequent staves in each system retain their spacing and move uniformly.

1. Choose the Staff tool . The Staff menu appears and handles appear on every staff.
2. While pressing OPTION, drag a staff handle. All other staves remain in their original position.

1. Choose the Staff tool . The Staff menu appears.
2. To add staves below all existing staves, choose Staff > New Blank Staves. Or, select the staff handle you want the new staves to be placed above, then choose Staff > New Blank Staves. The New Staves dialog box appears.
3. Enter the number of new blank staves into the Number of Staves text box.
4. To place the new staves closer to or farther from those already in the score, enter a value into the Topline to Topline Distance text box (the distance between the top lines of each added staff).

   The units are whatever you've selected under Finale > Measurement Units.

5. Click OK. Finale adds the specified number of new blank staves below the bottom staff, or inserts blank staves above the top selected staff in the score, using the distance specified in the New Staves dialog box, and adjusting the staves below to make room for the newly inserted staves.

1. Choose the Staff tool . The Staff menu appears.
2. Select the staves/systems you would like to respace. If there are no measures selected, changes will apply to the full score.
3. Choose Staff > Respace Staves. The Respace Staves dialog box appears.
4. Choose the appropriate options:
   • Leave Keep Current Position selected if you don’t want to move the top staff.
   • To place the top staff a fixed distance from the top of the screen, select Top Staff Position: Set to and enter the distance into the Set to text box.

     The units are whatever you've selected under Finale > Measurement Units

   • To reposition the top staff by a percentage of its current position, click Top Staff Position: Scale to and enter a percentage into the Scale to text box. For example, to place the staff twice as far down, enter 200 (%) in the text box.
   • To maintain a fixed distance between the remaining staves, select Space Above Each Selected Staff: Set to and enter the distance into the Set to text box.

     The units are whatever you've selected under Finale > Measurement Units

   • To place staves closer together or farther apart proportionally, select Space Above Each Selected Staff: Scale to and enter a percentage into the Scale to text box. This will preserve the relative distance between each staff. For example, if you created a larger-than-usual gap between the woodwind staves and the strings, and you entered 50 (%) in the text box, Finale would make extra space, but both the gap and the distances between staves within the woodwind or string sections would be half as large.
   • To reset to Scroll View spacing, select Set to Scroll View Spacing.
5. Click OK to confirm your changes.

Any staff within any system can be larger or smaller than the other staves. For specific information on creating a cue staff, see Cue notes. You can also alter the number of staff lines and their thickness.

1. If you're not already in Page View, choose View > Page View.
2. Choose the Resize tool .
3. Click on the staff you want to resize or right/CONTROL-click on the staff and select Resize Staff from the contextual menu. The Resize Staff dialog box appears.
4. Enter the desired reduction or enlargement percentage in the Resize Staff To text box. Under Staff System Range, specify the region of systems you want to resize.
5. Click OK. The selected region of the staff resizes to the percentage you've specified.

   To restore the staff to normal size, choose the Resize tool, click on the staff, and enter 100 (%).

In Finale, you have staff-by-staff control over the display of such staff-associated items as measure numbers, clefs, repeat brackets, and so on. For example, you probably don’t need measure numbers to appear in both the top and bottom staves of your piano part, so you can hide the measure numbers on one staff. To set the staff attributes for a number of staves at once, see Global Staff Attributes.

1. Choose the Staff tool . The Staff menu appears.
2. Select a staff handle, then choose Staff > Edit Staff Attributes. (Or, double-click a staff handle, or a staff name handle.) The Staff Attributes dialog box appears.
3. Under Items to Display, select or deselect the appropriate options.
4. Click OK to confirm your settings and return to your document.

Staff attributes include various settings related to staff display, such as barline handling and whether or not to display certain items like repeat bars or time signatures. To change more general staff properties such as the staff name, clef, and transposition, see ScoreManager. To set the staff attributes for a number of staves at once, see Global Staff Attributes.

1. Choose the Staff tool . The Staff menu appears.
2. Select a staff handle, then choose Staff > Edit Staff Attributes. (Or, double-click a staff handle, or a staff name.) The Staff Attributes dialog box appears.
3. Change the settings to define the staff’s characteristics.
4. Click OK to confirm your settings and return to your document.

A staff can have as many as 100 staff lines, or you can create a staff with no lines.

1. In the ScoreManager, select the instrument you want to change.
2. From the Staff pop-up menu menu, choose Other. The Staff Setup dialog box appears.
3. Select Custom Staff.
4. Select the number and position of the staff lines. Click the handles to hide or show staff lines.
5. If you want to specify just the number of staff lines, select Staff Lines and type the number of lines into the Staff Lines text box.
6. Click OK (or press RETURN).

If you’re interested in making the staff lines closer together or farther apart, use the Resize tool to change the overall size of the music, as described in To reduce or enlarge all the music on a page (or the entire piece). Once that’s done, make the notes themselves smaller (or larger) relative to the staff by choosing Fonts in the Document Options dialog box (under the Document menu), clicking the Music button, and specifying a slightly smaller (or larger) point size for the music font in which they’re displayed.

1. Choose Document > Document Options > Lines and Curves. The Document Options - Lines and Curves dialog box appears.
2. Enter a new value in the Staff Lines text box. The units are whatever you’ve specified under Finale > Measurement Units.
3. Click OK (or press RETURN).

Ledger lines appear automatically in Finale whenever you enter a note that requires them. In addition, any tool that performs a staff- or measure-related function automatically draws ledger lines as you move the cursor, letting you know which staff you’re attached to.

1. Choose the Selection tool and select a region from which you wish to hide ledger lines from all entries.
2. Choose Plug-ins > Note, Beam, and Rest Editing > Ledger Lines (Hide) or Ledger Lines (Show). The ledger lines in the selected region are hidden or displayed.

   If there is no music selected when you invoke Ledger Lines (Hide) or Ledger Lines (Show), Finale will ask you if you want to process the entire document.

1. Choose Document > Document Options and select Lines and Curves. The Document Options - Lines and Curves dialog box appears.
2. Edit the settings for ledger lines:
   • Enter a new thickness value in the Ledger Lines text box.
   • Enter new values in the Left Half and Right Half text boxes to change the ledger line length. For extra flexibility, you can control the length of each side of the ledger line independently.

   The units are whatever you’ve selected under Finale > Measurement Units.

3. Click OK (or press RETURN).