Brackets: Horizontal lines

This entry contains instructions for placing a horizontal line or bracket above a staff, with or without a hook at the end, like this:

To draw a horizontal line

1. Click the Smart Shape tool  . The Smart Shape palette appears. (If it doesn’t, choose Smart Shape Palette from the Window menu.)
2. Click the bracket shape you want. There are several types: some are dotted, some solid; some have an upward or downward “hook” at the right end. You can also create a custom line style with a hook using the Custom Line Tool. See Custom lines.
3. Position the cursor in the measure where you want the bracket to begin so that the cursor arrow points to the staff to which you’re attaching it. This is particularly important when you’re working in orchestral scores; if you accidentally attach a Smart Shape to the wrong staff, it won’t appear in the correct staff when the parts are extracted.
4. Double-click; on the second click, hold the button down and drag to the right until the bracket is the correct length.

To move, reshape, or delete a Smart Shape line

If the line is already selected, it displays diamond editing handles; if so, skip to the last step.

1. Click the Smart Shape tool  . The Smart Shape palette appears.
2. Click the handle of the shape you want to modify. The shape displays diamond editing handles.
3. Drag the right or left editing handles to change the line’s length. Drag the square handle to move the line. Hint: It’s a good idea to press the shift key just before your double-click and hold it down while you drag; if you do so, Finale will constrain your dragging action to a perfectly horizontal plane, so that your line is perfectly level. You could also CONTROL-click the handle of the line and choose Make Horizontal from the contextual menu after creating the line.
4. Press DELETE to remove the selected shape.

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