Edit Frame dialog box

How to get there

  1. Choose the Speedy Entry tool .
  2. Click outside or between staves to remove the Speedy Entry Frame.
  3. OPTION+click a measure that contains music.

What it does

You’ll rarely, if ever, need to enter this extremely technical dialog box. It lists dozens of coded variables regarding the notes in the measure you clicked, and allows you to edit the "behind-the-scenes" raw data Finale associates with each note.

Each note in a measure has a good deal of information stored with it, including its ID number, its voice assignment, whether or not it "launches" a tie, and so on; in this dialog box, you can set each such "bit" manually. You’ll encounter some technical terms in this discussion; one of the most important is entry, which refers to any note, rest, or chord.

You can hide ledger lines on an entry by deselecting the Ledger check box in the Frame dialog box. There is also a Slur check box that indicates whether a slur is attached to an entry.

Entry slots

  • Frame (#). This indicator identifies the measure frame you’re editing. A frame refers to one measure in one staff. You should note, however, that Finale doesn’t number the frames in the order they occur in the score—instead, it numbers them in the order in which you created them.
  • First Entry: (#) • Last Entry (#). These indicators identify the note or rest that begins and ends the measure you’re editing. Finale assigns a number to every single note or rest as you create it. While Finale assigns numbers to notes sequentially, you might not always enter notes sequentially, so the Start and End numbers may appear to be out of order.
  • Current Entry (#). This indicator identifies the entry you’re looking at. (Remember that Finale assigns every note or rest an ID number as you create it.)
  • Duration. The number in this text box sets the rhythmic value of the current entry, in EDUs (1024 per quarter note). Click Duration if you want to change its value graphically; a palette of rhythmic values appears.
  • Position. The number in this text box shows the horizontal distance by which an entry has been displaced from its default placement in the measure. Any time you drag a note to the right with the Speedy Entry or Special Tools Tool, you increase this value; if you drag a note to the left, you decrease this value.
  • Entry Slot (#). This indicator lets you know which note, chord, or rest (entry) you’re looking at. The first entry in the measure is 0, and the "slots" are numbered from left to right; there’s an invisible "end-of-measure" slot in each measure, too. (A measure with four notes and a rest, therefore, has six slots including this "end-of-measure" slot.)
  • Prev Entry • Next Entry. Click these buttons (at the top of the dialog box) to scroll from one entry to another within the measure.
  • Entry Slot: Add • Delete. These buttons insert an entry into, or remove the currently displayed entry from, the measure.
  • Articulation. If this check box is selected, there’s an articulation mark attached to currently displayed entry.
  • Beam Ext. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry’s beam has been extended with the Beam Extension Tool (within the Special Tools Tool).
  • Beam/Beat. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry isn’t beamed to the note before it.
  • Combine Rests. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry is combined with rests on the same beat in other layers. If this check box is not selected, none of the rests occupying the same beat as this entry are combined.
  • Cross Up. If this check box is selected, one or more of the notes of the currently displayed entry is cross-staff note.
  • Double Stem. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry has both an upstem and a downstem, created with the Double/Split Stem Tool (within the Special Tools tool).
  • Flip Tie. If this check box is selected, you have flipped the tie upside-down, either locally (using Special Tools or Speedy), or by your settings in Document Options - Layers.
  • Float Rest. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry (if it’s a rest) is fixed on the middle staff line (or another line, if you’ve established in Document Options - Layers [Document menu] that reposition all rests in a layer). If this check box is not selected, you can drag the rest up and down with the Speedy Entry Tool.
  • Freeze Beam. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry’s beam has been frozen either joined or broken. Additional changes to the measure will not change the state of the beam, found in the Beam/Beat box. Utilities/Rebeam will override this setting.
  • Freeze Stem. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry’s stem has been frozen up or down. (See the check box labeled Up/Down in the fourth column of dialog box items; if it’s selected, the stem is frozen up.)
  • Grace. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry is a grace note.
  • Ignore. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry is invisible and doesn’t play back (because you’ve pressed the O key using the Speedy Entry Tool).
  • Ledger. This option is selected by default, so that Finale automatically draws ledger lines for all notes that need them. To hide ledger lines on a particular entry, deselect this option. When you return to the score, the ledger lines will no longer appear on that entry. To display ledger lines for an entry that have been hidden, select this option for the entry.
  • Legality. The function of this check box is extremely technical; you should never need to click it. Briefly, when not selected, this check box hides the currently displayed note and all subsequent notes or rests in the measure. In other words, an entry whose Legality check box isn’t selected acts as an "end-of-measure" mark to Finale (see Entry Slot [#]," above)—meaning that Finale ignores it and any subsequent notes.
  • Note Detail. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry (including its notehead, stem, and beam, if any) has been resized with the Resize tool, or its notehead or accidental has been modified with the Notehead or Accidental tools (within the Special Tools tool).
  • Note/Rest. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry is a note; if not, it’s a rest.
  • Perf Data. If this check box is selected, there’s performance data (Key Velocity and Start/Stop Time information) associated with the currently displayed note.
  • Playback. If this check box is selected, the note will sound during playback.
  • Reverse Up • Reverse Dn. If one of these check boxes is selected, a reverse upstem or downstem, respectively (on the "wrong" side of the notehead) has been added to the currently displayed entry with the Reverse Stem Tool (within the Special Tools tool).
  • Sec Beam. If this check box is selected, you’ve made adjustments to the beaming of the currently displayed entry with the Secondary Beam Break Tool (within the Special Tools tool).
  • Slur. If this option is selected, the entry has a note-assigned Smart Shape slur attached to it. This option is provided for reference only; you should not change this setting manually.
  • Spacing. When selected, the currently displayed entry will affect how Finale spaces the music. If unchecked, Finale ignores the entry when calculating music spacing.
  • Special. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry’s tie or dot has been modified with the Tie or Dot Tools (within the Special Tools Tool).
  • Split Stem. If this check box is selected, one or more notes of the currently displayed entry have split stems created with the Double/Split Stem Tool (within the Special Tools tool).
  • Stem Detail. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry’s stem has been modified with the Custom Stem, Stem Length, Beam Angle, or Secondary Beam Angle tools (within the Special Tools tool).
  • Text Detail. If this check box is selected, there’s a lyric syllable attached to currently displayed entry.
  • Tuplet. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry is the first note of a tuplet.
  • Up/Down. If the Freeze Stem check box is selected, this check box indicates whether the currently displayed entry’s stem has been frozen up or down. If Up/Down is selected, the stem is frozen up; if not, it’s frozen down.
  • Voice 2. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed entry belongs to Voice 2.
  • V2 Launch. If this check box is selected, a second voice (V2) has been "launched" from the currently displayed entry.

Note slots

  • Prev Note • Next Note. Click these two buttons (near the bottom of the dialog box) to scroll from one note to another within a chord. (Prev moves you from the bottom to top note, and Next moves you from top to bottom.)
  • Note Slot: Add • Delete. These buttons insert a note into, or remove the currently displayed note from, a chord.
  • Note ID. The number in this text box identifies the currently displayed note in the chord.
  • Displacement. The number in this text box identifies the currently displayed note’s pitch, expressed as a number of diatonic steps away from the first note of the scale (the tonic). The note E is two scale degrees above C, so its Displacement in the key of C is 2.
  • Raise/Lower. The number in this text box specifies the amount (in half steps) the currently displayed note has been raised or lowered from its unmodified diatonic scale degree by the addition of accidentals. A B flat in the key of C has a Raise/Lower value of –1. An F sharp in the key of C has a Raise/Lower value of 2.
  • Note Slot (#). This indicator specifies which of the notes in a chord you’re looking at. The notes of a chord are numbered from bottom to top, beginning with the number 0.
  • Accidental. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed note’s accidental appears, even if it wouldn’t normally (such as the natural before a C in the key of C)—sometimes called a courtesy accidental.
  • (Accidental). If this check box is selected, there’s an accidental in parentheses on the current entry.
  • Cross Note. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed note is a cross-staff note.
  • Downstem 2nd. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed note’s notehead is drawn on the "wrong" side of its stem, usually because it’s an interval of a second from another note in the same chord. (Upstem and Downstem refer to the stem direction.)
  • Freeze Accidental. An X in this check box indicates that you’ve forced an accidental to appear (or not to appear) by pressing the asterisk key while editing with the Speedy Entry tool.
  • Legality. This check box, when not selected, hides the currently displayed note and all subsequent notes in the chord, serving as an "end-of-chord" marker for Finale.
  • Playback. If this check box is selected, the note will sound during playback.
  • Spacing. When selected, the currently displayed entry will affect how Finale spaces the music. If unchecked, Finale ignores the entry when calculating the music spacing.
  • Tie Start • Tie End. These check boxes indicate whether a tie begins or ends on the currently displayed note. Do not edit these check boxes.
  • Upstem 2nd. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed note’s notehead is drawn on the "wrong" side of its stem, usually because it’s an interval of a second from another note in the same chord. (Upstem and Downstem refer to the stem direction.)
  • Upstem Split. If this check box is selected, the currently displayed note’s stem has been "split" from the other notes of the chord, using the Double/Split Stem Tool (within the Special Tools tool), and the currently displayed note has been assigned to the upward stem.
  • OK • Cancel. Click OK to confirm the settings you’ve made in this dialog box and return to the score. Click Cancel to tell Finale to ignore any changes you made in this dialog box. You return to the score.

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