Edit menu

How to get there

The Edit menu is one of Finale’s unchanging menus; that is, it appears regardless of which tool is selected.

What it does

You can find an assortment of editing commands in the Edit menu. Use the Edit menu to cut, copy and paste music and other items when you’re editing the document. Select a region with any tool that supports measure selection and these commands are available. Note that some of these commands have keyboard equivalentsA shortcut or alternate method of choosing a menu command, or performing a function. (which are listed in the menu beside the command names); as you become more familiar with Finale, you may want to start learning these keyboard equivalents.

Additional options can be accessed by pressing the CTRL or SHIFT keys before displaying the menu. For example, hold down CTRL to copy files into the clipboard. The Cut, Copy, Insert and Paste commands change to reflect the action that will occur. For example, Cut changes to Cut to Clip File—see Copying multiple passages of music to another document.

Undo • Redo • Undo/Redo Lists. As you edit a file, Finale automatically saves your operations and settings so they can be quickly reversed. Choose Undo to reverse your changes in backward sequential order. Choose Redo to perform the previous undo action. If you have performed too many undo actions in a row, use the redo to replace the actions removed. Choose Undo/Redo Lists to display the Undo/Redo Lists dialog box with a list of your past actions. You may select a point in this list in which to undo or redo your actions. For more details, see Undo.
Select All • Select Region. Use Select All with a number of tools to select various handlesA small square which appears on currently "selectable" elements in the score. Handles allow you to select, edit and adjust musical elements in the score. or measures. In many cases, you can exclude (deselect) one handle at a time from the selection by SHIFT-clicking its handle. Choose Select Region to display the Select Region dialog box, in which you can enter the staff names, beat and measure numbers that define the region you want to select. When you click OK, Finale selects the region you’ve specified—even if none of it is visible on the screen.
Cut. After selecting a region of music with the Selection tool, choose Cut to place the selected music on the clipboard and simultaneously remove the music from the document. If a stackA selected region including full measures in every staff is called a measure "stack" and is indicated by highlighting extending from the top to the bottom staff, including the area between staves. is selected, the measures will be removed. If the measure selection is not a stack, the contents of the selection will be cleared. You can also place cut text on the clipboard from the Lyrics window or Edit Text window.
Copy. After selecting a region of music with the Selection tool, choose Copy to place a duplicate of the selected music on the Clipboard; you are now ready to paste to another place in your document or another Finale document. (You can’t paste copied Finale music into another program, however; see Graphics Tool for instructions on transferring music graphics.) You can also place copied text on the clipboard from the Lyrics window or Edit Text window.
Insert. Choose Insert if you want to insert whatever music you’ve cut or copied to the clipboard between two existing beats or measures.
- If you copied a full measure stackA selected region including full measures in every staff is called a measure "stack" and is indicated by highlighting extending from the top to the bottom staff, including the area between staves. to the clipboard, and would like to insert it, select the a region including the beginning of a measure on the top staff. Then, choose this menu item to insert the copied measures, nudging subsequent measures to the right.
- If you copied a region lesser than a full stack, first tell Finale where you want the material inserted by selecting any amount of music just after the desired point of insertion. When you choose this menu item, Finale shifts the subsequent notes to the right, rebarring the piece as necessary, only in the staves you're inserting into. See Rebarring music.
Items inserted depend on the elements selected in the Edit Filter dialog box. Hold down SHIFT and click the Edit menu to change this command to Insert and Filter, allowing you to choose which items you would like to insert.
Paste. Choose Paste if you want whatever music you've cut or copied to the Clipboard to paste over (replace) the selected music in the target file (first use the Selection tool to select the destination of the paste). You can also paste text you've cut or copied to the clipboard in the Lyrics window or Edit Text window, or when editing text on-screen with the Text tool. Choose Paste (or use its keyboard equivalent CTRL+V) if you want the selected text replaced with whatever text you've cut or copied to the Clipboard.
While pasting, the items that appear in the destination region depend on the elements selected in the Edit Filter dialog box. Hold down SHIFT and click the Edit menu to change this command to Paste and Filter, allowing you to choose which items you would like to paste.
Paste Multiple. Select a target region and then choose this option open the Paste Multiple dialog box where you can paste multiple copies of the source material to the target region. You can replicate the source material as many times as you want either vertically or horizontally.
Use Filter • Edit Filter. Choose Use Filter to toggle whether or not to filter specific items for copying. Choose Edit Filter to display the Edit Filter dialog box, which lists various score elements (Smart Shapes, articulations, measure widths, MIDIMIDI is a standardized protocol by which music applications, computers and MIDI instruments talk to each other. data, and so on) that you can select for copying. When this item is selected, your copying actions will only copy the selected items.
Move/Copy Layers. Use this command to display the Move/Copy Layers dialog box, where you can move music from one of Finale’s transparent staff layers to another. You can even swap the music between layers—if, for example, you mistakenly entered several stems-down notes in Layer 1, which you intended to use only for stems-up (upper) voices. This command only affects full-measure selections.
Clear All Items • Clear Selected Items. Use this command to remove the contents of the selected music (whether or not you’ve selected entire measures), leaving equivalent rests behind. (This command performs the same function as highlighting measures and pressing the BACKSPACE key.) For more control, choose Clear Selected Items to selectively delete items from the score. This command displays the Clear Selected Items dialog box, which lets you specify Measure and Entry (note-related) items to erase. Choose any items you want to erase. (If you select only part of a measure before choosing Erase, the Measure Items choice won't be available in the dialog box.)
SmartFind and Paint. Use this submenu to copy items, such as articulations, expressions, slurs, and other Smart Shapes, to other rhythmically identical regions throughout the document. See SmartFind and Paint submenu.
Text Search and Replace. Use this command to display the Text Search and Replace dialog box, where you can search and replace text in the form of text blocks, lyrics, file info, Smart Shapes, or staff/group names.
Add Measures. Choose this menu item to display the Add Measures dialog box, where you can add measures to the end of your score.
Insert Measure Stack. Choose this command if you want to insert a stackA selected region including full measures in every staff is called a measure "stack" and is indicated by highlighting extending from the top to the bottom staff, including the area between staves. you've cut or copied to the Clipboard. First tell Finale where you want the material inserted by selecting any amount of music just after the desired point of insertion.
If the music on the Clipboard was copied from ten staves, you don't have to insert the contents of all ten staves in the target score. For example, you can select (highlight) a measure in only four staves of the target score; Finale inserts the measures in all staves. Note that this option is only available if you copied a full measure stack to the clipboard.
Delete Measure Stack. Choose this menu item to delete selected measures from the score. Full measures in all staves (measure stacks) need to be selected in order for this menu item to be available. Also, use the DELETE key to delete selected measure stacks.
Multimeasure Rests. Use this submenu to break existing multimeasure rests, create multimeasure rests regardless of whether Special Part Extraction is on, and edit the appearance of an individual multimeasure rest. You must be in Page View to change multimeasure rests. See Multimeasure Rests submenu.
Edit Measure Attributes. Choose this menu item to display the Measure Attributes dialog box, where you can edit the characteristics of measures such as changing the barline style, specifying the width of the measure, and controlling whether Time or Key Signatures will appear in the measure.
Enharmonic Spelling. Use this submenu to control the chromatic spelling of your music when you enter notes using MIDI (such as Speedy Entry with MIDI or HyperScribe) or use one of Finale's retranscription commands (Import MIDI File, Retranscribe, utilities like Implode Music, Explode Music, and Respell Notes). See Enharmonic Spelling submenu.
Measurement Units. In a number of Finale dialog boxes, you’re asked to specify a measurement: the margins of each page, for example, or the thickness of eighth-note beams. Using this submenu, you can select the measurement unit you want Finale to understand—and display—in all of its dialog boxes See Measurement Units submenu.
Preferences. Choose this command to display the Preferences dialog box, where you can configure Finale's program-wide settings.