Measure layout

Noteman says: See Music spacing and measure layout for a step-by-step tutorial on changing the measure layout, or view the Changing the number of measures per system QuickStart Video for an overview.

You can easily control the layout of measures in Finale so that measures remain locked in a particular system. This kind of control over measure layout is especially useful when you’re fine-tuning a piece’s layout—avoiding an awkward page turn, forcing a key change to fall at the beginning of a system—and so should be near the end of your list of tasks when preparing sheet music.

Note that the measures you rearrange in the following instructions become locked into the arrangement you specify; they won’t be affected by future measure-rearranging commands like Update Layout or even Begin a New Staff System (see To create a system break, below). To lock measures into place, select the systems you wish to affect and press CTRL+L. These locked measures will not be affected by updating the layout (unless Remove System Locks is selected in Preferences-Edit) or rearranging the measures in other systems.

To remove the system locks from the piece, choose Edit > Update Layout, or highlight the systems or region with the Selection tool and press CTRL+U. If Maintain System Locks is selected in Preferences-Edit, select Update Layout while pressing SHIFT.

For information regarding the relative widths of the measures in a particular system, see To adjust measure widths in a system.

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Finale 2014 for Windows

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