Document Styles

In Finale, you can reuse all document settings from any existing document by designating it as it as a Document StyleA Document Style is a model document with settings that can be inherited by new scores created with the Setup Wizard. Document Styles differ from templates in that you still need to specify which instruments appear in your score; you can also associate a Document Style with a particular Setup Wizard ensemble so that it is always used for that ensemble.. A Document Style is a model document with settings that can be duplicated while designing a new score in the Setup Wizard. When you designate a file as a Document Style, you are telling Finale you would like to use its articulations, expressions, fonts, Score Lists, staff styles, page layout and all other document options and libraries alongside the instrumentation and other settings you specify in the Setup Wizard. For a list of all document-specific settings, see Document Settings and Program Settings.

Noteman says: The Legacy Defaults folder contains all of the Document Styles that were delivered with previous versions of Finale. As of v27.2, all Document Styles delivered with Finale use a SMuFL-based font, except for the versions within the Legacy Defaults folder. These use MakeMusic legacy fonts.

To use an existing Document Style

1. Choose File > New > Document With Setup Wizard. The Document Setup Wizard - Select an Ensemble and Document Style dialog box appears.
2. If you would like to begin with a premade ensemble, select it under the Select an Ensemble list. Choose Create New Ensemble to design the instrumentation from scratch when you advance to the next page. The next page of the Setup Wizard also allows you to edit the ensemble selected here and to save new custom ensembles. See Ensembles.
3. Choose the desired Document Style from the Select a Document Style list. You can change an ensemble's default Document Style by choosing a different Document Style and clicking the Always Use This Document Style with the Selected Ensemble button. After you have chosen a new Document Style for the selected ensemble, an asterisk will appear next to the document style to indicate this option has been set.

   The Document Styles listed here include all files that appear in the Document Styles folder on your hard drive (see Finale Installation Details for specific folder locations on your computer). Finale already includes a variety of Document Styles. To create a customized Document Style, see "To create a Document Style" below.

4. Complete the Setup Wizard. A new document opens based on your settings.

Once opened, a description of each Document Style included with Finale can be found in File Info (ScoreManager). Here, you can reference the Document Style's libraries, text inserts, staff spacing, cover pages, and other distinctive settings. When you edit one of Finale's Document Styles you can log your changes here for future reference.

To create a Document Style

1. Open a document that most closely matches the desired document settings. For example, you might use the Setup Wizard to begin with an existing Document Style or one provided with Finale. To begin with a completely empty document, choose File > New > Document Without Libraries.

   If a file with music is used as a Document Style, the Setup Wizard strips out all of the musical information including staves and entries before generating the new document. Page-attached text and graphics, however, are retained as part of the Document Style.

2. Load libraries and change any document-specific settings as desired (see Finale Libraries and Document Settings and Program Settings).
3. Save the file in the Document Styles folder (~/Library/Application Support/MakeMusic/Finale [version]/Music Files/). See Finale Installation Details. The next time you use the Setup Wizard, the file name of this document appears under the Select a Document Style list in the Document Setup Wizard - Select an Ensemble and Document Style dialog box.

Finale Document Styles

See also:

Reusing document settings

Finale Character Sets

SMuFL