Lyrics menu

Expanded Lyrics menu

How to get there

Choose the Lyrics tool icon. The Lyrics menu appears.

What it does

The Lyrics menu contains all the commands you need to create and edit lyrics, distribute the text in the score, adjust the positions of individual syllables, draw Closedword extensionsA red underline that is used to indicate that a syllable is being sustained through more than one note. In Finale, word extensions expand and contract along with the music as you enter additional lyrics and modify the page layout. for syllables that are sustained, and so on.

You can have as many sets of lyrics as you want—up to 512 of each of Finale’s three lyric types: Verse, Chorus, and Section. There’s no technical distinction between these three types—the lyrics you enter as a Verse can be used in the chorus of your song, and vice versa. They’re only there to help you keep your lyrics straight and to make it easy to change the font or style for a large chunk of lyrics at once (you can specify a different font for Verses, Choruses, and Sections in the Document Options - Fonts dialog box). See Lyrics.

  • Lyrics Window. Choose this command to enter the Lyrics window, Finale’s lyric text processor. If you have copied lyrics from an external word processor, press CTRL+V here to paste them. Otherwise, you can create lyrics from scratch; type them in, being sure to insert a hyphen between syllables. (Finale recognizes a space, hyphen, or carriage return as the end of a syllable.)
  • Lyric Window Options. Choose this command to open the Lyric Windows Options dialog box, where you can choose how editing syllables in the Lyrics Window shifts lyrics in the score.
  • Adjust Syllables. Choose this command to display ClosedhandlesA small square which appears on currently "selectable" elements in the score. Handles allow you to select, edit and adjust musical elements in the score. for each syllable and move them wherever you want. Click a handle to select its syllable; SHIFT-click to select additional syllables attached to the same note. If there are multiple Verses, Choruses, or Sections present, click the staff above a syllable to select multiple handles. Press BACKSPACE to restore a selected syllable to its original position. You can also use Adjust Syllables in conjunction with the alignment and justification commands. To select this command, you can also click the Adjust Syllables icon in the Lyrics window. See To move or delete a syllable.
  • Click Assignment. Choose this command after you’ve typed lyrics into the Lyrics window. To select this command, you can also click the Click Assignment button in the Lyrics window. See To place lyrics into the score (click assignment).
  • Clone Lyric. Choose this command when you want to copy the lyrics from one staff (the source staff) to another (the target staff). To select this command, you can also click the Clone Lyric button in the Lyrics window. See To clone lyrics.
  • Edit Word Extensions. Choose this command to edit a Word Extension, the underline following a syllable sustained beyond the note to which it’s attached. In new documents, or documents that do not contain lyrics created before Finale 2004, these lines are generated automatically as you type lyrics into the score. To select this command, you can also click the Edit Word Extensions button in the Lyrics window. See To draw word extension underlines manually.
  • Shift Lyrics. Choose this command to display the Shift Lyrics dialog box, where you can specify the direction in which you want all the syllables shifted. To select this command, you can also click the icon in the Lyrics window. See To correct misaligned lyrics.
  • Type Into Score. Choose this command to enter lyrics directly into the music instead of using the Lyrics window. To select this command, you can also click the Type Into Score button in the Lyrics window. See To type lyrics directly into the score.
  • Alignment. Use this submenu to set the horizontal position of a note relative to its attached syllables. See Alignment submenu.
  • Justification. Use this submenu to justify the selected syllables relative to their alignment to noteheads. See Justification submenu.
  • Specify Current Lyric. Choose this command to display the Specify Current Lyric dialog box, where you can specify whether you want to edit, Type Into Score, Clone, or Click-Assign a Verse, Chorus, or Section. In the text box, you can also specify by number which Verse, Chorus, or Section you want to manipulate. When the current lyric is changed in the Specify Current Lyric dialog box, it is also changed in the Lyrics window (and vice versa).

    You can also switch one lyric type to another in the Lyrics window; for example, if you've just used Click Assignment to place Verse lyrics in the score, but you now want to use the Lyrics window to enter the chorus, choose Chorus from the Lyric dropdown menu.

  • Adjust Baselines. Choose this command to display the Adjust Baselines dialog box, where you can specify the exact vertical location for the ClosedbaselineAn imaginary line used to align the bottom edge of font characters. Finale displays arrows that control the baseline positioning for lyrics and chords. of each lyric type and number.
  • Export Lyrics. Choose this command to open the Export Lyrics dialog box, where you can extract your lyrics and save them as a text file.
  • Auto-Number. Use this submenu to add automatic consecutive numbering to verses, sections, or choruses in the score as they are added. See Auto-Number submenu.
  • Lyric Options. Choose this command to display the Document Options - Lyrics dialog box where you can specify alignment, spacing and line thickness options as well as settings for hyphens and word extensions.

See also:

Lyrics