Flags

See also Beaming;  Document Options-Stems.  

You have considerable control over the flags on single eighth notes (and smaller values) in Finale. The typical use for these parameters is to adapt a music font to Finale other than Finale’s Maestro font or Adobe’s Sonata font. Because different fonts use different spacing and positioning schemes for their music characters, you may need to adjust some of these variables in order to accommodate a different music font.

To change the character assignment for a flag

1. From the Document Menu, choose Document Options and select Flags. The Flag options appear.
2. From the Flag Characters popup menu, choose the flag element whose character you want to change, then click Select. See the figure for reference. Maestro flag characters contain either one or two flags (as shown below).

When you click Select, the Symbol Selection dialog box appears containing every available character in the font. (To change the font, from the Document Menu, choose Set Default Music Font, choose a new font and click OK.)

3. Double-click the replacement character. Whichever character you select will now appear at every occurrence of a flag in this document.
4. Click OK.

To use Straight Flags

1. From the Document Menu, choose Document Options and select Fonts.
2. Choose Flags from the Notation popup menu.
3. Click Set Font, and choose Maestro Percussion.
4. Click the Straight Flags radio button to select it.
5. Choose Straight Upstem Flag from the popup menu, then click Select to display the Symbol Selection dialog box. Type the key combination for the character, or scroll through the dialog box and click the character you want to use. Click Select to choose the Straight Upstem Flag character. Choose the characters according to the tables below, then click select.
6. Choose Straight Downstem Flag from the popup menu, then click Select to display the Symbol Selection dialog box. Type the key combination for the character, or scroll through the dialog box and click the character you want to use. Click Select to choose the Straight Downstem Flag character. Choose the characters according to the tables below, then click select.

If you’re using Horizontal Straight Flags, use the flag character on R (slot number 114) in the Tamburo font for both the straight upstem and downstem flag. For Angled Straight Flags, use the flag character S (slot number 115) for the straight upstem flag, and shift-S (slot number 83) for the straight downstem flag. Use the Flag category in the Document Options dialog box (under the Document Menu) to adjust the horizontal or vertical placement of the flags as needed. Refer to the following tables to determine which characters to select for the angled or horizontal style of straight flags.

To adjust the placement of Horizontal and Angled Straight Flags

1. From the Document Menu, choose Document Options and select Flags.
2. Choose Straight Upstem Flag from the popup menu and change V to 12 EVPUs. (For angled straight flags, set V to 24 EVPUs.)
3. Choose Straight Downstem Flag from the popup menu and change V to zero. (For angled straight flags, set V to -24 EVPUs.)
4. Click OK twice.