Grids and Guides

Grids and guides

You can use grids and guides to accurately align and position expressions, text, or any item in your document. The grid represents horizontal and vertical lines which appear at regular intervals on the page, just like graph paper. Set apart at any distance you like, they make a great reference for aligning items relative to each other or from the page edge. Guides are reference lines, horizontal or vertical, that can be set anywhere on the page. Unlike gridlines, guides can be positioned at will, and are particularly useful for fine positioning of items to be aligned between lines of the grid.

You can also tell Finale to automatically snap certain items to the closest grid intersection or to a guide line.

To show the grid

From the View Menu, choose Page View.
From the View Menu, choose Grid/Guide > Show Grid.
The grid appears on the page. To set the distance between gridlines, see Document Options-Grids and Guides.

To create a guide

From the View Menu, choose Page View.
From the View Menu, choose Grid/Guide > Show Guides. Notice rulers appear above and to the left of the page.
Control-click the ruler and choose New Guide. The New Vertical/Horizontal Guide dialog box appears, which displays the guide location.
Click OK. The guide line appears. To move the line, click the arrow at the top or left end of the line.

To snap to grids and guides

In Page View, from the View Menu, choose Grid/Guide > Show Grid or Show Guides.
From the Document Menu, choose Document Options, and then select Grids and Guides.
Check Snap To Grid or Snap To Guide.
Choose Items to Snap To Grid or Items to Snap To Guide. The Items to Snap To Grid or Items to Snap To Guides dialog box appears. See Items To Snap To Grid and Items To Snap To Guide dialog boxes.
Check the items you want to snap to grids and/or guides.
Click OK. Selected items now snap to the nearest grid intersection and to nearby guide lines. To see how close you can move an item to a guide line without snapping to the guide, Control-click the guide arrow and choose Show Gravity Zone.