How to get there
Click the Staff Tool 
k. Choose Staff Usage from the Staff Menu.
What it does
Use the Staff Usage List dialog box to
specify the exact vertical position of a selected staff, measured from
the top of the window in Scroll View, and to verify which staves in the
score will be affected by your positioning changes.
- Staff
Usage List: Global • Special Part Extraction • Staff System (plus the
current system number). Finale displays which staff systems will
be affected when you position a staff or staves. Finale has three ways
of displaying information in Page View. The first is the default, or "Global",
view. Finale can temporarily display the page formatting in two other
ways: during Special Part Extraction, and when a staff system or systems
are "optimized" to remove resting parts. The Staff Usage List
indicator lets you know whether the positioning changes you make affect
the "Global" view, or whether they only affect the temporary
formatting during Special Part Extraction or optimization.
When "Global" appears, dragging a
staff or changing its Distance From Top value will alter its position
in every staff system in Page View, and its position in Scroll View.
When "Special Part Extraction" appears,
dragging a staff or changing its Distance From Top value in Page View
will affect its position in each staff system, but won’t change its position
in Scroll View. Dragging a staff in Scroll View will affect the staff’s
position in Scroll View, but won’t change its position in Page View until
Special Part Extraction is turned off (no checkmark appears next to the
Special Part Extraction command in the Document Menu).
"Staff System" (plus the current
staff system number) appears when the selected staff system has been optimized
using the Page Layout Tool. Any positioning change in Page View will affect
the current staff system only.
- Staff
Number • Prev • Next. This number shows Finale’s internal number
for the current staff (Finale numbers staves in the order that they’re
created). There is usually no reason to enter a different number for a
staff. However, if you enter a new staff number, Finale will change the
contents of a staff to match the contents of an existing staff (it will
not change the staff’s order in the score). When two staves share the
same ID number, their contents are identical and dynamically linked, so
that any change you make in one will appear in the other. Click Prev and
Next to move through the staves. Remember that Finale numbers staves as
you create them, so if you’ve rearranged or deleted staves, they might
not be numbered sequentially in the score.
- Distance
From Top. This number sets the distance from the top line of the
staff to the top of the window in Scroll View. Enter a negative value
(in measurement units) to adjust the vertical position of the staff down
from the top of the window. If you enter the same number for two staves,
Finale will superimpose the staves.
Tip: Finale uses this
value as a starting point for positioning a staff; staff positions in
Page View and printouts are also affected by any resizing you do with
the Resize Tool.
- OK
• Cancel. Click Cancel to return to the score without changing
the staff’s position. Click OK to confirm your changes and return to the
score.
See Also:
Staff Tool
