Finale beams eighth notes (and smaller values) automatically, according to the time signature.
Using the Rebeam commands, however, you can change the beaming patterns for notes you’ve already added to the score. Rebeam Music simply restores beaming to the patterns dictated by the time signature; you’d use this command after manually changing the beaming. Rebeam to Time Signature, on the other hand, lets you rebeam the selected music into any beaming pattern you wish, even if it’s unrelated to the time signature. Finale displays a variant of the standard Time Signature dialog box, where (by changing the “beaming signature”) you specify any beaming pattern you can dream up. See Time Signature dialog box for details on how the Time Signature controls affect beaming.
Beaming to lyrics is a convention used in opera or art song notation. In this scheme, eighth, sixteenth, and shorter notes are never beamed together in the vocal line except when a syllable is sustained through more than one note (melisma). Choose Rebeam to Lyrics to display the Lyric Rebeaming dialog box, in which you can specify the lyrics you want rebeamed in this way. See Rebeam to Lyrics dialog box.
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