Measure layout

For information regarding the relative widths of the measures in a particular system, see To adjust measure widths in a system.

You can easily control the page layout of measures in Finale through the use of measure groups. A measure group is a set of measures fastened to each other; even if the arrangement of other measures changes, those in a group will remain together in the same system.

This kind of control over measure layout is especially useful when you’re fine-tuning a piece’s layout—avoiding an awkward page turn, forcing a key change to fall at the beginning of a system, and so on.

Note that the measures you rearrange in the following instructions become locked into the arrangement you specify; they won’t be affected by future measure-rearranging commands like Update Layout or even Begin a New Staff System (see “To create a system break ,” below). To lock measures into place, select the systems you wish to affect and pressCommand-L. These locked measures will not be affected by updating the layout (unless Remove System Locks is selected in Program Options-Edit) or rearranging the measures in other systems.

To remove measure groups from the piece choose Update Layout from the Edit Menu or highlight the systems or region with the Selection Tool and press Command-U. If Maintain System Locks is selected in Program Options-Edit select Update Layout while pressing shift.

To move a measure to the previous (or next) system

Before you perform this or any significant page layout action, be sure to choose Update Layout (command-\) from the Edit Menu. (If you’re in Page View, be sure to choose Update Layout while you’re viewing the first page, since Update Layout only affects the region from the current page to the end of the piece.)

If you’re not in Page View, choose Page View from the View Menu.
Click the Selection Tool $image\Selection_Tool.gif$ , and click the measure to be moved. If you want to move more than one measure to the next system—the last two on a line, for example—click the first measure of the group to be moved. If you want to move more than one measure to the previous system, click the last measure of the group to be moved.
Press the up arrow key or down arrow key. If you press up arrow, the selected measure (and any that precede it in the system) move to the previous system. If you press down arrow, the measure or measures move to the next system or are consolidated if you are editing the last 2 systems. In either case, Finale then automatically adjusts the layout, just as though you’d chosen Update Layout from the Edit Menu.

What you’ve just done is to create a measure group, Finale’s system of locking measures within a system. Be aware, however, that once a measure has been manipulated in this way, the measures in its new system are locked into this arrangement, and won’t be affected by future measure-rearranging commands. To remove measure groups from the piece highlight the systems with the Selection Tool and press Command-U or choose Update Layout from the Edit Menu while pressing shift.

To force selected measures into one system

Where the up/down-arrow trick works well to push a single measure into a different system, sometimes it’s useful to say: “I want these three measures, and only these, in one system.”

If you’re not in Page View, choose Page View from the View Menu.
Click the Selection Tool $image\Selection_Tool.gif$ , and select the measures you want to group. To select the first measure of the group, click it; then shift-click the last measure of the group. You may also drag-enclose the measures you want; in any case, they should now be highlighted.
Choose Fit Measures from the Utilities Menu. A dialog box appears.
Click Lock Selected Measures Into One System. Click OK. Finale places the selected measures into a system by themselves, then does an automatic Update Layout.

To specify a number of measures per system

See Measures per line.

To remove measure groups through the end of the piece

This process will undo the procedures above, restoring all measures to “floating” status—in other words, their system affiliation may change as the page layout changes.

Choose Update Layout from the Edit Menu. If Maintain System Locks is selected in Program Options-Edit, press shift while selecting Update Layout, or deselect this option. Shift–Update Layout works exactly like the normal Update Layout command in one respect: it only affects the pages of your piece from the page you’re viewing to the last page. If you’ve carefully created measure groups on the first page, for example, you won’t disturb them if you perform a shift–Update Layout command while viewing page 2. See Program Options-Edit.

To remove measure groups for individual systems

This process will undo the procedures above, restoring all selected systems to “floating” status—in other words, their system affiliation may change as the page layout changes.

Select the systems to remove measure groupings and command-U. This will unlock all the locked systems in the selected region.

To create a system break

You can command a specified measure to begin a new system, no matter what the measure layout may be in other systems.

Click the Measure Tool $image\Measure_Tool.gif$ ; double-click the barline handle of the measure you want to begin a new system. The Measure Attributes dialog box appears.
Select Begin a New Staff System. Click OK (or press return).
Choose Update Layout from the Edit Menu. The specified measure now begins a new system. It will always begin a new system, no matter how the page layout changes.

To split a measure across a line break

See To split a measure across a system break.

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