Measures

See also Measure layout.

To add blank measures at the end of the document

1. Double-click the Measure Tool  . Or, to add more measures at once, from the Edit Menu, choose Add Measures.
2. Enter the desired number of measures. Click OK (or press return).

To insert blank measures within a document

1. Choose any tool that allows regional selection. See Selecting music. 
2. Select the measure after the point of insertion. Even if there is more than one staff, click a single measure. Finale will add a blank measure in every staff.
3. From the Measure Menu, choose Insert Measure Stack or, if the Measure Tool is selected, you can control-click on the top measure handle and choose Insert Measure Stack. A dialog box appears, asking how many measures you want to insert.
4. Enter the desired number of measures. Click OK (or press return).

To erase or remove measures

1. Choose any tool that allows regional selection. See Selecting music. 
2. Double-click a measure to select the full measure stack. Highlighting should extend between the staves (or above and below the staff if there is only a single staff).
3. Press the Delete key, or, from the Edit Menu, choose Delete Measure Stack. This removes the selected measures from every staff. The result: your score contains fewer measures.

To delete a measure from a single staff

When you remove a measure from the score as described above, Finale removes the measure in question from every staff in the score. Using the following technique, however, you can remove a measure from a single staff (in effect) by sliding the subsequent measures one measure to the left.

1. Click the Selection Tool  , and click the next measure after the measure you want to delete.
2. Hold down Shift and press the End key to select all measures to the right of the one you selected. Alternatively, you could choose Select Region from the Edit Menu, delete the number in the Through Measure text box, and click OK. (Leaving this text box blank indicates the end of the piece.)
3. Drag the first selected measure to the left, so that it’s superimposed on the measure you want to delete. Finale asks you how many times you want the selected music copied. The default value, once, is what you want.
4. Click OK (or press return). Finale moves the music you selected one measure to the left, in effect eliminating the measure you wanted to remove. There may now be an extra measure at the end of the staff; just erase or remove it (see “To erase or remove measures”).

To change one measure’s width

1. Click the Measure Tool  . A handle appears on each barline.
2. Click the top handle and drag the right barline of the measure in question to the right or left. You can also click inside the measure itself and drag to the right or left.

To adjust measure widths in a system

It’s useful to remember that you can adjust the relative widths of the measures in any particular system.

1. Go to Page View, if you’re not already there. You change views by choosing Page View from the View Menu.
2. Choose Update Layout from the Utilities Menu.
3. Click the Measure Tool  . A handle appears on every barline.
4. Drag the handle of any measure to the right or left. As you make one measure wider, the one to its right becomes narrower. (You can adjust all measures in a system except the last one with this method.)

To change the widths of many measures

1. Click the Selection Tool  . 
2. Select the measures to be resized. You only need to select the region in one staff; the measure widths will be changed in all staves. See Selecting music for some region-selecting shortcuts.
3. From the Edit Menu choose Edit Measure Attributes. The Measure Attributes dialog box appears, letting you specify a fixed width for all selected measures or to add or subtract a certain amount from all selected measures. The units are whatever you’ve selected using the Measurement Units command in the Edit Menu.
4. If you want to set the selected measures to a uniform width, enter a value into the Width text box. If you want to add or subtract the same amount of width in all the selected measures, enter a positive number (to widen) or negative number (to narrow) in the other text box.
5. Click OK (or press return). Be sure to choose Update Layout from the Utilities Menu (or press command-\) before printing or viewing in Page View.

To specify minimum or maximum measure widths

Using this method, you can tell Finale not to make any measure wider or narrower than a certain width.

1. From the Document Menu, choose Document Options and select Music Spacing. The Music Spacing options appear.
2. In the Minimum Measure Width text box, enter the minimum measure width you want to allow in the selected region. The units are whatever you’ve selected using the Measurement Units command (Edit Menu). Enter a Maximum Measure Width too, if you want.
3. Click OK (or press return). When you use the Music Spacing command, Finale will check all the measures you’ve selected, to make sure they’re within the width range you specified. If any measures are narrower than the minimum, Finale sets them to that minimum width (and shortens any that are longer than the maximum width).

To split a measure across a system break

There may be times when you want a very long measure (such as a cadenza measure) to break in half if it straddles a system break. The point at which the measure can be split into two, and the latter half moved to the next system is called the horizontal split point. The following instructions result in a measure that may break at the end of a system, but only if Finale thinks it’s necessary. (You can, however, force the measure to break, as described in the note below.)

1. Click the Measure Tool  , and double-click the barline handle of the measure you want to split. The Measure Attributes dialog box appears.
2. Select Allow Horizontal Split Points. Click OK (or press return). When you dismiss the dialog box, a new handle appears at the bottom of the measure’s right barline.
3. Click the handle at the bottom of the barline. A special “split-point rectangle” appears above the measure.
4. Double-click in the split-point rectangle. A handle appears. Drag it horizontally to tell Finale precisely where it may break the measure (if necessary). Double-click in as many places as you want to provide additional permissible split points. To remove a split point handle, click it and press delete.
5. Choose Update Layout from the Edit Menu. You won’t see the effects of your split point until you choose Update Layout.

Note: If you want to force the measure to split, after you have added a split point, click the Selection Tool, click the portion of the measure you want to move, and press the up or down arrow, as described in To move a measure to the previous (or next) system. (If you’ve specified more than one split point, Finale breaks the measure at the first designated split point, regardless of whether you press up or down.)

To arrange measures on the page

See Measure layout.