Measures per line

Finale can automatically lay out a certain number of measures per system for you—either within a certain region, or for the entire piece.

To specify a number of measures per line (within a region)

1. Choose Page View from the View Menu, if you’re not already there.
2. Click the Selection Tool  , and select the range of measures for which you want to specify the number of measures per line. See Selecting music for some region-selecting shortcuts. If you want the same number of bars per line for the entire piece, choose Select All from the Edit Menu.
3. Choose Fit Measures from the Utilities Menu. The Fit Measures dialog box appears.
4. Enter the number of measures per system for this document.
5. Click OK (or press return). This technique creates measure groups, which don’t float from one system to another as the page layout changes. See Measure layout for more information on measure groups.

To remove measure groups from the current page to the end

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

While pressing shift, choose Update Layout from the Edit Menu.

To remove measure groups from a selected region

1. Click the Selection Tool  , and select the system for which you want to remove measure groups.
2. Press U to unlock the system. This will allow the measures to reflow during Fit Measures operations. See Selection Tool for more information.