Re: Finale help


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Posted by Kyle on May 28, 2003 at 18:37:40:

In Reply to: Finale help posted by Daryl on May 28, 2003 at 14:31:30:

It is possible to put examples from Finale into Word documents.

1. Go to "Page View"
2. Select the "Graphics Tool"
3. Double click and drag a box around the music that you want put into the Word document.
4. Click the drop down menu labeled "Graphics" and select "Export Selection"
5. Export the file as a high-resolution (600 dpi is OK) TIFF file.
6. Open this file in a graphics program such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.
7. Convert the file format to BMP.
8. Save the file as this new format.
9. Use Word's "Insert...Picture...from File" function to insert the BMP image that you saved.

Now for the disclaimers:

1. The process I just described works using Finale 2003a, Word XP, and Paint Shop Pro 7, so if it doesn't work with your setup or the process ends up being slightly different from what I described, don't be surprised.

2. I know its a multi step rocedure that has the potential to get complex. I'm sorry if it is confusing, but I am music student not a technical writer, tech support line, or computer whiz. I developed this technique out of the need to impress music history and theory professors with something other than my writing.

3. The results that I get are very good--thats why I use this process. If yours are not satisfactory, don't blame me!


Personally, if I was trying to write out a warmup routine as you are doing, I would try one of the Adobe PDF techniques mentioned here earlier because it is the most accessible for the most people and the easiest way of converting large amounts (more than 3-4 staves) of music. However, Finale is not real friendly about inserting text (it takes a lot of menu clicking to make it look right). So, if you would like to add commentary (similar to what appears in the back of the Hal-Leonard Band Method book with the Arnold Jacobs studies), you might consider saving yourself the hassle with Finale and text and just use Word.

Also, you might consider posting your work at the Finale Showcase. There users can go and print out the music (for free or whatever you decide to charge). This would save you the hassle of trying to convert the music to some other format.

The last option that you might consider is to save the music in Finale as an html document and then post it to web hosting service like Geocities or Angelfire or you own ISP. I don't think that you'll be able to do this unless you are using the 2003 version, so if this is the case and you want to use this optino, just save the file on a disk and give it to someone who does have 2003.

Some thoughts for what they're worth.

Kyle


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