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Mac 10.11.6

Still remember the first time I tried to add a dynamic and it went flying off the page into oblivion.  (You could see the dashed line tethering it to the beat, but couldn't get at the symbol.)  WORKAROUND:  Undo, and add such marks only when in Scroll View.

I just lost hours of work in an orchestral score, when 25.2 crashed.  I am good about saving regularly, but I'm told my most recent save was more than an hour ago.  I will allow for the slight possibility that I neglected to do so (I really can't believe it though).  I did a search for the backup of my file, and there wasn't any.  I checked my Preferences:  Auto back-up duly checked; every 15 minutes, to such-and-such folder.  Went to that folder and found it EMPTY.  Not only was this file never backed up; neither had anything else I had worked on since the so-called upgrade.  WORKAROUND:  Make your own back-ups periodically, and don't assume that a feature that has worked flawlessly for decades hasn't been destabilized.   

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Are you sure that backup doesn't exist? If you have more than one build of Finale installed, each one has its own backup folder and preference files.

 

Perhapsba betterl workaround is to create a backup folder or find the correct one and make an alias to it where you can find it. My alias is on my dock. I do not have auto save on and prefer the ability to revert to the last saved version by closing the file without saving. Being a 30+ year Mac user and 20+ year Finale user, I'm quite used to saving manually at regular intervals. YMMV.

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No backup was created since I started with 25.  I mentioned my plight in case anybody else is assuming the function works necessarily for them.  (I hope people will be prudent and check, as I wish I had done.)

Update:  if you also experience flying expressions with multiple pages, there is a better WORKAROUND than I give above.  It's the multiplicity of the pages that gives the program the vapors.  You can stay in Page View:  just go to the last option in the dropdown where you have a single sheet in looseleaf.  When you're done entering expressions you can go back to multiple pages.

O.k.  A new bug evinced itself yesterday.  I was trying to globally replace an expression.  You start with the expressions window, select one and click Delete.  The warning message comes up that it is in use, with the option to replace.  This window superimposes itself over the expressions one.  You choose to pick another one to replace it and the expressions window comes back to the fore.  But the smaller warning window then "disappears"; actually it has simply been hidden by the expression selection screen.  A newbie would have no idea what to do now!  WORKAROUND:  when that warning screen first appears, move it so that it does not share desk space with the expressions window.  (Then it will be visible later when you need to approve the expression replacement you have selected.)    

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Bug of the Day (at 9 A.M.)  Made parts.  Strange behavior with multi-measure rests.  Arbitrary division of what should be, say, 30 mm. into, say, 17 and 13.  I checked, in case anyone was curious:  no "real" rests in the mm. (which can be created out of notes and are considered by the system to be bona fide entries), only the default whole rests.  Nothing in that 18th m.; other parts have the 30 mm. fine.  Still worse, in one of them (so far) I found a perfectly good cue (in the fourth layer, created like all the others with the Add Cue plug-in).  They have wrecked our beautiful program, folks, ignoring the legacy and focussing on their pet features.  WORKAROUND:  hire a very good proofreader.

I could go on.  At this point I would have to warn people not to use this update.  I will try to finish this project, then go back to 2011.  

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Really... go back to 2011 in El Capitan? Good luck with that.

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No.  Go back to my old computer, a '57 Chevy that refuses to die.  (Hopefully by the time it finally does, they will get all these bugs out.  I think there would be a lot more hue and cry on the old forum, where it was a lot easier to organize.),

 

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Victor, the most likely culprit is your 17th bar having the barline set to break. In the Measure Tool, double click the 17th bar to see its attributes. If that is indeed the problem, then you will have to recreate your multi measure rest.

But did you say that in one of the measures there is a cue? It was created AFTER you created multi measure rests? Then all you do is select All, create multi measure rests again, and all will be well. Creating multi measure rests for all parts as the last step just before starting to format is a normal part of Finale work flow at this point.

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There was nothing, as I already averred, in the 30 mm. that would have resulted in anything but a multi-measure rest that long, had the parts been extracted in 2011. I assure you, I know what to look for.  It was arbitrary.  And why did the system not show the cue in the measure I spoke of?  (So far, no others, thank goodness.)  The fact that it was clearly in place in the score is proved by the fact that it showed when I broke up the multi-measure rest.  Instead of a 22-mm. multi-measure rest, say, I saw 12 plus 10.  I was prudent enough to break each up looking for reasons they had not been conjoined.  Usually, nothing on either side of the divide.  But in this one case, a cue in m. 13.  Under these circumstances, there actually *was* a reason to break up the multi-measure rest, and that was to allow that cue to show.  But it wasn't showing.  (I of course then created my own rest from 14 to 22.)  This is screwy, folks.  This kind of behavior is owing to bad, or sloppy rather, programming.

I will say one good thing, and that is that music spacing seems to work better than ever, sleek and responsive.  But since I have ignored all the updates since 2011, I can't say whether this has anything necessarily to do with 25.

I'm not so much looking for fixes or explanations, folks.  What is more important would be to hear from others (Mac users particularly) who are or are not having similar experiences.  Auto-save has worked perfectly for me for decades on umpteen versions.  What did they do to it?   

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>

 What is more important would be to hear from others (Mac users particularly) who are or are not having similar experiences.<

 

I am not having the same experience. I skipped 2012 but 2011, 2014, 2014.5 and 25 are all still installed on my 2010 iMac running Sierra. 

 

You have said that there's nothing in your saved folder. I have 4 of those folders that Finale installed, one for each version. 

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Victor, you can aver all you like and still have missed something. I certainly do, even after almost-daily use since version 3.2.

 

Is there an expression in bar 18 that was unwittingly set to break a multimeasure rest? Were there measures added after the parts were created? If you could post the .musx file, we could take a look and probably track it down, even if only to expose a bug that needs reporting.

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To answer CS: no (if there were an expression of any kind I wouldn't expect the system to include the m. in a multi-m. rest); and, no, the parts were made straight from a file that had the cues in it.  Of course these are bugs.  I was hoping someone might say, oh we've been dealing with that since 2012.  No such luck.

To answer MH: if a back-up of my file had subsisted, I would have found it easily with a Finder search, which I did before looking in the proper folder.  Only 25 on this new computer.  Does your copies/backup folder for 25 have copies of your recent work?  I'm really trying to figure out why people haven't sacked MM's headquarters by now! 

Welcome to my ongoing nightmare.  I continued work today on tidying up my parts.  I had been thinking that the problem with multi-m. rests sort of flagged itself.  (Even with cursory review one can notice that there is no reason for two successive multi rests with nothing but a barline between them.)  No.  One problem, the arbitrary division of multi rests into two segments (always two), led me to espy another, the inclusion of cues in a multi rest.  I mentioned above that I first saw the latter when checking on the former, but it seems now, that was just a coincidence.

Just now I was finding the best layout for my clarinets part.  I thought, that's a long way to go from cue to entrance.  Eleven mm. between rehs. 11 and 12.  Oh no.  I broke up the multi rest, and inside was a two-m. cue in layer 4, as I had entered into the cued version of the score from which the parts were generated.  I'm under a tight deadline, and I might not make it. 

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Edit menu>Multimeasure Rests>Create for parts/score, select all of the parts and hit Okay. Do this before you start to format. In all recent versions, I am obliged to do this or risk having material "hiding" inside the multimeasure rests that existed before I added the new material (like cues!).

 

There is some sort of option "Update Rests" or something, but it doesn't seem to work reliably/causes other problems. My only suggestion is to do what I outlined in the first paragraph.

 

Also, expressions that are attached to measures OTHER than the first measure of a multimeasure rest are hidden when the MM rest is created, unless certain options are checked. I have been caught by this when attaching instrument/mute changes to measures other than the first empty measure.

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CS:  As I said, the cues were already in place before the parts were generated.

It's getting still worse with the clarinet part.  8 missing mm. now between 358 and 378.  There's supposed to be another m. of cue after the first one, and then 7 mm. of rest before the repeat sign.  They're just not there.

Anyone else using El Capitan on a 2015 MacBook Pro? 

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If "create multi measure rests" doesn't fix it, then you need to submit this file to tech support. It sounds serious.

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How long have you guys been living with this WORKAROUND?  Thank you, Christopher.  It seemed that your workflow involved adding cues to the parts after they were generated.  Perhaps you meant instead, adding them to the appropriate lines of the full score.  In any case, I always make a special, cued copy of the score just for that, and generate the parts therefrom.  So, if things get hidden, it's not from my having added anything too late.  This is a bug and, if you look at my jpg, a "serious" one indeed.  But I did what you said and all the missing mm. and missing cued notes appeared.  I have a lot of clean-up work to do, of course, but at least now there is a chance I can get my parts in on time.

Thanks for not giving up on me. 

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Can't one use the Blank Notation: Layer 4 Staff Style applied only to the score to conceal cues? That would allow one to write them out before formatting and calling for multi-measure rests.

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J Adrian, yes you can. Unfortunately, applying these is rather labour-intensive (as opposed to the metatool procedure we all know and love) and it is hard to work around them in the case of later edits.

 

For me, the ideal solution would be a special Cue Layer that could be toggled to be invisible in the score, yet show in the linked parts. Toggled so that you could work on them in the score with them showing, but hit the toggle when you were ready to work on parts and have them disappear in the score. Maybe just a Layer Option for Layer 4?

 

[Edit] Ooh, I just thought of another advantage! Cues that overlap with the part to be played become much easier with my solution, too!

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I like that idea and can see how it would save time and clutter.

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I think a Cue Layer with an activation button would be a great asset. In the meantime, were one to apply the Blank Notation: Layer 4 to all measures in a blanket fashion to all relevant instruments, that might be the next best thing. I don't have a score available at the moment to try that out on. But someone who does might try it on a copy as an experiment.

 

Have you posted your Cue Layer idea on the Feature Request Forum? It certainly would be worthwhile.

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