My first guess would be that it is a matter of positioning in score versus positioning in linked parts.

The text positioning between score and linked parts can be linked (= same position in score and parts) or unlinked (= different position in score and parts).

When the text is entered, the positioning is always linked at first.

The positioning will remain linked if you move the text in the score.

The positioning will get unlinked if you move the text in the part. Finale changes the text colour to show the “unlinking”.

This is the default behaviour:

Move the text in the score, and the positioning stays linked.

Move the text in the part, and the positioning gets unlinked. Finale changes the text colour to show the “unlinking”.

To get the opposite result, hold down the Override key (= the Ctrl key) when you move the text.

Thank you Peter!  However, this is a book of one line exercises that I haven't set up to extract parts.  But, I did notice that moving text with the control down turned them orange - and I was able to fix errant page numbers this way without moving them all!  BTW, this happened after I used score merger.  

But no problem - they print, so that is what matters in this instead.  And thank you for you info on linked parts.  I was never really clear before!