As far as I know, you can only set up a pickup measure at the start of the piece using the "Pickup Measure" option. And Finale does not recognize multiple movements as separate documents. With that said, there are a few things you could do.

• I could be wrong but, Finale creates the pickup measure by first splitting the measure using the "Measure" Plug-in and then deleting the former portion of the split. By doing it this way, the "pickup measure" is not included in measure numbering. This is something you could implement manually for your other movements. Pickup measure on the 4th beat: split measure after beat 3; delete the portion that contains the first 3 beats and keep the 4th beat.

• Another method is using Time Signature tool. Select a time signature appropriate for your "pickup measure," then select a different time signature to be displayed (the time signature of the particular movement). To not include this measure in measure numbering, select the measure using the Measure tool and uncheck the box "Include in measure numbering."

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply. 

I went back and created separate files for the first 2 movements as a test; entered the first bar of the second movement as a pickup bar; then used ScoreMerger to create a single file. I tested the new file using playback and it worked.

You can try the solution below anywhere in your composition to form a pickup measure by showing a different time signature for display than for the pickup. Needless to say, the time sig you show would be the time sig for the movement.

George Mohammed,

You wrote:

“I could be wrong but, Finale creates the pickup measure by first splitting the measure using the "Measure" Plug-in and then deleting the former portion of the split.”

As Far As I Can Tell, the pickup measure is still a full measure - and it plays back as a full measure.

The pickup measure is created by inserting invisible “placeholder rests” before the pickup.

These invisible “placeholder rests” are not included in music spacing.

Ah, I see. Thanks, for the clarification, Peter.