Welcome to the forum!

Perhaps it is just me, but I would say that percussion in Finale is “not for Finale beginners”.

Now I am talking “Finale-speak”:

There are Percussion MIDI Maps, and there are Percussion Layouts.

Percussion MIDI Maps tell what sound set is used, and what sound is located at what MIDI number.

Percussion MIDI Maps are not saved in the Finale document, but rather stored in a specific Finale folder.

From that folder the Percussion MIDI Maps are available to all your Finale documents.

You may not (ever) have to, but you can make your own, custom Percussion MIDI Maps.

If you need to email to someone else a Finale document that uses a custom Percussion MIDI Map, then you must send, not only the Finale document, but also the custom Percussion MIDI Map.

On The Other Hand, a Percussion Layout is document specific.

Percussion Layouts are saved in the Finale document.

In a Percussion Layout you specify

- what Percussion MIDI Map is used,

- what instruments from the Percussion MIDI Map are used,

- on what staff position each instrument is displayed.

You can save a document’s Percussion Layouts as a Library you can load into another Finale document:

File menu > Load Library…

File menu > Save Library…

The document must have a staff for the percussion.

You can use the Staff Tool to add a staff.

Next, go to

Window menu > ScoreManager > Instrument List

In the lower right corner of the Instrument List use the pop up menu Notation Style to select Percussion.

Then, next to Percussion, click the button {Settings…}.

You get to the dialog box Percussion Layout Selection where you can select a Percussion Layout.

If your document was created from the Default File, then you will find many ready made Percussion layouts.

You can duplicate and edit the selected Percussion Layout.

Also, you can create your own Percussion Layout from scratch.

But it may not be necessary to create a new Percussion Layout from scratch.

To save some time, duplicate an existing Percussion Layout, and edit the duplicate.

If you click the button {Edit…}, you get to the dialog box Percussion Layout Designer.

To me (at least) the Percussion Layout Designer is straightforward.

To get info about the Percussion Layout Designer, use the Search feature in the online manual.

As Peter states, Percussion within Finale is more complicated than other instruments regardless of the importance of playback. Feel free to reach to me directly with any questions.

tboliske at cinci dot rr dot com