Have you tried Utilities > Update Smart Word Extensions and Hyphens?

When you open the file in Finale 2014.5, do the hyphens show?

Thanks for a quick response, Bruce.

I've tried Utilities > Update Smart Word Extensions and Hyphens as well as changing the hyphen settings in Document Options one at a time and in combination plus turning Smart Word Extensions on and off.

The hyphens don't show up in Finale 2014.5 either.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)
2.9 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

OS X El Capitan
Version 10.11.6 (15G31)

Finale Version 25.0.0.7722

Another thing to try is once the hyphens disappear, go to Utilities > Update Layout (command + u) and/or Utilities > Redraw Screen (command + d).

This happens for me frequently and updating the layout and redrawing the screen fixes the issue most of the time. Hopefully that helps!

Your suggestions are much appreciated, CJ.

Unfortunately, neither updating the layout or redrawing the screen works for me. I've tried both separately and in combination, changed the zoom level, made PostScript and PDF files, printed to different printers, and I'm no longer sure what else I've tried.

The reason this is perhaps a larger problem for me than most is that I edit and engrave music full time for a publisher that produces religious music. More than eighty percent of my daily output is choral music, much of it with multiple verses of lyrics. Think hymnals with six hundred or more songs, some with five or more verses each.

iMac (27-inch, Late 2012)
2.9 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

OS X El Capitan
Version 10.11.6 (15G31)

Finale Version 25.0.0.7722

Hmmm. I might also suggest, for means of just finding another work around, is to instead of using the filter to copy and paste, try Selecting the Lyric Tool, then go into the menu Lyric > Clone Lyrics to drag and drop the lyrics from one staff to another. Perhaps some information is getting changed in the copy and paste vs the clone lyric... not sure, but worth trying.

Thanks, CJ. I didn't recall that there even IS a Clone Lyrics tool. I tried it a dozen years ago (literally—or whenever the feature was first introduced) and had terrible, horrible, no-good very bad results and haven't used it since.

I just gave it a whirl and got missing/invisible hyphens.

You said that you do see this problem, correct? But that the steps you've suggested fix the problem?

Makes me wonder if I need to get out the silver cross and garlic . . . .

I suppose this is trivial in the grand scheme of things. But this little problem looks pretty big in the  small and tiny scheme of things in which I make my living.

any chance you could upload one of the files that you're having an issue with and I could take a look at it? Because I haven't had to do much else beyond those workarounds, so now I'm curious...

Hi again, CJ.

Here's the file I'm currently working on (link below). After I tweak it, I'll send it to our proofreader, so expect typos, of course. But the piece does exhibit the behavior we're discussing.

Please keep in mind that I've fixed all the hyphens, so you won't see any of them missing. Just copy or clone from any staff with lyrics to one without them to recreate the issue. FWIW, I also see this happen when overwriting existing lyrics.

Btw, this isn't an occasional bug. It's been consistent since the day I upgraded from Finale 2014 to Finale 2014.5. I'm just now posting about it because I had high hopes that it would be quashed in Finale 25.

Thank you for your time, CJ!

Here's a link to the file in my Dropbox. I see no way to attach a Finale file to this reply, which is strange, because I've done it before and seen dozens of others. Must be something about my browser, but whatever. Here's the link.

http://bit.ly/Fin-25-no-hyphens

Hi Gregg,

Just out of curiosity, how did you go about reseting your preferences? Because I opened the file you linked to, went to measure 26, turned the filter on to only copy lyrics, and produced this result:

I also got the same thing with the Clone Lyric tool.

I would highly suggest following these steps if your haven't already: https://usermanuals.finalemusic.com/Finale2014Mac/Content/Finale/Finale_Preferences.htm

Because now it seems that the issue is computer specific and as you know, preferences is exactly that.

Let me know how that goes or if you have already done that. What a strange issue!

This is interesting, CJ. And I'm rather envious.

I can go you one (or more) better than simply resetting preferences. Six months ago, my iMac crashed badly. I had good backups, so I wiped the drive and reinstalled the OS (10.11). Since this lyric bug is a long-standing one, here's what I did next.

1. Installed only Finale.

2. Fired it up and authorized it.

3. Touched no preferences at all.

4. Created a new default document.

5. Entered some notes and lyrics, then copied/pasted to test for this bug.

It was still there.

Beyond that, I had problems with my first install of Finale 25 a few weeks ago. After a lot of troubleshooting, I bit the bullet and did something drastic. I completely uninstalled Finale 2014.5 and Finale 25.

What I mean by "completely" is that I searched my internal drive for any file with the word "finale" or "make music" in the filename. All preferences, folders in Library > Application Support (all three Library folders) any and everything, excepting only Safari caches and cookies that store my MakeMusic website login. I even deleted the installer and re-downloaded it after everything was trashed and I restarted my iMac.

Then I repeated the five steps above.

I have, btw, also done the less-drastic version of resetting preferences by deleting dot-plist files and such.

If I sound like a finicky geek, well, I am.

And finally, just because I think I've been thorough, that doesn't mean I haven't missed something or made a misstep. I'd be delighted to discover that, if I had only done A instead of B, my problem would have been solved. Which is why appreciate your time. I need folks like you to ask the "Did you try" questions.

Hi Greg,

I tried your steps and it works without a problem here. Fin25 on OSX 10.11.6

I would suggest to go to Finale preferences and then select on the left down of the window "reset all preferences".Finale will then quit and you have to restart Finale again. Try it then. 25 and 2014.5 co exist quite well on my system.

Usually as CJ suggested it is a preference problem.

cheers,

Wolf