I added a lengthy comment here, but when I clicked submit, it disappeared. Chalk another one up to zendesk!

Many thanks for replying, even if it was all lost in the process! Perhaps there's a nugget you can offer that might help me get on the right track Adrian?

Check your current version of XML and see if you can configure or find your import XML files to match that version as closely as possible. (IIRC current XML utilities should be able to export as earlier versions.)

You don't mention where these MusicXML files come from. If they were exported in a more recent version of Finale (27 uses version 4 by default), it would be recommended that the file be exported again to an older version of MusicXML, compatible with your Finale 2009. In Finale 26 and 27, it can be done from version 2.0 in the MusicXML Preferences.

PS. : the forum behaves strangely... The Submit button is sometimes not active, an image attachment can be rejected (too big !). The message has to be re-created.

Thanks, Michel,

I haven't checked for versions of MusicXML - but it's a good point - as I simply use files found on cpdl.org, which is a vast repository for (mostly) choral music, but I don't really have the opportunity to ask contributors to use prior versions (if that's the case). I'll take a look at the source of a couple of mxml files to see what I discover.

BTW in the distant past the parser in my version of Finale would occasionally pop up with mxml import errors, but these didn't prevent the notes etc from being successfully imported. By contrast, my latest attempts throw up instant errors of the sort "Item out of range at line 1" etc etc, so it's most probably version-related.

Thanks for all the help.

Add to this that it is not easy to figure out what version of MusicXML a specific file has been created with.

The only way I found was to open the MusicXML file in a text editor. But even that does not provide a clear information.

This file has been created with MusicXML  3.1 :

Without knowing some of the basics, everyone is guessing. For starters, what is your operating system?

Do you have the Dolet 7.6 plug-in installed? If not, there are links to download Dolet 7.6 for Mac and Windows as well as the version history here:

https://www.musicxml.com/dolet-plugin/dolet-plugin-for-finale/version-history/ 

Dolet 7.6 is backward compatible with Finale 2009.

According to the MusicXML site, Dolet 7 doesn't seem to be compatible with Finale 2009.

https://www.musicxml.com/dolet-plugin/dolet-plugin-for-finale/

I think one problem might be that I'm using 64-bit WIN10 (successfully with Finale 2009) and trying to load 32-bit Dolet 7, It's a  non-starter.

For the moment, thanks to Michel and other who tried to help, but given it's a rather minor issue for me - more a desire to understand how these things work together, let's end this here, unless I start up a new thread....

Best wishes

Simon

Yes, Finale 2009 is 32bit only. While Win10 64 can host many 32bit apps, not all plug-ins are compatible. With Michael Good retired, I predict a 0% chance that Dolet 7 will ever be updated to 32/64bit.

You can a) run a dual-boot system and set up a partition or a drive to run 32bit or b) take the plunge and upgrade to 27. The good news is that it doesn't cost any more to upgrade to F27 from 2009 than from any other version. You can do this from inside your User Account or through your favorite reseller.