I suppose that you did switch to the Smart Shape Tool - right?

What is your step to tell Finale that you need the crescendo smart shape?

- Click the crescendo hairpin icon?

- Hold down the letter V key?

I clicked on the hairpin icon in the smart shapes palette - do I need to double click here?

No, selecting the icon is enough. It's not really a double-click in the score. It's a click and a half; that is, after clicking once, you quickly click again, but hold the mouse button down: down-up-down and drag. Is that what you're doing?

yes, that's what I'm doing but it doesn't appear to work!

Has it worked before? You might try refreshing the preferences.

I tried refreshing preferences, no difference. I think I did have it earlier but not since the most recent update to 2014a. Unfortunately because it's an old version MakeMusic do not support technical queries like this, so I'm a bit stuck. I can always revert to a text instruction but it is a bit annoying

I think I did have it earlier but not since the most recent update to 2014a.

Sue that doesn't sound convincing are you sure it did work like MikeR said? The obligatory first step is resetting prefs but the second step is a full complete reinstall. Do you still have your original 2.14a setup file? If it was working there is a chance your install has a corrupted something. A complete reinstall will fix it. If it never worked your setup file may be corrupted. 

Does this happen on all Finale files or just the one? The key is, did it ever work.

It may be a good idea to take advantage of the upgrade to 27.4. 

It looks like I will need to re-install with my original CD and then re-download the update files and re-register the software. But I'm not going to do this immediately as I must have at least the basic setup working before I head off to our annual music school tomorrow - can't risk messing it up before that! I can make do with what I have for the next week.

Thanks for your suggestions - I will do the re-install when I get back and see if it works.

I think I may have found the source of my problem - my mouse!! With my usual wireless mouse I cannot get the hairpin to work but switching to a different wired mouse I can now get it to work, but it is very sensitive to the speed at which I do the click. Sometimes it works, others not, but I can live with that.

Good detective work Kido. You can edit your mouse settings in Windows 10. You can change the scroll speed and the double click speed. Type 'mouse' in the search box at the bottom of your screen.

Thanks, Ernest, I'll try that

With my usual wireless mouse I cannot get the hairpin to work but switching to a different wired mouse I can now get it to work, but it is very sensitive to the speed at which I do the click.

You never mention your OS. This is adjustable in both Mac and Windows—differently, of course, but adjustable. Knowing your OS, one of us can show you how.