Most use percussion note heads with an x. 

And with JW Change plugin, you can mute those notes, as well.

Is it enough to just use the 'X' note head with any instrument or do I have to add a certain percussion instrument?

Windows 7; Finale 2014.5

Thank you. To use percussion note heads do I need to use a percussion clef (two vertical bars) or can the staves stay on standard notation?

You can use Utilities > Change Noteheads to change the noteheads of any instrument to X-noteheads (or several other shapes). This will not change their sounds (that is a separate matter), just the noteheads.

Thank you. That one I knew about but how do you silence the notes in playbabk? I tried hiding the standard notation notes and it took over the measure and I had to back track every input before it was normal again

As I said above, the easiest way is to mute playback with JW Change.

Lou, it depends on what you want. If you want no sound, use JW Change. If you want to add in a sound, like a rim shot, I find that it’s easiest to add a hidden percussion staff with the sound. I’ve never been very successful trying to use a different layer, with a new sound. But maybe, that’s just me...

Thank you. Is JW chane on 14.5?

You'll find the index here. Go to the folder that matches your setup and download.

https://www.finaletips.nu/index.php/download

(OT but I just noticed that Yada Yada Tremolo 2.02 for Finale 25 was uploaded today)

Thank you