1) You can do it all in Finale, using the Page Layout Tool and the Text Tool.

2) You can also create the music notation in Finale, and use the Graphics Tool to export the music notation (entire pages or a selected area)*, and then import the music notation into a page layout program.

* ) If you decide to export via the Graphics Tool, consider exporting in PDF format.

Most page layout programs handle and print PDF quite well.

Your request is not clear. Microsoft Text on a Mac — why would anyone do that? Do you mean Word? If not Word, what app are you using?

Second question. Do you want to create a book with music examples or a piece of music with text? There's a big difference.

A book with music examples from Finale is extremely easy on a Mac but you have to use an app that supports graphics such as Word. 

I give detailed instructions in this thread using Word, Preview and Finale only. No graphics export, no page layout app, no Adobe anything. Preview is part of the Mac OS.

https://makemusic.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360008854414-Graphics-Tool-Resolution-EPS-versus-PDF-export-In-Design

You do not want to use Apple's Text.app. It can work, sorta' kinda' but it's a time consuming pain because you cannot edit or resize graphics. The results are just not good.

If you do not have Word, open source freeware exists that is nearly as easy to use.

Hi Mike, I'm saying I'm trying to combine text created in microsoft doc. with finale music. 

btw - thank you all for the feedback. Peter I will expore the text layout tool you mentioned and get back to you.  Many thannks!

Ro

Again: Do you want to create a book with music examples or a piece of music with text? There's a big difference and there's no way to just merge the two. It doesn't work that way.

If you are putting text into the Finale doc, you are creating a piece of music with text.

It looks to me that you are really putting together a book with musical examples.

You have two choices: a) Use a page layout program as Peter described. Many publishing house expect it this way as it has since Apple came out with the Lisa 35 years ago.

or

b) Use a word processor in which you can edit graphics. Being on a Mac, you have the tools you really need to do it in a word processor—even if you don't own Word. 

Either way is valid.  One is considered the professional approach while the other takes less time and results in smaller files making it ideal for e-publishing, Kindle and self-publishing—and it still prints nicely.

Hi Peter, I think I'm a little lost.  Probably rusty with my finale as well.  Perhaps is there a tutorial I can read?

Thanks. Rozanna

Thanks for the feedback Mike.  I'm looking to create a book with music samples, or pages of scales, etc.

btw - Mike I DO own microsoft.  When I said I wanted to combine text I really just meant paragraphs of info. Thanks. 

So are you saying I can save a finale file as a png for instance and insert in the document? the question is how to format both the document and the music file so it can fit on a page. and in the case of say pages of scales, that too will not be so simple to export to a document...

Better than that. I’m saying that you can open your Finale file and, using Preview, draw a box around your example and save that as a .png graphic. 

In Word, you can re-size and manipulate this .png graphic and surround it (or not) with your text. Exactly how depends on your version of Word (2008, 2011 or 2016/365) but the principles are the same. The link I gave tells you how to do it in the  current version. I use 2008. Print the result or Save as PDF from Word.

With Finale, I can make the view larger or smaller on the screen before I draw the box in Preview. This will affect the look in Word when you reduce the size of the graphic. 

I have been doing this for 25 years or so. Back when, I was using other apps to make jpegs. With OS X and Preview, this got a whole lot easier. I know there are ways to do something like this in Windows (Word, of course is no different) but a Mac makes this really easy.

I do use a page layout app when the need arises but not for this.

Hi Mike,

Thanks again for the help.  My biggest concern is how to make sure the music is formatted consistently to fit the page that may or may not include paragraphs of text. I have in the past done screenshots for examples in my blog.  But that just doesn't have a consistency to it. I dont understand how to create a general formatting to ensure a compatible size with the music. Do I import the music from finale to microsoft to work in?

Also I may have pages and pages of scales.  Are you saying I should work in microsoft and import the music? Or a different program? How do I size a page of music, for instance to be part of a document? It has to be consistent if its going to be professional.

Thanks again!

Rozanna

www.rozannasviolins.com

In a page layout or Word, you never import the music. You import graphics (pictures) of the music. There are many ways to create these graphics — Peter gave you one way; I suggested another. You then edit the text and graphics so that they work together the way you like.

I tried to give clear instructions in the other thread on how to create graphics in Preview and gave a link to the instructions for manipulating these graphics in Word. You “import” them by drag and drop, then resize and position by following Microsoft’s instructions — these are fairly straightforward but make sense only when you go through the options.

You will understand how this works much better if you try to do this. It’s easy and makes sense when you do.

Thank you Mike.  I will give it a try!!

R

Rozanna, you have gotten some good advice, but I have to disagree with Mike (who normally I agree with on EVERYTHING) about the graphics format to export to. PDF is a much superior format to export your music examples with. PNG will get serious jaggies if you ever have to resize anything, while PDF will scale smoothly.

You can export entire pages of music from Finale in PDF format, if you like, no problem. You can also edit PDFs to have different borders after they have been exported. All this is dead simple, and PDFs import into Microsoft Word and many other desktop text and publishing programs with a minimum of bother.

You know? The best part of my method is that one can save a box as .pdf, .jpg, jpeg 2000, .tif .png or ... I don’t remember the 6th option.

I did it with .pdf files for many years till I discovered that Word 2008 and 2011 like .jpg and .png far better—they look a whole lot better. PDF graphics imported into Word docs look terrible by comparison in my experience. 

I’m not you. Figure out what works best.

You have given great advice.  Right now the music I'm fitting into the doc. is not very long so its relatively easy to create a screen shot and insert.  I also used the page layout tool to format the width and space between staves. I have a feeling theres more that I can be doing using this tool and if you recommend a tutorial I'm all ears.  But for now, what I am able to do is sufficient that the music fits in the document I'm creating.

btw - can any of you recommend a good format to publish music? either for download or into a hard cover? I know amazon has something and I guess kindle does also. is it possible to insert a sound file in an ebook so people can play along?

Thank you!

Rozanna

https://rozannasviolins.wordpress.com

www.rozannasviolins.com

Kindle is Amazon. ePub on that platform is becoming a standard that translates well to other platforms. Everyone starts here: https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G200635650

There are many how-to guides online. Also, there are Q&A user groups to provide support, post and answer questions. Google is your friend, here. I can’t recommend any as I am self-taught in all this and have never used those other resources. I taught myself how to do this to help get music examples into church bulletins done in Word 5.1 and 6 in OS 8. That was over 20 years ago. With OSX, Preview and Word 2004, it got much easier but it was never really difficult. 

As this board is about Finale, going further down this path here gets us way off topic. For that reason, I am stepping off this train. Here’s my stop.

Thanks for all your help!

Greetings again.  In reading some instructions from your previous postings it talks about copying the music to be inserted to the word doc using screen shot.  No prob. But is it necessary to adjust the margins and layout in finale to fit in word or will making a tight box with the screenshot suffice?  And does this have to be done for every single page?  Say I have 20 pages in a row from finale to insert into the microsoft doc.

Thanks very much!

Ro

Get the Finale layout to look as you like. I would make the tightest screen shot possible. Other than that, the layout in Finale has nothing to do with anything. A screen shot is a picture of that layout and nothing more.

It's clear that you've been reading about it and haven't actually tried it yet. Time to give it a try. It's very easy.

Hi Mike,

Thanks so much for your speedy reply.  Actually I have tried the screenshots inserted into microsoft and theres no problem whatsoever. 

What I haven't yet tried is capturing a screenshot of an entire page in finale and trying to insert it into a page in microsoft.

For that matter is there a way to capture many pages from finale at once or do I need to do one screenshot of a time per page?

Thank you again.  Rozanna

To capture an entire page, try export with the Graphics Tool.

When exporting from the Graphics Tool you have a choice of several graphics formats.

Greetings again.  I'm starting to get a handle on all this. And understand the screenshot part.

Problem is in preview I cant see the entire page of material on my screen at a time so as to take a screen shot of the entire page.

Only sections fit on my computer screen. Any way to get around this?

Thanks. 

Rozanna

Do what Peter suggested and use the graphics tool.

DON'T USE THE SCREEN SHOT! It's terrible quality. It's only for posting examples on the Internet, or saving what the screen looks like for reference.

Use the Graphics Tool. You double-click and then drag to enclose an area, then go to the Graphic menu and select Export Selection.

Or if you want to export the whole page, don't double-click, but just go directly to the Graphic Menu and select Export Pages.

I strongly suggest exporting as PDF, because it doesn't get jaggy from aliasing like all the other formats do when you resize. It is always at the maximum resolution of the display.

Or on a Mac you can print to PDF, one or several pages at a time, then edit it as you wish in Preview or another PDF editor.

Uh...which is the graphics tool? I'm probably using it already for stuff already but didn't know the name of the feature..

I understand about printing in preview. But I'm trying to insert the pages in a microsoft doc so I can include text. I work on a macbook air and I'm not sure I can import a pdf to a microsoft file.  Thanks very much.  Rozanna

Found it.  Searched google. thanks.

IT WORKED!  Thank you all.  Now the jpg image of the page is too small relative to the microsoft doc.

Do I adjust those settings in finale? If so how do I know what margins and note size is ideal?

Thank you again! R

btw - is there a common format for measure styles ie double bar, sold bar and normal? Can final be used at the end of a section with reference to scale patterns not a piece of music.

Thanks. Ro