If you double-click on a note to select it, you can move it up or down with the arrow keys.

Thanks.  One small problem... my eighth notes are beamed in groups of four and when I double-click one note then use the arrow keys as advised it breaks the beam.  I have to do a second edit to reconnect the beam.  Is there any way of avoiding this?

… my eighth notes are beamed in groups of four and when I double-click one note then use the arrow keys as advised it breaks the beam …

If I understand you correctly, you have, in Document Options - Beams, selected

“Beam Four Eighth Notes Together in Common Time”, right?

Unfortunately I am unable to duplicate this problem. 

For me, the beam does not break when I move cross-staff notes up/down with the arrow keys,

Could you perhaps attach a graphic here, that shows the problem?

I double-click on the on the B - which is bass clef cross-staff - then move up to C# with arrow key.  Note again I am using 25.5.0.290 on Windows 7.

Ah, the time signature is 5/4, not Common Time.

Then you can forget about the option “Beam Four Eighth Notes Together in Common Time”.

How did you manage to get the eighths beamed in groups of four?

- Did you define the time signature as a “real” time signature of

1+2+2

over

4

(with a “display” time signature of 5/4)

?

- Or did you define the time signature as 5/4, and then “manually” beam the eighths in groups of four?

This is an old score that was created in Finale 3.5 (1996) so I don't recall much about how it was assembled.  I was a bit more proficient with Finale back then but since I don't use it as much these days I've lost a lot of my skills.

The other thing to note is that the beamed eighth notes in the upper part of the treble clef do not have the same problem.  They can be dragged up and down or moved with the arrow keys without breaking the beams.

I don't ever recall having beaming problems with 5/4 time signatures.  I just use speedy entry and the slash key to add or remove them,  It works fine in this case too but my question is to how to avoid the break so that I don't have to do a double edit - move the notes up or down and then re-beam all of them,  I have a lot of measures to edit,

… the beamed eighth notes in the upper part of the treble clef do not have the same problem.  They can be dragged up and down or moved with the arrow keys without breaking the beams …

Perhaps because the {notes in the upper part of the treble clef} are not cross-staff notes?

… I just use speedy entry and the slash key to add or remove them,  It works fine in this case too, but my question is to how to avoid the break so that I don't have to do a double edit - move the notes up or down and then re-beam all of them …

You can avoid the “double edit” by using the Time Signature Tool to define the beaming:

I really do appreciate your help but I think we're at the point where Finale is just too complicated to do what I expect it to.  90% of this score is in common time - just a few measure here and there switch to 2/4, 3/4 and 5/4 - and even the common time measures have this problem so I'm not sure I know how this"behind-the-scenes" time signature change would help as I would have to do it for most of the score - even the 90% common time measures. To me, that's still double editing. In hindsight my selection of a 5/4 measure as an example was a bad idea.  As I mentioned before, I do not have any problem whatsoever doing what I want in ANY time signature on ANY staff as long the notes are not cross-staff.  That's what I don't understand. Anyway, thanks again for your help.

Rick Daley,

Instead of, manually, doing a second edit to reconnect the beam on each and every instance where the beam has been disconnected, you can also fix all the beams “at one fell swoop” via the command Rebeam to Time Signature:

Utilities menu > Rebeam > Rebeam to Time Signature