Lyrics with or without extensions are justified differently, but you can adjust that in document options > lyrics. However, in your particular case (know and climb) there isn’t enough room for the extension. You can either drag the lyric to the left, or (my choice) move the second notes of the tied pairs to the right. Sometimes you have to tweak things!

I would also shift the lyrics of verse 2 down a bit.

It's not so much the lyric extensions, which I'm fine with adjusting and tweaking. I just don't understand why the lyrics aren't lined up like they should be (even words without extensions). Like "climb" and the "act" syllable of "exactly." The "act" isn't centered like everything else. It's only a recent problem within the last couple of months.

I don’t know. I could say because one is a starting syllable, and the other is mid-word, but that’s not true in other places. I can tell you that I have any number of complaints logged and acknowledged, and I’m still waiting for the long-promised improvements.

I’ve pretty much given up on Finale getting any better. I don’t think they have the desire, or the people, anymore. They’re making their money on SmartMusic, and I don’t think they care about Finale. At 70, I’m not about to learn another program. But if I were younger, I’d probably be gone.

I do not have the same problem.

This isn't an answer to your question, but the ties in the OP's screen shot really jump out at me. The ties which share the same stem are vastly different in size and shape.

Anyway, to reset the syllable's positioning under the lyric menu, choose "adjust syllables", then select the handle for the syllable which is positioned incorrectly, then press clear. It should jump back to its default position.

Those ties are just how Finale defaulted them. What would you do to change them and make them more consistent? Thanks for the info on how to re-set the lyrics.

To change the ties to a more consistent shape and placement you would edit a few of the tie settings in document options. From the default settings that I see in a new blank document, I would uncheck "use outer placement" and set the horizontal start and end points to "0". Try this on a copy of your file, so you can always go back to the default if you like.

None of these settings are written in stone. Experiment with them, you can even edit the music spacing options. (space between notes, space between notes with ties). These settings might vary from one file to the next depending on how tight your music is layed out.