Can I create a template from one document and have others conform to it?

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Jon Thingvall Edited July 24, 2019 20:52

Win 10, Fin 2012

I am making small score/parts, only a few measures each. I've made a dozen or so of them, but started to have to make changes to the fonts and staves.

Rather than go through them all one by one, how can I make a universal document style and apply it to all of them?

(Edit) And the Templates don't seem to be helping much, but maybe I'm looking at it wrong. Mine will all have different titles, and some different time signatures. Some will have pickup measures but others won't. They will all have a title which is centered (specific font and size), certain type of notation, certain type of chord symbols (font, size), etc. Are templates what I want to use? The literature seems to suggest doing it through Document Style. Either way, I have a bunch of little "videos" that I need to bring together into one format for a "movie".

Thanks,

Jon

5 comments

Date Votes

PETER THOMSEN Posted July 24, 2019 20:59

From your description it sounds like the way to go is templates.

Depending on your actual needs you might select or de-select the

Preferences - New

option

Display Setup Wizard When Opening a Template

Jon Thingvall Edited July 25, 2019 01:04

Thanks, Peter, but one of the reasons for this posts was because of the Setup Wizard's seeming (to me) irrelevance. It's usually quite important, but in this case, I haven't been able to find its utility. I have several small piano parts, and want to make sure their formats are all the same. I'm mainly looking at font size and--- oh, by the way, does anyone know where the article on re-installing Finale scripts or fonts is? I had to do it for one piece, and it looks like I have to do it for the entire program. Evidently, there were some faulty scripts...?

Jon

Jeffrey Turner Posted July 25, 2019 01:33

I don't believe there's any way to automate this process. You can create a document style from a file that you want to use as your master, you then apply the custom document style while in the setup wizard creating a blank file with your preferred settings. I don't believe it can take an existing file and change it with a document style.

I use templates for publishing. I get files from different composers, and I bring their music into my template. Then I swap out the articulations they used with mine from the template. I swap out their dynamics for my dynamics. I use text search and replace to change any composer expressions in his font, with the correct font/size that I need. There's a few other things I swap as well, but the whole process of converting a Finale file for a full orchestral score, into a version of that file that looks like it was created in the template, might take me an hour. When I'm done, the score matches other scores from the same catalog and everyone is happy.

Jon Thingvall Posted July 25, 2019 02:44

Okay, I found Document Styles folder. Is it bad that it's, like, way far down along a different filepath other than what's on the MakeMusic website?

C:/Program Files/Finale 2012/Music Files/Document Styles folder.

Mine is several stops beyond that. Is that just a computer brand issue?

If I'm going to use it a lot, can I just move the folder to the desktop or something?

MIKE HALLORAN Posted July 25, 2019 04:59

Win10 didn't exist back in 2011. That probably has more to do with it than anything else.

It's not a big deal, however. Set the path. Find a place for the folder and tell Finale where that location is. Or create an alias that points to the actual location.

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