FYI, I have exactly the same version of Finale and MacOS, and I have tried a few (<, >, shift, alt), and they seem to work,

OMG! Same problem - ALL of my smart shapes only make decrescendos!! We need this fixed! I have to be able to make slurs tonight!!!

Finale v26.2.2.493

MacOS Catalina 10.15.3

Mid-2015 MacBook Pro

Michel, could you explain how you are getting a few things working? Could you please try putting in some slurs from the smart shape palette, and letting us know if it works? Every smart shape (slur, dotted slur, decrescendo, crescendo, tr,) when selected produces a decrescendo for me.

… Every smart shape (slur, dotted slur, decrescendo, crescendo, tr,) when selected produces a decrescendo for me …

That sounds like the “stuck key” syndrome.

My guess would be that > is stuck.

The key could be electronically stuck. Fix: try a re-boot

Or the key could be physically stuck. Fix: try tapping the key repeatedly.

Thank you SO much, Peter. A reboot fixed it, and I can breathe again.

New odd problem, occasionally when I launch Finale now, it does not open the Default Document as specified in preferences - it apparently is opening a new "Document Without Libraries." So no articulations or expressions available. Consequently pressing Command-N will correctly open a new Default Document. I'm surprised I didn't notice at first how blank the "new" page was (and only had one bar), considering my default document is littered with text and such. Anyone else seen this?

Please start a new thread about this other problem.

Concerning smart shapes shortcuts, today, I can't get > (diminuendo, using shift <) to work, even after a restart. All I get is crescendos.

Same problem in Finale 25.

It worked yesterday, though (Finale 26)

Apparently, these shortcuts are not 100 % reliable...

I received word back from a support ticket I submitted for "our" problem here - their response:

"I'm afraid this behavior is the result of a bug that our developers are aware of and currently working to resolve."