Norman Fox,

I am afraid I do not understand.

Layout or Playback? (or perhaps both?)

By The Way:

I know what a chord is, but what is a “stacked chord”?

Sorry, I'm not too good with the terminology.

What I should have said...stacked rolling cord symbol....it's that wavy line that is to the left of chords and can be adjusted to go across staves so that you get a sound that rolls up the sound of the chord.

That's the best I can do.

My complaint is that before last week, there was always a rolling chord symbol in the selection pallet where all articulations are available.  If, for example, you want a rolling sound to move accross the staves, you need to have a stacked rolling chord symbol that transverses the stave.

Now there is no such symbol in the pallet and, to make matters worse, if you call up any files completed in the past with that symbol, finale destroys it.

The arpeggio is still there, in Articulations. It has not been removed. In every template I checked, it's in slot 38, metatool R. (EDIT: I now see that it may be in other slots.) When you apply it, you see two handles. use the upper handle to move it, the lower handle to stretch it.

Are you saying that it was there in F26, but now it's gone? In that case, reset the preferences.

First tell me what resetting the preferences entails.  I started to follow your suggestion and I got a dire warning that "resetting the preferences" 

To Quote  "Resetting your preferences is permanent and CANNOT BE UNDONE.  For these changes to take effect, Finale will be shut down  immediately.

Are you sure you are trying to help me?

To a response like that, I can only say RTFM.

"RTFM"?  Now its your turn to explain what you mean.

READ THE MANUAL

I did.  It was not helpful.

https://usermanuals.finalemusic.com/FinaleMac/Content/Finale/Finale_Preferences.htm?Highlight=Reset%20preferences

It is possible that the new Stacking Articulations feature in v. 26 is screwing things up. Open the definition for the Roll articulation and turn off the stack feature and see if that solves things.

Thanks.  I will try to do that.

I am sorry to report that I have no idea how to implement your suggestion.

If your willing and have the time I would appreciate more detail.

Select the Articulation Tool.

Drag around the Roll Articulation to select it. The handles will change colour to show they're selected.

Hit Return to open up the Articulation Designer window.

In the lower half of the window there are a bunch of positioning "rules". None of them should be selected, especially "Stack automatically". Vertical positioning should be "Manual" and Slur Interaction should be "Ignore". 

But you said you don't see the Arpeggio in your Articulation window. Is that still the case?

Yes, but it doesn't stack.  Currently, if I put that in the score, I only see that mark that is shown in box 31 that you have highlighted with a red border.  My problem is that when I put it in the score, I only see that mark.  In the past, there used to be little boxes on the mark so that you could stretch it down from the top to the bottom of the chord.  That is what I have been complaining about.  I also got the page from the manual that you sent me (thank you very much).  I'm going to try it on one of the files with which I have been working and see what happens.  It reminds me of a demolition.  I'll plug up my ears.

I'll let you know what happens.

Try some other articulations. Do they show the handle properly?

Try clicking or double clicking on the arpeggio in the score. Any handles?

If that still doesn't work, then I suspect internal corruption in the program. This can usually be corrected by recreating the preference file. There will be no damage or file loss. If you have made any changes to the program preference file, you will have to make them again, in the new preferences.

I think I've got it to work.  In the restarted program,  I found the rolling arpeggio mark in position 38.  I moved it up in the pallet to a higher position because I tend to use this mark a lot.  Thanks for helping me. I hope I won't have to come back here too soon.

… I moved it up in the pallet to a higher position because I tend to use this mark a lot …

If you use it “a lot”, consider using a programmed metatool.

1) In the Articulation Tool you can use the “automatic” {Add again} metatool which always defaults to the latest added articulation - even if there is no programmed metatool for that articulation.

The shortcut to this action is the hyphen “-” key.

2) The default metatool shortcut for the Roll articulation is the letter R key.

In the screen shot above you can see the letter R displayed in the upper right corner of the red rectangle.

To use a metatool, hold down the trigger key (e. g. the hyphen key, or the letter R key), and drag across the staff - or click on the staff.

I am suspecting that you just clicked somewhere else on the page, deselecting the handles. The handles are only visible when you are in the Articulation tool, and they will not be active unless you select  the actual articulation (I drag around it to make sure I get it without inadvertently nudging it.) You also have to be in the same active Layer as the note is for any of this to work. If you don't know (the active layer is shown in the bottom left corner of your screen) then select the Selection Tool (escape is the shortcut) and double click the articulation. The tool that created the item you double clicked will be selected, and you will automatically be in the correct layer, too.

You can see in the screenshot that the R is programmed as a metatool. Here's a trick that works with the roll articulation.

In the articulation tool, hold the R key and click the chord AT THE BOTTOM NOTE. THE roll articulation will appear at about the correct length. It should be selected as well, which means the handles are active (dark) and can be moved. It is often too close to the chord, so I just hit the left arrow a few times to nudge it left, all this without ever clicking anywhere else on the page.

I think at this point I've got the problem solved.  After I reset the program, I got a new pallet and I found a stretchable rolling chord symbol in position 38.

Thanks for your input.  You guys gave me a faster turn around (for obvious reasons) than the Finale technical squad was able to do.