I believe this is the setting you want:

The page in the Finale Manual says:

Hold Notes to Original Pitches: Chromatically • Enharmonically. Click this option if you want the pitches to remain the same as they were before you changed the key—in other words, you’re just changing the key signature without affecting the existing notes at all. If you choose Chromatically, the notes maintain their original spelling. If you choose Enharmonically, the existing notes will be re-notated according to the new key. A G sharp in the key of E will become an A flat in the key of E flat.)

http://usermanuals.finalemusic.com/FinaleWin/Content/Finale/KEDLG.htm?cshid=172

EDIT: Sorry, I misunderstood. I think you have to "force show" the accidental for it to stay when "transposed." I'm not sure of a way to do that en masse. Sorry.

Thank you, George

It would be nice to do a "force show" en masse.

As it is, the method I used does work, that of using "Edit Staff Attributes."

:-)
Vanessa

I imported a piece of music and for some reason upon import a key change was inserted that wasn't in the music. I am trying to change the key signature of the piece without changing the actual notes, but the key signature dialog box "hold notes to original pitches" doesn't do anything when I use it.    I suspect that it happened because there was a flatted note in the beginning of the measure where the change appears. All the notes are still correct, but when I try to use the key signature change with the dialog box, all the notes change as well. Can someone explain what I might be doing wrong or how I could possibly fix this?  It happened at the very beginning of the music and I really don't want to enter everything over again.  Thank you!

What was the source of the document? Was it an XML from a scan?

In the Key Signature dialogue, there are a few options for transpositions. Take a look at George’s screenshot. See if one gets you close enough. Then, you could use something like JW Change Pitches to finish up.

Yes, it was from a pdf scan through MuseScore that was exported as XML.  The document is in key of C, but the odd key change that got thrown in changed it to F.  The orignal chord in the treble clef was spelled from the bottom,  F4, B4flat, D5.  Becasue the bflat was at the beginning of the measure, I think the scan grabbed it as if it was the clef.  So, I thought I was just change the whole song back to key of C, but when I did that (even though I checked "Hold Notes to Original Pitches", that chord changed to C4, F4 and A4.  The only reason I'm writing this, is I've tried to do the same thing before on a scanned piece and checking that box "Hold Notes to Orginal Pitches" didn't work then either. I feel like maybe there's another step that I'm missing.  BUT, in the interim I found a fix!  I went back to the Musescore imported pdf file and was able to delete the bad key signature with no change to the notes!  Then I just exported again. Voila!

That's not uncommon with scanning. I use SmartScore, which allows editing of the recognized score before you create the XML. It's much easier to spot and correct errors there, before they hit Finale.

I suspect MuseScore uses a "lite" version of a scanning program. Your problem is the sort of thing that led to the "scanning is no good" attitude of many folk.

Thanks, Mike.  Scanning is way definitely better than it used to be, but not perfect.  I will always try scanning before entering if I am transcribing!

Kitty

I figure that it doesn't take that long to scan and see what one gets, since one can always trash the scan and enter from scratch once one has decided that scan is not worth saving. But sometimes the scan will save some work.

No, scanning isn't perfect, and probably never will be. On the other hand, neither is my manual note entry. I've worked on a dozen or so scores with the new SmartScore64, and I'm impressed. I don't have an A-B comparison, but my impression is that recognition is improved.

Oh, Mike: don't be so modest about your manual note entry. :-)