manual giving wrong info for courtesy accidentals?

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Catherine Blakley Posted October 29, 2021 14:12

I'm transcribing handwritten music on Finale PrintMusic 2014 with Windows7 Home Premium.

I was looking in the manual for the method to add courtesy accidentals and found the following instructions:

To create a courtesy accidental

Choose the Speedy Entry tool , and click the measure in question. The editing frame appears.
Click the notehead for which you want the accidental displayed. You can also position the insertion bar and crossbar on the notehead using the arrow keys.
Press the asterisk (*) key. If there was no accidental on the note, a courtesy sharp, flat, or natural now appears. (If there was an accidental on the note, it’s now hidden. Press the asterisk key again to restore it.)

This isn't working. Every time I tried, I got a pop up that said there were too many beats in the measure (but there weren't).

I'm glad I went to the knowledge base and found a post that mention the "P" shortcut in simple entry, wich works.

I'm posting this hoping someone will fix this bad info in the manual or respond to tell me why the instructions are not working.

Catherine

8 comments

Date Votes

MIKE ROSEN Posted October 29, 2021 15:38

They will do nothing for a legacy version, I’m afraid.

PETER THOMSEN Posted October 30, 2021 02:17

Catherine Blakley,

What happens if you hit the letter A key (instead of the asterisk key)?

Catherine Blakley Posted November 05, 2021 15:39

I haven't tried that, but I did find a post that said something about using "P" and that works.

MIKE ROSEN Posted November 05, 2021 16:53

The P key has always been the way to enter courtesy accidentals. In the older versions, tapping the P cycled through accidental with parentheses, accidental without parentheses, and dismiss the accidental. The newer versions just toggle parentheses on or off. I added a dismiss function with a keyboard shortcut.

PETER THOMSEN Edited November 05, 2021 16:57

… I haven't tried that, but I did find a post that said something about using "P" and that works …

We are talking about the Speedy Entry Tool - right?

The letter P key gives you a courtesy accidental in parenthesis.

Hitting the letter P key again will remove the parenthesis (but will not remove the courtesy accidental).

In Other Words:

To get the courtesy accidental without parenthesis, hit the letter P key twice.

The letter A key works too, but it works like the asterisk key (= gets you right away to the courtesy accidental without parenthesis).

Dave Cusick Posted November 05, 2021 19:50

Hi Catherine,

You are correct that the * (asterisk) key is the right key in Speedy Entry for the courtesy accidental. This is the same for both PrintMusic 2014 and Finale (Mac and Windows). If you are getting the warning for too many beats in the measure, you may be just pressing the 8 (eight) key instead, which will add a double-whole note. To use the * make sure to press the 8 key with the SHIFT key. This can be, understandably, very easy to overlook.

MIKE ROSEN Posted November 05, 2021 19:55

David,

Perhaps the instructions should give the key as Shift-8, rather than *. Would the numpad * work as well? If so, maybe both could be noted.

Dave Cusick Edited November 05, 2021 20:23

Mike,

Yes, the * on the number pad works as well, so you can use either one if you have a number pad. However, you cannot use SHIFT+8 on the number pad. So, it can be a bit confusing either way.

As far as I am aware, this is the standard convention for representing these key inputs. In cases where you want to indicate using ! or @, you wouldn't write this as SHIFT+1 or SHIFT+2, you simply use the character itself. Using * to indicate this key would fall along the same lines.

I agree that you may be able to write both, but that could turn an otherwise short of steps into a much longer explanation for just the key strokes themselves. This can make technical steps more difficult to read.

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