I am not sure what you mean by your words “non-beamed notes”.

- Flagged notes?

- Quarters and halves?

- Or both?

Also, how do you measure the stem length - from where to where?

The better we understand, the better we can help.

Could you perhaps explain the reason for the different stem lengths?

Thank you once again Peter for your rapid response.

It is not a great difference, but stand-alone quarter, 8th and 16th eight notes do have slightly longer stems than when they are beamed to others. I make editions for string instruments, and finding the room to put in fingerings, bowings, articulations etc is often a bit of a squeeze, so the less room the stems take up the better. I already changed the flag type on the 8th notes to enable shorter stems and have requested a new flag version (option) for flagged 16th notes for the same reason.

Stem length would be from the notehead to the tip of the stem (or beam) I suppose .....

MANY THANKS

Are there third-party fonts that might accomplish what you want by default? Now that Finale 27 supports SMuFL, a much wider selection of fonts is available for consideration.Notation Express (https://www.notationcentral.com/product-category/fonts/music-fonts/ ) has a wide selection.

Now I understand much better.

When you are saying

“My optimum beamed stem length is 65-70”

then you are talking about EVPUs - right?

… stand-alone quarter, 8th and 16th eight notes do have slightly longer stems than when they are beamed to others …

It is not that simple. Depending on the actual context and the document settings for beams you may encounter cases where a beamed stem is longer than an un-beamed stem.

* What are your actual document settings for beams?

* What are your actual document settings for stems?

Flagged stems are a different story

In the Document Options for flags you can move the flags closer to the notehead, thus getting shorter stems.

An example:

For the First Upstem Flag, try a Vertical Positioning of 28e.

Hi Peter

Yes, EVPU's, sorry, I forgot about the other measurement units ......

My Document Settings for beams are: 12/18/18/30/0

And for Stems: 60, 40, 18, 216, 3.5, 4

For quarter notes and half notes, I like a stem length of 60, but if I do that then I have to manually lengthen all my beamed notes (8ths and 16ths).

And thanks also J Adrian. I looked on that site for third-party fonts but all I need are shorter flagged 16th notes and a way to balance the stem lengths between beamed and non-beamed notes (all in Maestro font). The selection at Notation Express was so huge I don't know where to start looking ........ but it is a wonderful resource.

… My Document Settings for beams are: 12/18/18/30/0 …

Those settings are only the settings from the bottom half of the pane.

Your beam settings are fine.

However, the value for Maximum Slope (= 30e) may be a little too much.

If you try a smaller value, you may get some longer beamed stems.

Try e. g. a Maximum Slope of 12e.

(… and I would like to know your settings from the upper half of the pane).

… And for Stems: 60, 40, 18, 216, 3.5, 4 …

Your stem settings are fine.

PS

Did you try my advice about flag settings?

Hi Peter and thanks again for your patience.

My beaming options at the top of the pane are:

"Base slopes on end notes only", and then I have the first 5 boxes ticked and the last 3 not.

But actually I don't think we need to change anything there because, yes, adjusting the flag height is THE solution. On my first try I got confused but now I've got it. It's brilliant. If I make the First Upstem flag at 32, the stand-alone eight, quarter and half notes are the same height as my beamed 8th/16th notes. Fantastic !

Thanks !

By The Way:

Finale considers the flag as a part of the stem.

If you ever need a custom flag (I do, occasionally), then you should use the Special Tools Tool sub-tool Custom Stem Tool.

That's when it gets complicated ! The only shape that I have in that selection that even remotely resembles a flag is one you made for me - a 16th note flag. It would be so much easier if Finale included a nice short 16th note flag for Maestro in their options (like the 8th note First Downstem flag nº 239, and First Upstem flag nº 145 which I use as my default options and which you told me about). I have asked for that new feature but can imagine that it is not top priority .......