Speedy Entry Tool

• Ctrl-click any measure containing entriesto display the Edit Frame dialog box, which contains dozens of very technical parameters for each note in the measure.
• Press Ctrl-number when you're editing a measure to tell Finale that the next notes you enter are part of a tuplet (triplet, quintuplet, and so on). Press Ctrl-2 through Ctrl-8 to signify tuplets from duplets to octuplets, respectively. If you press Ctrl-1, Finale assumes you want to enter a tuplet that's more complex than one of the 2-through-8 tuplets. The Tuplet Definition dialog box appears, in which you can specify the temporal and visual aspects of more complex tuplet groupings.
• Press Caps Lock before pressing a rhythmic-value key to tell Finale that you're about to enter a whole series of notes that all have that same rhythmic value. Now you can play notes on your MIDI instrument, rapidly, and Finale will automatically enter them into the score, without your having to press a rhythmic-value key each time. Caps Lock with Use MIDI Keyboard unchecked will also allow the use of the alphabet pitch entry keys.
• Press caps lock and the QWERTY keys with Use MIDI Device for Input turned off to enter pitches without a MIDI keyboard.

Enharmonics

When cycling through the enharmonic spelling of entries, Finale directly cycles through all the possibilities.

• When the cursor is on a notehead, press 9 or ctrl-9 to change the note or all notes in the measure to their enharmonic spellings. The cursor moves with each entry you change, so you can change the notes back to their enharmonic spelling.
• When the cursor is not on a notehead, press 9 to change a single note on an entry at a time.
• When the cursor is not on a notehead, press ctrl-9 to change all the notes of an entry enharmonically.

Arrow keys

• Press ctrl left arrow to move the insertion point to the first note or rest in the Speedy editing frame.
• Press ctrl right arrow to move the insertion point just beyond the last entry in the Speedy editing frame.
• Press left arrow when the insertion point is at the beginning of the editing frame to move the insertion point just beyond the last entry of the previous measure.
• Press right arrow when the insertion point is on the last entry in the editing frameto move the insertion point just beyond the last entry in the editing frame.
• Press right arrow when the insertion point is just beyond the last entry in the editing frame to move the insertion point to the first entry of the next measure.

While the Speedy Entry Tool's preprogrammed keyboard equivalents aren't technically Metatools, they're similar in that they're one-keystroke commands. They let you edit the notes in one measure at a time very rapidly. See Speedy Entry in the Keycuts chapter for details.