Special Tools Tool

This tool lets you create a number of special beaming, stemming, and note positioning changes in one measure at a time. For example, you can use it to rearrange the noteheads on a stem, change the length of a stem, change the angle of a beam, or adjust the position of a dot or a tie. You can select more than one element (of the same type) at once, make exact adjustments using the nudge keys, view the relative position of some selected elements in the message bar, perform on-screen dragging of dots or ties to alter their position, and change the vertical positioning of ties.

See Stems, Beaming across barlines, Note positioning, Dotted notes, Ties, and related topics.

Click the Special Tool that you want to use, then click the measure. Click, shift-click or drag-enclose the handles of the elements you want to edit. At certain times you’ll want to change several occurrences of an element at once (for example, when you change the appearance of noteheads). You can save time by drag-enclosing several handles at once. First, position the cursor at the first element’s handle, then drag-enclose the handles of the elements to be selected. Release the button when you’ve reached the last element. Alternately, you can select more than one handle by holding down shift and clicking any handle in the measure.
Click on the Special Tool that you plan to work with. Click the measure you want to change, then choose Select All from the Edit menu. Select All is available to the following Special Tools: Note Position, Notehead Position, Note Shape, Accidental Mover, Stem Length, Custom Stem, Beam Angle, Beam Extension, Secondary Beam Angle, Tie, Dot, Beam Width and Beam Stem Adjust Tools. To select the elements, first Finale will select all the elements of the same type in the measure (such as all the notes for the Note Position Tool) that the current tool affects. Changes you make to any of the elements you selected will apply to all the selected elements for that Special Tool.
Press delete or backspace or shift-delete after moving or changing a stem or note to reset the item to its original position or appearance. This shortcut works for the Note Mover, Notehead Mover, Change Notehead, Accidental, Stem Length, Custom Stem, Beam Adjustment, Beam Extension, Secondary Beam Adjustment, Tie, Dot, Beam Thickness and Beam Stem Adjust Tools.
Press the nudge keys to adjust the position of almost any element whose handle is selected. If you need to move elements very slightly (such as ties, for example) when you’re working with Special Tools, you can use the nudge keys–the four directional arrows on your keyboard.

You can make the “nudge” amount as small as one pixel, or as large as you like, using the Movable Items dialog box found in Program Options-Edit (under the Document menu). This setting is saved in your Finale.INI file. To make even more precise adjustments, choose a higher Scale View To setting in the View menu. For example, doubling the view percentage to zoom in will offer twice the nudging precision.

Note: The nudge “amount” in the Movable Items dialog box only applies when you’re working with Special Tools. When you use the nudge keys at other times, the element is adjusted by one pixel each time you press the keys.

Contextual menus are reached by right -clicking on the handle of an object. A contextual menu will be displayed where you can select various items.

menu item	What it does
Edit	Display the Notehead Settings or Accidental Settings dialog box
Clear	Restores default settings
Allow Vertical Positioning	Permits dragging an accidental or notehead up or down