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Document Options-Stems dialog box

How to get there

Choose Document > Document Options and select Stems.

What it does

This dialog box contains options for controlling stem length, thickness and offset from notehead as well as options for customizing your stem connections.

Normal Stem Length • Shortened Stem Length. These numbers determine the lengths of note stems, measured in the currently selected measurement units. (Set both boxes to zero if you want stemless notes.) The first number is the length of a normal stem. The Shortened Stem Length specifies the length of a stem that’s been flipped in the "wrong" direction, on a note a line (or more) away from the middle staff line.

Half-Stem Length. Enter a value in measurement units for the length of all half-stems placed over rests. Use the Document Options dialog box to set whether Finale displays half-stems over rests in your score.
Reverse Stem Adjust. A reverse stem is one that’s attached to the "wrong" side of its note-head, often in conjunction with cross-staff notes or notes in different registers, as shown here:

The number in the Reverse Stem Adjust text box specifies where a note’s stem should end, measured in the currently selected measurement units from its normal location, in those cases where the stem direction is also reversed (see figure below).

Note, however, that Finale also considers a number of other variables when it decides how long a stem should be, including the Max Slope and Max Distance From Middle Staff (in Document Options-Beaming) parameters, as well as standard notation rules for stemming. Therefore, if you change the value for this parameter you may not see any immediate changes in the score.

Stem Line Thickness. Enter a value here to specify stem line thickness throughout your document.
Stem Offset for Noteheads. This value, which you may need to change if you use a music font other than Maestro or Petrucci, adjusts the vertical position of the note stems relative to their noteheads. The number (in measurement units) specifies the distance between the note-head and the bottom of the stem. The default is .5 points (or the equivalent unit of measurement). You can also specify the settings for each individual notehead type.
Display Reverse Stemming. A reverse stem is one that’s drawn on the "wrong" side of its notehead; it’s encountered most frequently in conjunction with cross-staff notes.

You may find your score easier to edit, however, if these stems are temporarily drawn on the correct sides of their noteheads; if so, select this option. At any time, you can restore these stems to reverse-stem status by turning this option off again. (You might want to select this option at the same time you select Display Cross-staff Notes in Original Staff, so that all notes are temporarily drawn without their unusual beaming configurations.)

Use Stem Connections. When Use Stem Connections is selected, Finale uses all the special stem connections defined in the document. If you have X noteheads or other custom noteheads in the piece and Use Stem Connections is selected, Finale will adjust the stems on the noteheads shown in this dialog box. When this option is not selected, no special stem connection settings are used.
Stem Connections. Click to display the Stem Connections dialog box, where you can define custom stem connections.