- Enter the Shape Designer. See To enter the Shape Designer.
You arrive at a graphics window with a number
of drawing tools along the top edge of the screen, a menu at the top,
and coordinate boxes at the right. See Shape
Designer dialog box for details.
If the shape is to be very large or very
small, you can “zoom in” (or out) by using the View drop-down listpop-up
menu. Using the Shape Designer menu, you can tell Finale to display rulers
or a grid to help you draw precisely-sized objects.
- Click the tool you want to draw with; then
drag the mouse in the main drawing area. The kind of line you draw
is determined by the tool you click. For example, to draw a line, you
click the Line Tool
and drag in the drawing area. When you release the mouse, the line
is a distinct object whose length, thickness, and angle you can easily
change at any time. See Shape
Designer dialog box for details.
- Use the selection tool and click on the shape.
Change the way the shape looks by dragging a position of a handle (or
control point). Or, use the selection tool, click on the shape (so the
control points appear) then click and drag the shape (but don’t grab any
of the control points) to reposition it relative to the origin. By editing
the numbers in the H: and V: boxes you can also change the shape’s position
relative to the origin. H: means the point’s Horizontal position,
relative to the origin (the small white circle); V: means its Vertical
position. The units of measurement are whatever you select using the Rulers
and Grid command in the Shape Designer menu.
The origin is the small handle that appears
in the center of the drawing area. It anchors your shape, acts as the
zero point for the rulers and positioning coordinates,
and indicates where your shape’s handle will appear once you’ve
placed it into the score.
When you drag one of the eight bounding
handles of a multiline object or polygon shape, you resize the object.
To view the individual control points that define a multiline, polygon,
or bracket shape, double-click the object. To edit a curve or slur, click
once to see the three draggable shaping handles; double-click one of
these handles to see the four control handles for even more control. (Use
the arrow keys to nudge a selected handle by one EVPU [1/288th inch].)
- Combine elements of your drawing, if you wish,
by selecting them and choosing Shape Designer > Group.
To select several objects, click the Selection tool. Then either SHIFT+click
the objects you want, or drag-enclose them. Or, if you want to select
all the objects, choose Edit > Select All. Once grouped, the
objects are locked in relation to each other, and may be moved or resized
as a unit. You can create nested groups, too, by combining groups together
using the same method. To ungroup, select a group and choose Shape Designer > Ungroup.
- Create layered effects using Shape Designer > Send to Back
and Bring to Front commands. See Shape
Designer menu for more information.
- To specify the shading for an enclosed object,
click the object and select the fill amount by choosing Shape Designer > Fill submenu. You can specify Black, White, or any
degree of gray.
- Press ENTER
twice. If you’re creating an Expression mark (as opposed to an
Executable playback shape), you arrive at the Shape Expression Designer.
If you select Allow Horizontal Stretching,
Finale will permit the shape to stretch out along with the music if the
measures are widened. For example, you wouldn’t want to Allow Horizontal
Stretching for a fixed-shape symbol such as a harp pedaling diagram—but
you would for slurs, crescendo hairpins, or glissando lines.
- Click OK or Select in each
dialog box until you return to the document.
Once the shape is in the score, you can adjust its position by dragging
its handle. To stretch it, double-click the shape’s handle; its eight
bounding handles appear. To completely reshape the graphic, double-click
a second time. Its Control+point handles appear, which you can then drag
exactly as you would in the Shape Designer.
