Time signatures on tablature staves

Generally, a time signature is only used on a tablature staff if it is not accompanied by a notation staff. By default, Finale leaves time signatures off of tablature staves. If you are creating a document with a tablature staff only, you might want to add a time signature to the tab staff.

To add a time signature to tablature staves

1. Click the Staff tool .
2. Double click a tablature staff. The Staff Attributes dialog box opens.
3. In the Items to Display section, check Time Signatures.
4. Click OK. You return to the document. Notice the time signature is a bit small and not centered on the tab staff, so it will need to be adjusted.
5. Choose Document > Document Options > Time Signatures. The Time Signature options appear.
6. Choose Units > EVPUs. We’ll use EVPUs as our measurement units.
7. In the Vertical Adjustment section, for Abbreviated Symbol, enter “-20”, Top Symbol, “-16” and Bottom Symbol, “-20”.
8. Click Apply.
9. Click the Fonts category on the left side of the Document Options dialog box. The Fonts options appear.
10. Choose Notation > Time.
11. Click the Set Font button for Notation. The Font dialog box appears.
12. Set the Size to 36.
13. Click OK to return to the Fonts options and OK. Your time signature is now enlarged and centered on the staff. Make further adjustments to the placement and size by entering your own values in the Time Signature and Font options as needed. For example, if you want to place the time signature between the second and fourth tab line, in the Time Signature options, for Top Symbol, use -28 and Bottom Symbol, -10. Then in the Fonts options, set the font for Time to 26.

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