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UCG Musician
Registered Member

Date Joined Aug 2004
Total Posts : 161

Posted 5/20/2009 2:06 PM (GMT -5)

I'm seeing a lot of activity by new FS users. That's great. I've been a heavy user myself for years. But, as with most who try to understand it, I am frustrated at what it can & cannot do & why some things require extra commands to work at all.

That being said, perhaps some of the newer FS geniuses (or is it genii?) can figure out how FS can "find" an existing text box & do something to it (reposition it, change the text, etc.). I am on a massive project that takes existing files of hymns in piano notation & separates the SATB lines out for arrangement into 14 different instruments or groups of instruments. There are 190 hymns & the project will involve 3,000 files to complete.

I have already scripted much of the work to create 4 lines & arrange the flute & clarinet parts but some things still must be done manually. For example, the original file has no text box in it to identify the instrument. At the beginning of the process I enter a mini text box with "zzz" in it & then use code to search & replace it with the instrument name (like Hans did with his copyright example).

Ideally I'd use FS to create a brand new text box. Nothing I have tried works. So instead I create one as noted above. But the position changes for different instruments. The flute part (using SAT lines only) is transposed up an octave so the music itself lies slightly lower on the page & the text box must be adjusted accordingly. The clarinet part (also using SAT lines only) is transposed up a major second so the music falls slightly higher on the page. Other instruments will use only AT or TB lines & have various transpositions.

There is far more complication to the process that I won't explain in detail but, briefly, text boxes are manipulated, fonts are changed, page sizes are changed, pages are resized, staves are added, staff names are created & positioned and page & system margins are reset.

Can anyone identify a practical way to have FS do the following:

1.) Create a new text box & enter something into it

2.) Find an existing text box & select it for adjustment

3.) Select a group bracket style

Thanks for your help. If workable scripts are found for these I may throw out a few more in the future.

Randy

(UCG Musician)

Bill Wadlinger
Registered Member

Date Joined Nov 2003
Total Posts : 556

Posted 5/21/2009 9:36 AM (GMT -5)

I'm with you. I just finished converting about 300 simple one-page jigs and reels to Bb transpositions. When I do these manually, I always put a text notation in the upper right corner, "For Bb instruments."

I do not know how to do that in Finalescript. I don't find any reference to it in the docs, at least not one that leaps off the page. A lot of stuff is missing. I'm starting a list of such things, and your question is in it, Randy.

Bill

Current favorite: Ouzo

Notation program: Finale 2k9b, 2k8a, 2k7b, 2k6c, 2k5 and 2K4b

Web: http://www.beaverfolkdance.org/ifs

UCG Musician
Registered Member

Date Joined Aug 2004
Total Posts : 161

Posted 5/21/2009 10:12 AM (GMT -5)

Thanks, Bill.

Mircea
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 364

Posted 9/16/2009 2:48 PM (GMT -5)

Hi!

I'm also working on updating 250 files of SATB files. I was wondering if you guys made some progress with FS identifying text on page and manipulate it.

For example I have files with more than one song in it and the Title's are simple text blocks not attached to the file info.
I want FS to search any text block with a font size bigger than 20 and change it to a specific setting.

Bill Wadlinger
Registered Member

Date Joined Nov 2003
Total Posts : 556

Posted 9/16/2009 3:34 PM (GMT -5)

I haven't looked at this stuff in a while, Mircea, but I really should. Especially because I have Finale 2010 now, and haven't looked to see if there are any improvements to FS.

Bill

Current favorite: Ouzo

Notation program: Finale 2k10, 2k9b, 2k8a, 2k7b, 2k6c, 2k5 and 2K4b

Web: http://www.beaverfolkdance.org/ifs

Mircea
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2003
Total Posts : 364

Posted 9/16/2009 5:01 PM (GMT -5)

I just want to know if FS can do a script for >less than< <bigger than> instead of a fix value.

Also in romanian quotes are handeled diferent. Some of the files I didn't write them and the editor didn't bothered to do it right.

English = "Something in quotes"
Romanian = „Something in quotes“

the script below would help if I can indicate something preceded or followed by something.

//existing replace quotation script
search "<34>" replace with "<133>"

//needed (future upgrade request if not yet implemented) replace script
search "<34>*" replace with "<132>*"
search "*<34>" replace with "*<147>"

This would be availabale to any search and replace, not just symbols.

Post Edited (Mircea) : 9/16/2009 4:14:09 PM (GMT-5)

Robert P.
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 1615

Posted 9/17/2009 7:03 PM (GMT -5)

Hi,

There currently is no text block manipulation.

Randy: 1) seems possible in the future. 2) I am not sure what exactly you want to do. 3) even less sure...?

Mircea: interesting, I will keep it in mind (it reminds me a little "RegEx" stuff).

RP

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, 3GB RAM
Mac OS X 10.4.11 / 10.5 / [Win XP]

UCG Musician
Registered Member

Date Joined Aug 2004
Total Posts : 161

Posted 9/17/2009 10:21 PM (GMT -5)

RP,

Someone figured out a way to do part of #1 & I experimented with various things that have gotten me 90% of the way there. The following gets me a new text box & lets me position it:

Text tool

double click

press "z"

Menu item "Text/Frame Attributes..."

Dropdown "Single Page" near "Page"

Dropdown "Left" near "Horizontal:"

Type 0 near "H:"

Dropdown "Top (Header)" near "Position From:"

Type -0.5 near "V:"

Dropdown "Page margin" near "Position From:"

Check "Position from edge of frame"

UnCheck "Use right page positioning"

Hit OK

Search "zzz" Replace "Instrument" [Palatino Linotype] 15 italic bold

(The reason for "zzz" instead of just "Instrument" to begin with is that in lyrics or some text boxes the word "Instrument" occasionally occurs. "zzz" never does, of course, so it provide a way to create a text box containing "Instrument". In subsequent scripts I search "Instrument & replace it with "Flute/Piccolo", "Bb Clarinet", etc.)

This script typically works and I have a similar one that puts the text box in a different position. These scripts work for hymns that are on the left OR the right side of a page. The trouble occurs in scripts that attempt to position the text box in different places on the two pages of hymns that have both a left & right side. If you have an idea as to why it would not work in such cases, please let me know.

I will follow up on the other questions in separate responses so this one doesn't get so long!

Randy

UCG Musician
Registered Member

Date Joined Aug 2004
Total Posts : 161

Posted 9/17/2009 10:29 PM (GMT -5)

RP,

#2 was an alternate attempt at #1. When the Text Tool is selected, one can go to "Edit Text" & cycle through all the text boxes in a document. Each one has an ID #. I could theoretically select any one of them that consistently contains the same information & manipulate it to change the instrument name. Unfortunately, I could not devise a script that would select a text box by its ID number. It is no longer an issue because of the workaround I mentioned in the last response. Nevertheless, if it is a supported function, it would be nice to know the syntax.

Thanks,

Randy

UCG Musician
Registered Member

Date Joined Aug 2004
Total Posts : 161

Posted 9/17/2009 10:49 PM (GMT -5)

RP,

I have not found a way to accomplish #3 & still have a need for it, if there is a solution. This will take a little explanation, so please bear with me. When two or more staves are selected to be put into a group, a script can be used to open the dialog box, select the staves, indicate a group optimization setting & choose how bar lines are treated. But the next selection is the bracket style.

There are six available styles. I want to to pick the fourth one. I cannot figure how to select it & hit enter. It is not a dropdown list or a tab or anything else that I can get a script to select. If there is a way to do it, please let me know. That is the only part I cannot automate of a very large script that does a great amount of work. It requires me to wait until the dialog box is open & manually select bracket style 4 before the script will continue executing.

Thanks,

Randy

Robert P.
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2004
Total Posts : 1615

Posted 9/18/2009 3:08 AM (GMT -5)

Hi,

I am completely astonished by how inventive Finalescript users are.... Yes, Finalescript is hard and cryptic at times, but I designed purposedly not as a normal script or programming language... I hope what musical users enjoy is its 'natural language' aspect...? What I had in mind at first was actually the flexibility (and sometimes the frustration??) of search engines such as google.

I will keep in mind how to improve text manipulation wihtout it to be so much a hack.

Speaking of 3, I had almost got it to work with this:

staff tool
select staves 2 to 3
menu item "add group and bracket"
click
hit ok

...by leaving the mouse pointer exactly on the x/y location of the 4th style before invoking the script through keyboard shorcut.
But unfortunately, the pointer moves around while doing other actions... I will think about an option to set the pointer to a specific x/y location...

Robert

2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, 3GB RAM
Mac OS X 10.4.11 / 10.5 / [Win XP]

Post Edited (Robert P.) : 9/18/2009 5:31:45 AM (GMT-5)

James L
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2009
Total Posts : 30

Posted 10/30/2009 4:23 AM (GMT -5)

I'm stumped with 2 and 3

, but I've been working on a couple of 1s.

I made a script that adds part names to the page, but my script only added the names to the top left of each page. I've modified the script to allow for the text block to appear on alternating sides of the page (left & right) and incorporated the 'zzz' and 'instrument' text item idea that Randy demonstrated.

Here's my script. I know it looks a little unwieldy (and this is my short version!):

text tool
menu item "Page View"
//
menu item "view/zoom/other..."
type "300"
button "ok"
//
double click
type raw "zzz"
//
press command + shift + "T"
click radio "Page"
dropdown "All Pages"
dropdown "Right" near "Horizontal"
dropdown "Top*" near "Vertical"
dropdown "Page Margin"
check "Use Right Page*"
dropdown "Left" near "Use Right Page*"
tab
type "0"
tab
type "0"
tab
type "0"
tab
type "0"
button "ok"
//
menu item "view/zoom/other..."
type "100"
button "ok"
//
Search "zzz" Replace "Instrument" [Arial] 16 fixed
End

(Obviously this is Mac based so if you try it out on a PC, well, I'm sure you know what to do. I tried this in 2010 and 2009 and they both worked.)

At the start of the script I zoom in to 300%, which (almost) guarantees that the "double click" that follows will actually be clicking on the page. It's kind of sneaky because it also makes sure the mouse pointer is in the centre of the page when it clicks "ok" to exit the zoom dialogue.

Sometimes I find that getting FS to press the keyboard shortcuts for menu items works better than going directly to a menu item. e.g. 'press command + shift + "T"' seems more reliable that writing 'menu item "Frame Attributes..."'. Although the other menu items work ok for me. Hmmm...

All the 'tab, type "0"' commands are resetting the frame's position offsets. By adjusting these settings you could position the part names where-ever you like and have specific settings for specific instruments.

I didn't know you could so easily set the font and style with the search and replace function. That's really cool!

NOTE: If you try this out, just make sure that the FS palette isn't open in the middle of the page, as the "double click" function relies on the Finale file being clickable.

JL

Finale 2000, 2004-2010
Dual 2.0GHz Power PC G5, 3.5GB RAM, OS 10.4.11
MacBook Pro, 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, OS 10.5.8
Sibelius 5.0

Post Edited (James L) : 10/30/2009 3:34:06 AM (GMT-5)

James L
Registered Member

Date Joined Oct 2009
Total Posts : 30

Posted 10/30/2009 7:41 AM (GMT -5)

#3! A not-so-practical workaround, for Fin 2010 (doesn't work in 2009

)

It's a little crazy and I've borrowed RP's idea of luring the mouse pointer into the appropriate position. It works best if your staff optimisation has been removed.

measure tool
menu item "Edit Measure Number Regions..."
dropdown "square" near "Show on Every"
dropdown "rectangle" near "Show on Every"
enter key
//
select instrument 1 to 2
staff tool
menu item "Add Group and Bracket..."
click
wait 0.1 second
enter key

If you are actually using those measure number enclosures then simply set the second dropdown menu item to the shape you want to use. (There have to be two dropdown changes because the mouse won't go there if the first dropdown happens to be set with the same setting that the FS tries to change it to... if that makes sense.)

There also needs to be a slight pause after selecting the bracket, otherwise the bracket gets applied to the entire score. Weird.

If you want to manually pre-select which staves you want to group together, just take the line "select instrument 1 to 2" out of the script. It should still work as long as you have your desired staves selected.

Let me know if this works for anyone, as it probably won't work if people have altered the positions of their dialogue boxes or if my dialogue boxes aren't in the same spots... speaking of which, I'm sure one could line up another dialogue box's "OK" button under the appropriate bracket and then use that function before editing the Group attributes. Just a thought.

JL

Finale 2000, 2004-2010
Dual 2.0GHz Power PC G5, 3.5GB RAM, OS 10.4.11
MacBook Pro, 2.8GHz, 4GB RAM, OS 10.5.8
Sibelius 5.0

Post Edited (James L) : 10/30/2009 7:34:50 AM (GMT-5)

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