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ebiggs1
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2001
Total Posts : 722

Posted 8/30/2016 4:35 PM (GMT -6)

Just what is the biggest most need bug fix for Finale. I know what I believe to be small annoyances but hardly could I call them 'bugs'. They are just not the way I would di it if I could write the program. Which I can't.

Music makes the difference!
Finale 2014.5 *-* Finale 25
Dell XPS 8500 Intel Core i7 CPU @ 3.40GHz
16 GB RAM, 64 bit OS Windows 10

Mike Rosen
himself

Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146

Posted 8/30/2016 5:46 PM (GMT -6)

I think every one of us has a "biggest" bug. And they would all be different.

Mike Rosen
www.specialmillwork.com

Bass with Choir of the Sound www.choirofthesound.org
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Finale 2014.5 on El Capitan
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gogreen
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 1999
Total Posts : 1618

Posted 8/30/2016 6:03 PM (GMT -6)

Mike Rosen said...
I think every one of us has a "biggest" bug. And they would all be different.

Indeed. It drives me crazy that Finale doesn't keep my background color preference, and it's been this way at least since, I think, Finale 2007. Surely just a minor impediment to notating or composing, but it drives me nuts.

Arthur J. Michaels

/www.facebook.com/composerarthurjmichaels

Finale 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011b.r2, 2014d, 2014.5 (currently using 2014.5)
Core i7 860 @ 2.80 GHz, 8.0 GB RAM, Windows 10 Home x64
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N. Grossingink
Registered Member

Date Joined Nov 2002
Total Posts : 3991

Posted 8/30/2016 6:20 PM (GMT -6)

Seems like the print dialog bug is a biggie-
forum.makemusic.com/default.aspx?f=6&m=483292
Not really a bug - the damn thing just doesn't work.

Is this a Macintosh only thing or does it affect Windows too?

N.

OSX Mavericks 10.9.5
Finale 2011c, 2012c for production work

OSX El Capitan 10.11.6
Finale 2014.5

TgTools, Patterson Plugins, JW Change and Staff Polyphony, QuicKeys 4
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ebiggs1
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2001
Total Posts : 722

Posted 8/31/2016 9:38 AM (GMT -6)

"Not really a bug - the damn thing just doesn't work."

I guess I don't understand what the difference is between a bug and it just doesn't work. I know there are some things Finale does that I wouldn't have put in the software but it isn't a bug.

I think printing is more 'difficult' than it has to be or should be. I think a print preview would help greatly for instance.

Music makes the difference!
Finale 2014.5 *-* Finale 25
Dell XPS 8500 Intel Core i7 CPU @ 3.40GHz
16 GB RAM, 64 bit OS Windows 10

Ralph L. Bowers Jr.
Polymathist

Date Joined May 2012
Total Posts : 883

Posted 8/31/2016 9:50 AM (GMT -6)

"I think printing is more 'difficult' than it has to be or should be. I think a print preview would help greatly for instance."

Yes to this....even Sibelius has a print preview. Really how difficult is that to include with Finale?

Finale 2010b, 2011b, 2012c, 2014d, 2014.5 TGTools Pro, Patterson plugins, JW plugins (current for each Finale Instalation)
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BMus, MM (Musicology)

N. Grossingink
Registered Member

Date Joined Nov 2002
Total Posts : 3991

Posted 8/31/2016 9:56 AM (GMT -6)

ebiggs1 said...
"Not really a bug - the damn thing just doesn't work."
I guess I don't understand what the difference is between a bug and it just doesn't work. I know there are some things Finale does that I wouldn't have put in the software but it isn't a bug.

In this case, it's obvious that they did not fully complete work on the feature and just released the software as is. Call it a bug if you like.

N.

Mike Rosen
himself

Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146

Posted 8/31/2016 10:29 AM (GMT -6)

N. Grossingink said...

In this case, it's obvious that they did not fully complete work on the feature and just released the software as is. Call it a bug if you like.

N.

Sort of the paradigm, these days.

ebiggs1
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2001
Total Posts : 722

Posted 8/31/2016 10:34 AM (GMT -6)

"... even Sibelius has a print preview."

Unfortunately, and Finale doesn't seem concerned, Sibelius has a lot more features than we do.

Music makes the difference!
Finale 2014.5 *-* Finale 25
Dell XPS 8500 Intel Core i7 CPU @ 3.40GHz
16 GB RAM, 64 bit OS Windows 10

Dr. Wiggy
Early music: modern methods

Date Joined Jun 2006
Total Posts : 12628

Posted 8/31/2016 10:56 AM (GMT -6)

ebiggs1 said...
I think printing is more 'difficult' than it has to be or should be. I think a print preview would help greatly for instance.

Ralph L. Bowers Jr. said...
Yes to this....even Sibelius has a print preview. Really how difficult is that to include with Finale?

Finale used to (certainly on the Mac side) have a Postscript Preview menu item, which displayed the page as it would print. However, I'm not sure I understand the overwhelming need: Finale should already represent everything on the page as it will print (colours and hidden/non-printing objects aside), shouldn't it? And if it doesn't, then that the bug.

There are certainly far too many bugs related to printing and graphical export which, for an app whose prime purpose is the display of graphic information, is troubling. However, the paradigm of having several "sub-documents" within one document does make printing difficult, both in presenting controls to the user, and in interfacing with the OS.

"This is me helping."

Finale v.25, 2012 MacMini; 2012 MacBook Pro (10.11.6)
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ebiggs1
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 2001
Total Posts : 722

Posted 8/31/2016 11:13 AM (GMT -6)

"Finale should already represent everything on the page as it will print ...[/i}

So do all the other programs I use regularly, I.E., Word, Photoshop and Web Builder for instance. They all show a page if you zoom out. But they also have a print preview. Maybe it is too difficult to do. I am not a programmer so I don't know.

But printing is just one "bug"?

I think Finale needs a more robust text editor. Not a bug actually it just doesn't do much.
Music makes the difference!
Finale 2014.5 *-* Finale 25
Dell XPS 8500 Intel Core i7 CPU @ 3.40GHz
16 GB RAM, 64 bit OS Windows 10

gogreen
Registered Member

Date Joined Dec 1999
Total Posts : 1618

Posted 9/5/2016 4:03 PM (GMT -6)

Just downloaded and installed Finale 25. I can confirm that Finale still does not save manuscript texture preferences. This error goes back to Finale 2007, maybe earlier.

CraigP
Registered Member

Date Joined Apr 2013
Total Posts : 313

Posted 9/5/2016 5:22 PM (GMT -6)

Well, I have trouble believing I am living in 2016 when I have to fiddle around with those %#&@#^%$ first ending brackets every %@#^%$$#*& time. That is the biggest waste of time in the whole product as far as I can tell. Is it really unreasonable to expect the program to figure out how to print the ending bracket properly?

mknoll
Registered Member

Date Joined Mar 2000
Total Posts : 207

Posted 9/6/2016 7:44 AM (GMT -6)

A long-standing one that affects me quite a lot concerns ties over system breaks. It a tie goes over a system break in the score, but the corresponding slur in the linked part doesn't, or vice versa, often one of the ties gets deformed.

I haven't tested this in Fin 25 yet, so I can't say if it's been fixed this time around.

Finale 2011, 2014d
Mac Mini
8 GB RAM
Mac OS X 10.11
Using Finale since version 1

Vaughan
Registered Member

Date Joined Jun 1999
Total Posts : 4984

Posted 9/6/2016 8:01 AM (GMT -6)

I've never had a problem with ties over system breaks as being deformed. Sometimes the tie will flip direction depending on the presence of layers in the adjacent measures, but this is easy to change. Slurs, on the other hand, don't always cross system breaks attractively, although good slur settings can help. This brings up another point: for as long as I can remember, Finale's default settings in the sample files and templates leave a lot to be desired.

Vaughan

Finale 3.2 - 25, Sibelius 4 - 7
Robert Patterson plugins, waiting for Tobias' and Jari's plugin update
MacOS 10.11.6
MacPro (2016) 16 GB, MacBookPro (2011) 8 GB

Amsterdam

Vaughan
Registered Member

Date Joined Jun 1999
Total Posts : 4984

Posted 9/6/2016 8:12 AM (GMT -6)

@ CraigP: what problems are you experiencing with 1st ending brackets? Good settings are important and unfortunately, as I wrote above, Finale's defaults can leave a lot to be desired. I can sympathise with a couple of things involving 1st ending brackets, like the lines covering only a single measure, requiring dragging (a very minor problem) or a workaround if involving a system break. The fact that the 1st and 2nd ending brackets touch by default can be taken care of by the Inset for End of Bracket setting. Showing only on certain staves in a score but in all parts is also a user-defined setting. I've never had problems with the proper printing of repeats + paraphernalia.

Vaughan

Finale 3.2 - 25, Sibelius 4 - 7
Robert Patterson plugins, waiting for Tobias' and Jari's plugin update
MacOS 10.11.6
MacPro (2016) 16 GB, MacBookPro (2011) 8 GB

Amsterdam

Jim Williams
Registered Member

Date Joined Jan 2008
Total Posts : 728

Posted 9/6/2016 8:01 PM (GMT -6)

Craig done writ...
"Well, I have trouble believing I am living in 2016 when I have to fiddle around with those %#&@#^%$ first ending brackets every %@#^%$$#*& time. That is the biggest waste of time in the whole product as far as I can tell. Is it really unreasonable to expect the program to figure out how to print the ending bracket properly?"

waarop Vaughn antwoordde: "The fact that the 1st and 2nd ending brackets touch by default can be taken care of by the Inset for End of Bracket setting."

I sympathize with Craig on this one after doing a few hundred endings in a project of polkas and waltzes. WHY ON EARTH has MM left that horrid default through so many versions? Yes, it's NBD to move a few endings, but that setting is one that a user should RARELY need to access. It's likely one of the settings that can turn users off to Finale and on to Sibelius.

WinFin 2012, 2014, Core-i7 laptop, 16 gB RAM, Win 10 pro
Core 2 duo laptop, Windows 7 Enterprise
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Yamaha 621 Baritone Horn, blue pBone.

Mike Rosen
himself

Date Joined Feb 2006
Total Posts : 14146

Posted 9/6/2016 8:18 PM (GMT -6)

And I agree completely with Craig and Jim. It's just plain wrong.

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