I'm sure this has been answered before, but I couldn't find it.

How do I alter or create a map that puts the melodic notes where they should be and the cymbals in the staff with an appropriate note head? I've tried, but my notes keep getting shifted. Any ideas why this is happening?

I assume you're referring to the suspended cymbal sounds that are mapped in the upper range of the marimbas. If you're using these and want to have the cymbal sounds notate more appropriately in Finale, you'll first want to create a ";Staff Style"; specific to them.

I'm not sure which version of Finale you're using, but the later versions of the VDL Templates for Finale have these staff styles built in. If you're unfamiliar with using Staff Styles in Finale, you should be able to find more information about them in the Finale documentation.

I'm using 2.5 and Finale 2007 (I believe - not at my computer right now). I tried creating the staff style, and it seemed pretty straight forward, but the melodic notes shifted when I applied it. I'll look to see if the marimba is part of the maps. Thanks.

The staff style should only be applied to the measures (or partial measures) containing the suspended cymbal notation. I'm not sure which version of Finale started this, but I believe there's a setting were you can have it display a visible, blue line above the span affected by the staff style.

The styles can only be applied to full measures. Anyway, I'm thinking of upgrading to Finale 2011, so that should fix it.

On that note, I see that I need to purchase the templates now. If I buy the 2010b template, how will the upgrade be determined (free, reduced?) when
the 2011 template is available?

Thanks for the responses Jim.

I don't have a way of double-checking this in Finale 2007 at the moment, but I thought there was a way to select partial measures. That may just be for selections though. It might be worth a quick search in the Finale user guide though!

I'm not too concerned with it if I'm going to purchase 2011.

As to the last question I asked, how would the upgrade to the 2011 template work if I purchase the 2010 template for now?

Free upgrades from major versions to the next (i.e. Finale 2010 to 2011) aren't available. Mid-version updates (i.e. 2010a to 2010b) are free. A new template specific to 2011 is in the works, however the 2010 template will still work fine in it.

Now that I'm using Finale 2011 and the 2010b templates, is there not a way to have suspended cymbals notated correctly in the marimba parts without using a staff style which requires the whole measure to change style?

mcp,

Are you able to apply the staff style mid-measure?

I thought I could only apply staff styles to full measures? isn't that the case?