Finale: Assigning Hot Keys

I have Finale 2002 (I'm poor, okay?), so hopefully this hasn't changed in the newer versions.

Here's the deal: You know how you hold a key, say S, and whatever note you click it will add that articulation (in this case, a staccato dot)? Well, how do you set the hot keys for custom articulations?

My case: I writing a piece that has some very different sections in it, so I will have different "staccato" articulations set up, each one set with a different duration alteration for playback. I want to quickly be able to paste these different 'dots' thoughout my score using hot keys, say, 'G' for a different one, and 'Q' for another, but I don't know how to set a hot key for a new articulation and I can't find the relavant info in the manual.

I think it used to be CTRL + then select the articulation.

in newer versions it's SHIFT +

Nope, that doesn't seem to do the trick.

well, the only thing I can suggest is look up "assigning hotkeys" in the help file.

I wish it were there, I keep looking, but I can't find anything on it. Anyone else done anything like this before?

I wish it were there, I keep looking, but I can't find anything on it. Anyone else done anything like this before?

Qccowboy is correct, even for Finale 2002. With the articulation tool selected, hold Shift and press the key you want to assign it to. That brings up the dialog box. Choose the articulation you want to assign that shortcut to and click select. From that point on, when you hold that key down (without shift) and click, you get the object.

I'm not sure which version ctrl changed to shift, but I believe it had already happened by this point. If not, use ctrl.

Yay, I figured out, thank you Alex Anderson, assuming that is your name! It was the way you worded it that helped me to figure it out. QC was right, of course. No surprise there.

That brings up the dialog box.

That caught my attention, I was trying to hit SHIFT plus the key I wanted to assign while I was already in the articulation selection dialogue box, me is much dumb. I found out that you can do this with the triplet tool too, so now I am IMMENSELY happy, no more going through EVERY triplet in a 24 measure passage getting rid of the pesky little " 3's ". Yay!

Now, I have another, less significant problem, and thus changed the thread name a little instead of starting a new one. I noticed a while ago that there are hot keys for the expression tool. But when I want, say, a forte, the hot key method would apply the expression to every stave in the score. Is there a way to configure this so that a hot key would assign an expression to only a single staff? I've tried experimenting with the SHIFT plus 'tool', but I have not figured out how to change the stave assignment. Is it possible?

Expression metatools default to a "context sensitive" setting that will assign expressions to notes when you click near a note or to all staves when you click some place that's not near a note. If you only want to assign expressions to notes (typical with dynamics), you can set this in the Expression menu. With the expression tool selected, the Expression menu should be available. Just choose metatools: note attached. You can also opt to leave it on context sensitive and just watch how your mouse pointer changes when its close to a note versus far away.

There is no option for metatools to assign measure expressions (the green ones) to one staff only. Only note expressions (the red ones) will assign to a single staff/note. Generally speaking it's almost always best to use note expressions for dynamics and other expressions that should be aligned to notes. These will track better when automatic spacing adjustments occur (very useful when dealing with extracted/linked parts).

Regarding your tuplet numbers, note that you can also set the default appearance for tuplets. In recent versions of Finale this is found in the Document Options (used to be called Document Settings in Finale 2002). However, I think they may have been in a different place in that version of Finale - try ctrl clicking the tuplet tool on the main tool palette to see if that brings them up. Whatever you set in there will become the new default appearance for new tuplets you create (it won't affect the ones you've already entered).

You can also edit tuplets en masse with the Mass Mover tool. Highlight a region of music (maybe even the whole song), go to the Mass Mover menu, and choose Change -> Tuplet Definitions. It's been a long time since I've seen Finale 2002, so I might be a little off in menu or tool names. But I think you'll be able to find it.