Staff Sets allows you to modify your staff sets on the fly as well as store and retrieve them using Saved Settings. You can also associate a preferred View Percentage that is invoked along with the Staff Set. (This is most useful with Saved Settings.)
To use the plugin, simply select the staves you wish to include in the staff set and invoke the plugin. If you invoke the plugin without selecting any staves, the Staff Set dialog starts out either with all staves selected (if you are in Page View or if you are currently viewing All Staves) or with the staves of the current staff set selected. This last feature is particularly useful, because it allows you quickly to add or remove staves from the current Staff Set without re-selecting all of them, as you would have had to do without the plugin.
By means of Saved Settings, you can save as many named staff sets as you wish, and invoke them later. This effectively gives you an unlimited number of staff sets. Unlike those built in to Finale, these staff sets are globally stored. The plugin will allow any staff set to be applied to any file. If the target file lacks staff numbers specified in the staff set, you are warned, but you may apply the staff set anyway. (Non-existent staff numbers are ignored.) However, the plugin has no way of knowing what the staff numbers are, so a staff set that was the brass section in one file might turn out to be the percussion section in another. It is even possible that the target file might have the same staff numbers but in a different order. Applying a global staff set could lead to a bizarre-looking display, but it will not cause any damage.
Ideally, the plugin would store staff sets within the Finale music file, but Coda has not yet provided a safe way for plugins to do this. In the mean time, intelligent application of global staff sets could actually be a benefit. If Coda ever provides storage for plugins inside the music file, Staff Sets will retain globally stored staff sets as an option.
See Common Uses of Staff Sets for recommendations on how to use this plugin.
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Source File. This is a free-form text field where the plugin initially places the document file name. (In some operating modes, the plugin cannot detect the source file name, in which case it substitutes the text, "<Top Document Window>".) You can change it to any text you wish. It has no effect on the operation of the plugin, but it may be useful when you are using Saved Settings, as an aid for remembering which file the staff set originally came from.
Use Active. Selecting this option causes the plugin to ignore the staff list. Instead, it searches the measures selected when you invoked the plugin. Every staff that contains music within those measures is included in the staff view when you hit OK. If no measures are selected, the plugin searches the entire document. This option is particularly useful for a saved setting.
Use Selected. Selecting this option causes the plugin to ignore the staff list. Instead, it includes in the staff view the specific staves that you selected when you invoked the plugin. If no staves were selected, the plugin includes every staff. This option is particularly useful for a saved setting.
Use List. Selecting this option causes the plugin to include the staves specified in the staff list.
(Staff List). This is a list of every staff in the current file. If you are looking at a Saved Setting, the list is still the staff list of the current file and not the file from which the staff set was originally created.
Select Active. This button changes the selected staves in the staff list to only those staves that contain music within measures you selected when you invoked the plugin. If no staves were selected, the plugin includes every staff.
Select Current. This button changes the selected staves in the staff list to exactly those stave you selected when you invoked the plugin. If no staves were selected, the plugin includes every staff.
Select All. This button selects all staves in the staff list.
Select None. This button de-selects all staves in the staff list.
Use Finale Staff Set. The plugin operates by copying to the staff set shown in the Staff List to one of Finale's internal staff sets. This menu specifies which of Finale's staff sets to use.
Set View Percentage. If the checkbox is checked, the plugin changes Finale's Scale View percentage to the choice specified in the popup menu. Coda has provided no direct way for plugins to change the view percentage. The Staff Sets plugin operates by emulating the appropriate menu command, much as a keyboard macro program would. As a result, only those percent views that can be directly invoked are listed in the menu. Specifically, Finale's Other... option is missing, since it opens a dialog box and would require substantial emulation of keyboard and mouse movements. If you want a view percentage other than one of the five listed here, you can accomplish this by unchecking Set View Percentage, saving the staff set, and using a keyboard macro program to invoke the saved setting followed by invoking the view percentage you want.
Save Settings... brings up the Save Settings dialog.
Saving a Staff Set as a Saved Setting. This technique effectively expands the number of staff sets to an unlimited number and allows you to name your staff sets. In this mode of operation you may choose to designate a specific Finale Staff Set, say Staff Set 8, as scratch. This leaves your other Finale staff sets free for ad hoc use and unaffected by invocations of Saved Settings. You will likely be able to use the same staff sets across multiple files, provided the files originated from the same template.
Sometimes, a project may "grow" staves as the project progresses. This sometimes happens with divisi string parts or percussion staves. As long as your saved staff sets include all the staves from the lengthiest staff list, you can apply them to project files with fewer staves. To be successful, never remove a staff from a project file, even if the staff is not used. Otherwise, you may end up with the same instrument having different staff numbers in different files.
Because of limitations in how plugins interact with Finale, when you add or delete a saved settings, you can no longer access any saved settings without restarting Finale. For this reason, you will probably find it more effective to set up all your saved staff sets at once.
Recommendations:
- Choose one Finale Staff Set as "scratch" and use it with all Saved Settings.
- Always save a meaningful Source File name with the staff set.
- Create project files from the same template, to keep the staff numbering the same.
- Save the Staff Set with "Skip Plugin Dialog" option checked.
- Remember that you can see the dialog for a Saved Setting with "Skip Plugin Dialog" checked by holding down SHIFT(Win) or OPTION(Mac) when you invoke it.
- Create all your most common staff sets for a project, e.g., orchestral sections, at one time, using the project template as the source file.
- Never delete staves from a project file.
- Maintain saved staff sets from the file with the most complete list of staves. Depending on how you work, this may be the template or it may be the most recently edited file.
- Save separate settings for the "Use Active" and "Use Selected" options. These options are dynamic and work within any file.
Modifying an Existing Finale Staff Set. This technique allows you to add staves to or remove staves from one of your current staff sets. Without the plugin you would have to view all staves and re-select all the staves you want, which sometimes is a laborious process. When you invoke the plugin directly (rather than from a Saved Setting), the plugin recognizes that you are not using a saved setting. It then checks if you are currently viewing a Finale Staff Set in Scroll View. If so, it pre-populates the Use Finale Staff Set menu with the current staff set number. You can then simply add or remove staves from the list and hit OK. The plugin will replace the current staff set with the new one.
Recommendations:
- When viewing a Finale Staff Set in Scroll View, invoke the plugin's menu option directly.
- Note that the plugin automatically sets the Use Finale Staff Set menu to match the currently viewed staff set.
- Consider carefully whether to use the Set View Percentage option. In this context it probably should be unchecked.
- Use Cmd-click (Mac) or Ctrl-click (Windows) to select or de-select individual staves without changing the other selections.
- If you accidentally de-select all the staves, hitting Cancel gets you out without making any changes.
If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about the operation of Staff Sets, please feel free to contact me.