Parenthesize Trill-To Notes

Parenthesize Trill-To Notes automatically converts certain grace notes that default to being before the main note to parenthesized noteheads appearing after the main notehead. The most common use case is for showing trill-to notes after a trilled note. Additionally, the plugin can optionally identify grace notes for which there is no main note and treat them as gliss-to notes with parentheses and no stem.

The plugin employs Finale Articulations as parentheses. It places them taking into account accidentals, augmentation dots, ledger lines, and chords. Depending on how you enter your grace notes, you can end up with a single set of parentheses for an entire chord or individual parentheses per note of the chord, or a combination of your choice.

The plugin allows you to link pre-existing articulation marks in any given document. Once articulation marks are linked, they are used by the plugin thereafter. If you do not link articulation marks, the plugin creates new articulation marks the first time you run it and automatically links them so that they are used again thereafter.

If you are working with trills on chords, v1/v2, or layers, the plugin aligns all the trill-to notes to match the rightmost trill-to note in any given voice or layer.

For specific advice on how to use the plugin, see the Recommendations for use below.

Parenthesize Trill-To Window

Grace Note Duration To Modify ___ [List]. The type of grace note to modify. The plugin searches for any grace note with this rhythmic value and converts it to a trill-to note. If you want the trill-to notes to fall under a beam, the note value must be beamable. (This is a limitation of Finale.)

Modify All Grace Notes With This Duration. Normally the plugin skips any grace notes for which a main note cannot be found. (Examples are grace notes before rests or at ends of measures.) Enabling this option causes the plugin to modify every grace note with the specified duration. If there is no main note, the plugin still adds parentheses and removes the stem. It does not change its horizontal position. One reason to enable this option is to process gliss-to notes as well as (or instead of) trill-to notes.

Left Link/Unlink. Allows you to link or unlink an existing articulation mark as the left parenthesis. If it is linked, the character and articulation number for the linked articulation appear next to the button.

Left Parenthesis. Specifies the character for the left parenthesis mark. If it is linked, this field is not editable.

Left Offset H. This option specifies additional space to the left after taking into account accidentals and ledger lines.

Left Offset V. Specifies vertical offset from the lower bound of the bottom notehead.

Right Link/Unlink. Allows you to link or unlink an existing articulation mark as the right parenthesis. If it is linked, the character and articulation number for the linked articulation appear next to the button.

Right Parenthesis. Specifies the character for the right parenthesis mark. If it is linked, this field is not editable.

Right Offset H. This option specifies additional space to the right after taking into account ledger lines.

Right Offset V. Specifies vertical offset from the lower bound of the bottom notehead.

Font. Allows you to choose the font, size, and style when creating new articulation marks. If you have already linked an articulation mark for the document, this option has no effect.

Space Between Edges Of Main Note and Trill-To Note. Specifies the gap between the rightmost notehead (or augmentation dot) and the handle of the left parenthesis.

Additional Separation When Stem Is On The Right. Specifies additional separation (added to the previous gap) when the main note is upstem with the stem on the right and there are no augmentation dots.

Reset Noteheads. This plugin is intended to replace various workarounds, including changing noteheads to parenthesized notehead characters or further reduced noteheads on grace notes. This option is provided to reset the trill-to grace note's notehead.

Unforce Hidden Accidentals. This option is also used for resetting the document from previous types of workarounds. If you had replaced the noteheads with parenthesized noteheads, the accidentals might have been designed into the notehead character and then you would have hidden Finale's accidental. This option unforces hidden accidentals on the trill-to grace notes and probably works best in tandem with Reset Noteheads.

Reposition Only. This option limits the plugin to just moving existing trill-to notes to be the specified amount to the right of the main notes, aligning them as needed for voices or layers. With this option selected, the plugin does not create or link new articulation marks, nor does it move any grace notes that do not already have these articulation marks assigned.

Flag Note Spacing Plugin. If you run note spacing with any other spacing options for grace notes than "Keep Current", Finale will revert your trill-to notes back to the left of their main notes when you run note spacing. Fortunately the Patterson Plugins Note Spacing Plugin has an expression flag that avoids this. If you have created such an expression in your document, checking this option causes the Parenthesize Trill-To Notes plugin to automatically assign it to any measure and staff where it creates a trill-to note.

Save Settings... brings up the Save Settings dialog.

Recommendations for using Parenthesize Trill-To Notes

       Chord Example

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about the operation of Parenthesize Trill-To Notes, please feel free to contact me.