Finale v27.4 Japanese version updater, released on March 26 2024, does not have spectacular new features like the JW plug-in installed in the previous v27.3, but from a technical support’s point of view it is noteworthy that several important bugs have been fixed. I’m going to introduce details of some of them.
*The latest version is 27.4.1.150 for Mac version and 27.4.1.116 for Windows version. vXX.X.1 fixes problems found immediately after the release of vXX.X.0, is called a Hot Fix version, and is released approximately one month after the initial version.
1. Bug fixes for Mac and Windows versions:
“Copyable staff styles are now also copied to parts when copying and pasting within the score.”
Normally, Finale's scores and parts should be linked so that if you modify one, it will be reflected in the other, but this issue has caused a lack of consistency when it comes to staff styles. I think this modification will be welcomed by many people.
“Ties entered at the beginning of a system are now drawn correctly and no longer disappear.”
In Finale, there are often small drawing bugs where something disappears unexpectedly, but reappears when you make some changes to the screen drawing, such as redrawing or zooming in and out. This was a typical example.
Unfortunately, even in v27.4, when I try to input it, the tie to the next step is not added in one click, but when I use the Simple Entry tool to select the note that will be the starting point of the tie, then press the right arrow key once to select the note that will be the end point of the tie, the tie will be displayed.
2. Bug fixes for Mac version only:
“Fixed an issue where grace notes would cause the screen to go blank.”
This is also an issue that received a relatively large number of inquiries, and the FAQ article “Only one specific page is blank and the score is not displayed” falls under this category.
The problem occurs when you add tuplets to grace notes like this. (To make it easier to understand the phenomenon, the screen shows all the scores selected with ⌘+A.)
In v26 this problem still occurs. If you see a screen like this, check if there is a grace note with a tuplet added somewhere in the score, and if you find it, remove the tuplet setting.
Although the screen display may be restored by changing the zoom level or changing the drawing state, the apparent severity of the display disappearing would have led to a decline in the reliability of the product, I guess that was a big problem.
“The Add Instrument button in Score Manager now works correctly on macOS 14 Sonoma.”
The Mac version of Finale has long had many problems with OS compatibility. Perhaps because of this, we sometimes hear complaints about the slowness of support for the new macOS, but this is due to a structural problem that cannot be resolved by Finale alone.
This issue is discussed in a separate article, “Application development and OS compatibility” but I think the easiest way to avoid this issue is to avoid unnecessary OS updates as much as possible.
This problem persists in versions of Finale prior to v26, which are no longer in development, so you will need to follow the FAQ article “Unable to add instruments from Score Manager on macOS 14 Sonoma (Mac; Finale 27.3 and earlier)”.
“You can now safely move tuplet handles in page view.”
The problem is that when you drag the handle of a tuplet, the movement is not smooth and you cannot place it where you want.
If this happens in v26 or earlier, just place it roughly, then select the tuplet handle and use the up/down/left/right arrow keys to make fine adjustments.
3. Bug fixes for Windows version only:
“Fixed an issue where the Edit System Margins and Edit Page Margins dialog boxes could sometimes appear off-screen.”
This is also a problem that has received a lot of inquiries, and when it occurs, it requires the troublesome work of changing the Windows screen magnification and resolution to display it, or resetting the display settings of the dialog box.
This problem will continue to occur in versions before v26, then such work will probably be necessary to restore the display.
“When printing to PDF, the saved file name is now retained on the dialog box and the part name is now automatically filled in for each part.”
This is an issue that used to work, but recently broke down and has been for some time. I had to re-enter the file name each time, but this has been restored in v27.4.
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In the past, because updated Finale sometimes had new problems, some people may still be cautious about installing 27.4, but as far as we have verified, we have not found any particular problems. We recommend updating early to enjoy important bug fixes.
Also, development of Finale versions prior to v26 has ended, and I don't think these bugs will be fixed in the future, so you may want to consider upgrading to v27 if necessary.
All of the fixes listed above are at the program level, but in the next article, I will introduce the details of the fixes that involve changes to the user interface.