Finale 27 is 'coming soon'

[Fred G. Unn]

It doesn't appear like they have updated any of the Templates to be SMuFL compatible as they all are still using Maestro instead of Finale Maestro.

(The Fin templates are terrible anyway, but jeez that seems sloppy.)

[Fred G. Unn]

You can't expand the sidebar of the new character selection dialog, even though some of the names of the groups are very long.

Is this what you were referring to? LOL, this is pretty terrible interface design.

[benwiggy]

Yes. You can scroll the left hand window contents, but you can't resize the panel. Honestly, whoever is in charge of UI is hopeless.

One good bit of new is that the fonts now come under a SIL Open Font licence, so you are free to modify and copy them into other fonts with the same licence.

[Fred G. Unn]

The SmartMusic sharing is an interesting concept, but only useful for sharing a file with a student to play probably. It's definitely not appropriate for sharing an engraving job with a team as the file is modified.

I uploaded a lead sheet and this:


became this:


Some other settings like Text Tool tracking and baseline shift are not retained either.

[Fred G. Unn]

One good bit of new is that the fonts now come under a SIL Open Font licence, so you are free to modify and copy them into other fonts with the same licence.

Honestly, the fonts seem like the best part of the update, and you can get them for free with the demo, right? I need 27 to remain compatible with others, but I'm not really seeing any new features I'm going to use other than the fonts. Unless there's an easier way to transfer settings, it's gonna take me a few hours to rebuild a default file that's SMuFL compatible if there's really no way to import a library without breaking compatibility.

The SMuFL implementation seems very poorly thought through to be honest. As far as I can tell, there's really no way to convert a previous file to be SMuFL compliant. Hitting the Help button when the error message comes up leads to this page where you are instructed to export as XML then re-import into a SMuFL compliant file. When I do that, it still switches to the non-SMuFL version of the font. Maybe there's a setting or something that I'm missing. Does this work for you?

[benwiggy]

When MM started beta-testing the FinaleMaestro font back in 2015, it came with some Libraries and FinaleScripts to convert old files. I haven't tested yet if these still work, or whether things are different now, but there does seem to be a flag for "SMuFL document" and "Non-SMuFL document".

[benwiggy]

It works for me: Export as XML, then import the xml into an empty Finale app. I can even switch to Bravura or Sebastian after that, though some glyphs, like bracketed accidentals, don't work.

[Fred G. Unn]

I can't get it to work. Maybe it's because all my Finale files are a hodge-podge of a bunch of different fonts. I can create a new file, switch the font to Bravura, import an XML and the default font has been switched to the non-SMuFL Maestro, after which point I can't switch to a SMuFL font.

[benwiggy]

I can create a new file, switch the font to Bravura, import an XML and the default font has been switched to the non-SMuFL Maestro, after which point I can't switch to a SMuFL font.

Don't create a new file first. Close all files, then import the XML.

[Fred G. Unn]

Got it, thanks. That wasn't working at first either, but it least made it clear the issue wasn't that I was creating a new file. I had changed Preferences/New/Default Document to my standard default (like I do every version), which of course isn't SMuFL. Importing was using my non-SMuFL file.

It still seems like there's no way to import old settings without breaking SMuFL compatibility, right? I probably have settings I changed in the late 1990s that I've completely forgotten about, LOL!