, and click a note in
the score. It makes no difference what note you click;
the symbol you’re about to design won’t appear in the score until you
want it to. The Articulation Selection dialog box appears.Note: As you read about the following options, remember that all of these placement options have already been established for the basic set of articulation markings included in your Finale package. You can safely skip this entire section, unless you want to learn to edit these settings (or create new articulations of your own.
How you use these options depends upon
the type of music you’re notating, and your own preferences. If you make
these settings carefully, you’ll save an immense amount of time when you
place articulations into your scores, because Finale’s articulations don’t
merely snap into place on a note—when a note’s stem direction changes,
its marking even flips to the other side, and, as in the case of a fermata 
, even
turns upside down automatically.
- In some jazz and popular music, it’s standard
practice to place certain markings consistently above the staff, regardless
of stem direction. If that’s the case, choose Above
note from the Position
- In other music, you may decide that a symbol
should appear either above or below the note, depending on the note’s
stem direction. In that case, choose either On
note side or On stem side
from the Position
- Click Avoid Staff Lines if you don’t want Finale to place a symbol so that it falls on a staff line. (Since symbols are different sizes, Finale will attempt to place the symbol’s handle so that it doesn’t fall on a staff line. This may mean, however, that the handle of a marking is between lines, but part of the symbol itself crosses a line. In that case, click the Handle Positioning button, and use the H: and V: controls to further adjust the symbol’s positioning within the staff lines.)
- Click Always Place Outside Staff if you want Finale to place this marking as close as possible to a note, but never within the staff. Finale can accommodate either notational convention: With Always place Outside unchecked, articulations are placed a certain distance from the notehead whether or not they’re inside or outside the staff. With Always Place outside checked articulations are placed as close as possible to their noteheads without appearing within the staff lines.
- Click Center Horizontally if Finale should neatly center the articulation with the notehead automatically.
- Click Attach to Top Note if, when you attach this marking to a chord, you want Finale to measure the marking’s distance from the top note instead of the bottom one.
are supposed to appear inverted when below a note.
Finale can’t turn a symbol upside down; instead, Maestro and other music
fonts contain both the normal and inverted versions of each such symbol.
When a note’s stem direction changes, Finale can substitute the appropriate
"upside-down" symbol automatically.