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Chord Suffix Editor dialog box

How to get there

  1. Click the Chord tool , the Chord menu appears.
  2. Choose Chord > Manual Input.
  3. Click any note that doesn’t have a chord symbol attached. In the Chord Definition dialog box, click on Advanced to expand the dialog box.
  4. Click on Select near Suffix to enter the Chord Suffix Selection box, then click Create. (If there are already chord suffixes listed in the Chord Suffix Selection dialog box, click one and then click Edit.)
  5. If a note has a chord symbol attached, click the note to make the chord’s handle appear. Double-click the handle, click on Advanced, then Suffix Select, then click Create.

What it does

In the Chord Suffix Editor dialog box you can create and edit chord suffixes. Finale perceives a chord as a root tone sounding together with notes specific intervals above it; these notes constitute the suffix. Therefore, Finale uses the same suffix whether you play a C major seventh or an F major seventh—the relationship of the suffix notes to the root is the same.

Each letter of the suffix can have its own font, size, and position, making subscript and superscript numbers (for example) possible. You can only edit one character of the suffix at a time, moving among the characters with the Prev and Next buttons. You use the Chord Suffix Editor dialog box both to define the graphic appearance of the suffix and to specify a voicing for a chord’s playback.

You can also use the Chord Suffix Editor dialog box to teach Finale new chords when you’re entering chords using one of Finale’s automatic analysis modes. When you see the Unknown Chord Suffix dialog box, click I’ll Do It, to access the Chord Definition dialog box; then create the chord symbol (and its suffix, if necessary) in the Chord Definition dialog box (see Chord Definition dialog box). The next time you play the chord (in any octave or voicing), Finale will know what chord symbol to display. (This custom teaching feature is "root-specific," however; if you only teach Finale to recognize a C major sixth chord in the key of C, it will only recognize major sixth chords built on C. But it will recognize, for example, a Gmaj6 in the key of G and an Amaj6 in the key of A.)

If you want to choose the character from a palette, select the font with the Set Font button. Then click the Symbol button; Finale displays a selection box containing every symbol in the font. Double-click the one you want; its corresponding System font character appears in the Symbol text box.

You can only type one letter at a time into the Symbol text box unless you’ve told Finale that you’re entering a number (by selecting Number), in which case you can enter a multi-digit number.

If you drag the currently selected character’s handle in any direction, the H: and V: numbers will change as you move it. If you’re trying to align characters with each other, however, you may find that typing values in the H: and V: boxes gives you greater precision. Enter a new value in the H: or V: box, then click Update to see the effect of the new numbers on the display. (Note that each time you add a new character, Finale automatically adds enough horizontal space to make room for the new character.)

Incidentally, don’t use this button to change all suffixes to a new font, one character at a time. Instead, use the Change Chord Suffix Fonts command in the Chord menu. And if you want to change the font for the letter name (root) of all your chord symbols (instead of the suffixes), use the Symbol button in Document Options-Fonts (from the Document menu, choose Document Options and select Fonts.) (There’s a selection for Chords labeled Accidentals in the same box, with which you can set the font for the accidentals in the roots of your chord symbols—E, for example—as well as the flat and sharp prefixes within the chord suffixes.)

Second, when the Update check box is selected, you’ll see the character at all times while you’re dragging it; when Update isn’t selected, you’ll only see the character in its new position when you finish dragging.

See also:

Chord Definition dialog box

Chord Suffix Selection dialog box

Chord tool

 

 

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