Finale Version 3.0, Music Notation Software for the Macintosh

The love-hate relationship between Finale and its users that has followed its steep learning curve since version 1.0 was released on September 16, 1988 has taken another evolutionary step with release of version 3.0. Some of the features found in the new version are a somewhat friendlier interface, twenty-eight additional ready-to-use templates (for example, jazz band, woodwind quintet, full orchestra), more one-step functions, ability to open multiple documents at one time, resizable floating palettes, and partial measure selection. The friendly graphic interface of the Macintosh that launched the revolution called desktop publishing just a few short years ago held great promise for a publishable-quality music notation, but few realized how tremendously complicated music notation really is. It is not simply word processing for music, as a few naive computer programmers suggested at the time. Finale was in fact the first program in which one could notate almost anything. The trouble is, or was, the dissonance between the Macintosh interface and the way the unwieldy Finale interface finally developed. At the heart of the concept of the Macintosh interface was the rejection of the DOS concept of "modality," i.e., the idea that the same actions have different functions depending on the current mode. Thankfully, microcomputers have now freed us from the days of alt-control-shift F-keys, and replaced those actions, when possible, with pull-down menus. Unfortunately, some software, like that which has evolved for drawing, desktop publishing, and, yes, music notation, is simply too complex to function entirely in a non-modal environment. When we assume that some modality is necessary, it is then crucial that we adopt a consistent model and plain visual clues to function and modality. The consistency of the division between menu-driven and tool-driven functions is so intuitive in a program like MacDraw that one hardly stops to think about the careful consideration behind it. Every tool on the tool palette represents a tool that the user implements with the cursor on the picture, and not, for example, a function that affects a selected region. True, there are some actions, like optionclicking, that seem suspiciously like having to know to hold down the alt key in DOS. However, these are usually just shortcut duplications of functions already represented in the menus. It can be argued that the functions in Finale are simply too numerous and complex to be set into an entirely consistent system as in MacDraw. But in Finale there are tools that enter data, tools that modify data, tools that select data, even tools that consist of other tools. The Finale neophyte is often bewildered by the diversity of function implementations: in the Speedy Note Tool, you must click once on the measure first, but not in the Simple Note Entry Tool; in the page layout tool, you must click once on the page; and to group measures, you must select the New Staff Tool, drag to enclose the staff handles, and then double-click on one of the staves (not over a clef, mind you, and not merely a single click). Fortunately, Finale 3.0 has improved this state of affairs. No longer will the mere action of selecting a tool change the document, and there are no more functions accessed by option-clicking tools. With the New Measures Tool, for example, double-clicking on the tool is now required. This offers some protection, but what is the model here? Why would the user think that double-clicking on these tools in particular would cause these functions to happen? Well, for one reason, because now it tells you so. Instead of eliminating the confusion, the Finale developers have opted to help guide the user through the confusion by means of the "message bar." When one clicks on the New Measures Tool, for instance, the message bar provides the information that double-clicking will add measures. Another Macintosh constant has been the Edit menu, that is, the idea of selecting items in preparation for applying a function to the selection. …