DISCLAIMER: when I made this video, I had literally JUST started using Dorico so there are MANY things I could've done better, as many commenters have suggested! So, take some things with a huge grain of salt, I'll improve on these things in future videos. To all the Dorico experts: thanks for all the helpful suggestions! remember, I am a beginner and calibrated by all the weird things about Finale--I will learn to incorporate best practices into my Dorico workflow! keep the suggestions coming 😀 ALSO: update for Finale users, you can now reauthorize new devices indefinitely! MakeMusic announced it really soon after backlash from the community, so you should be able to use Finale for years to come!
Why can’t we just keep all our files as Finale? We have the app downloaded, so it’s not going anywhere. There’ll be no new updates, but maybe if one dedicated computer is taken offline, it won’t matter. It would take me way too long to convert all my files
Maybe remove this video? I mean, it's like teaching text formatting using space bar. So many bad advices... I understand perfectly where you were when recording it but... Why share this? This is extra work for everyone trying to teach the Dorico way. We now need to unlearn thise bad moves 😉 Note that 5.1.60 has made the whoke first half of the video obsolete (but still wrong), since the xml import now retains the original casting off. Man, the X signpost has nothing to do with your staff text, it's a Meter signpost. First thing is to input your key signature to open, or atonal, instead of hiding signposts... It's completely the wrong workflow you're teaching there. Please, please, learn the proper workflow BEFORE posting anything. Doing mistakes is understandable. Teaching crap is unforgivable.
Thank you for your efforts in making this video. I’ve been using Finale since the very beginning. Not really looking forward to the steep learning curve for transitioning to Dorico, but it is proving great exercise for my aging brain. I also appreciate the people who have made comments and suggestions around importing. I’ve had some frustration already trying to understand how things work in Dorico, but your video does a great job at helping me make sense of some important concepts and tasks that are relevant to me. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. My biggest gripe so far is with the manual. I have found it difficult to get quick, clear answers on certain topics, sometimes needing to refer to multiple sections/passages in order to piece together the method for accomplishing a task. I know there are some who find fault with various aspects of Finale, too, but the ability to get quick and well explained answers from the Finale manual is one of Finale’s strengths, in my estimation. I have Notion, too, and it is quite good and simple to use, but it certainly doesn’t have the heavy lifting power of something like Dorico, Finale, or Sibelius. I won’t use Sibelius as I don’t care to get in bed with Avid. Still checking out Musescore, but my initial impressions of that one have been less than stellar. I purchased the Dorico cross grade both to have Dorico and so I could have access to Finale 27 (I had 26, which ran sluggishly on my computer, but 27 seems to fly, which is a welcome perk.) Finale had a good run over the years, and I’m sorry to see it go. As far as I’m concerned, they set and held the gold standard throughout. My only fear is that I’ll invest huge amounts of time into whatever program I decide to go with, and then that company will pull the plug or go belly up for some reason. Oh well, I guess nothing is certain in this world except for change. As they say, “You spins the wheel, you takes your chances!” Let’s just hope we all place our bets wisely and that we all hit the jackpot! Happy writing, folks!🎼🎶🎵😊
It seems like you've picked up quite a bit in a short amount of time. My needs are a bit different, but it seems that I could learn a lot from your experience already. Thank you for sharing and posting! Blessings!
What caught me last night (I'm trying to import Finale into Dorico) was the Vertical Justification. That really had me confused for a while, as I simply could not get the Dorico file to look like the Finale file and was becoming rather frustrated. Sometimes, there are reasons for me doing what I do... (Like to facilitate page turns...) Thanks for putting this video together. It is very helpful
What is catching me these days are the number of people showing up [from Finale] who did everything manually expecting Dorico to automatically just make the score look like their hodge-podge of 10,000 manual adjustments in Finale... then saying they couldn't get the Dorico file to look "like the Finale file" and becoming frustrated. When I moved from Finale to Dorico (over 2 years ago), I simply dropped Finale and went with Dorico - Cold Turkey - after doing a couple (short) Score copies to acclimate myself with its layout and how to access all the basic workflows. I coped from Manuscript, though. Copying from a Finale file would just create a weird psychological bias. That way, I'm not worrying about how I did whatever in Finale or some other application. They didn't have software and printers in the 1700s. It took me maybe 2 weeks to get highly productive in Dorico. Maybe it's just a generational thing, but I feel like a lot of the people "having trouble" are old, less technologically adept people. There really is not much Steinberg's developers can do about that. These people will always be hamstrung by the fact that they sat on Finale for 5, 10, 20, 25, etc. years and never gained proficiency in an alternative solution to grant themselves insurance in the event that the software they used was discontinued. Younger users coming into the market are more used to learning 2 DAWs or whatever, specifically to allow them to gain and maintain some flexibility (and marketability). Things were different back in the day, though.
@@iTrensharo Bear in mind, 35 years ago, I was using both Professional Composer and Finale, ultimately moving over to Finale (transferring files via MIDI, so you can imagine the joys of re-formatting in version one of Finale!). I also used Lotus 1-2-3 and Word Perfect. Then they disappeared... I don't think (but could be wrong) that the issue is so much a lack of flexibility but, rather, an level of anxiety of what becomes to (in my case) 3.08 gb of work and how much money/time needed will be needed to edit or revisit older works in the years to come? When WordPerfect, Freehand, Lotus 1-2-3, et al disappeared, other software was able to at least open and retrieve the work - formatting issues aside, the bulk of the work was saved. I realize that the transfer process from Finale to Dorico isn't perfect, but at least there is a path to move forward. I've been using Dorico since version 3.5, as I decided to matriculate to what I feel is a much better piece of software. Unfortunately, time and time again, I was forced to go back to work in Finale to in order to re-arrange or correct old scores in a very short period of time and didn't have the luxury of time (or perhaps the self discipline) to export the file and clean it up in Dorico. For example, I wasn't keen on taking a 22 minute orchestral concerto that I typeset twenty years ago and spent the time to simply to re-orchestrate a couple of small sections to accommodate a specific situation. HOWEVER, I realize that I need to begin allocating the time to do so and thereby future proof the bulk of my work. It is my opinion that we Finale users became too fussy about the look of our printed materials because we wasted so much time and spent so much energy fighting the software in order to figure out how to get it to "look right" (to us). I just want to keep Finale around long enough to be sure that I didn't forget any score along the way that I hadn't exported over. (Probably will get an external drive, and batch ALL of my files over to it one evening when I sleep). FWIW, I will also begin working in MuseScore, as Hal Leonard will be (according to some of my colleagues) using that software in house as will all of their subsidiary publishing companies. Yeah... flexibility is going to become even more important.... And trust me, thirty-five years of the old keyboard shortcuts takes time to un-learn! And let's see what Avid does to Sibelius... After all, they fired the original team (hence Dorico)!
I agree whole heartedly with some of the tips already mentioned. Importing an XML file is going to give you a much better experience than trying to open an XML directly. I also think it's incredibly important to spend one project entering everything from scratch. Learning the flow of Dorico first will help inform the your decision process and order of operations. The concept of working at a macro level really makes a difference, and can help prevent focusing on details that you may not need to do. Making the proper page size, margins, and font size first might have stopped you from starting by locking bars, because a lot of those details are minor changes when you start from the right place. -- Also, things like having a player set up ahead of time to import into will fix all the elements like the player name before you start importing. It's good to understand the logic of a "player" versus the logic of an "instrument".
One other thing I forgot. Those "x" signposts are the barlines without a meter. When you selected it, you were likely selecting more items than just the description at the top of the page. Signposts are meant to show you items you cannot see, things that don't print, but are things you can still select and edit.
Other things to look into that will speed up your future: Look into "Tokens" for text. Rather than hardcoding it, you can save it in the file information. Finale had this to a point, but it's more clear in Dorico. Anything with {@text_here@} is a token, and can be stored and called dynamically throughout your file. Things like Master Pages where you can define the look of pages before you enter anything can also help you define fonts, sizes, etc, and then save them as a house file, and they will always be there when you start. There is a repeat tool, including measure repeats. They will appear as expected, but can also play as expected (most of the time). Things like this will be much faster than trying to draw them in.
Hello, some suggestions: - to space vertically and horizontally without having to resize staves and cast off, it's better to tweak the Layout Options "Vertical Spacing" and "Note Spacing" settings. Once you find the right spacing, it will be much better and automatic than any other customizing. - If you want all the text of the score to be Times New Roman, you can change that from "Paragraph Styles" (you can invoke it from the jump bar by typing it there, just type "j" and it will appear). - I would recommend for graphics, particularly multi-phonics (the way I do it), is to create a new playing technique (go to the Playing techniques dialogue), import the graphic there, and then give it a name. That way, you can use the graphic as a "score item", and you will be able to move it left and right in the grid as per standard key commands, flip it, and you can resize it using the properties window underneath too. If you use a graphic, if you ever resize the score, it will not align with the staves.
Yeah the playing technique method is the way I would do the multiphonics as well. Another way is you can buy/install special fonts for multiphonics and then you can "type" the fingerings. I used to use those in Sibelius but eventually moved away from them in Sibelius because Sibelius had some glitches where they would randomly all disappear and be lost. Probably Dorico does not have this same glitch.
I think that's a smart idea! I think starting from scratch will ultimately yield better results. This was really just an experiment to see if it is even possible to save time
You can flip the text below the staff in the properties panel at the bottom and choosing "below staff" instead of manually dragging it down underneath.
I don't know if this will work for you, but have you tried Notion 6 by Presonus ? Meaning, trying to transfer finale scores to Notion 6 ? I've been mentioning it to many people in case they don't know about it. 🤷♀ I don't know much about Notion 6, because I am not a heavy composer like that. But I have some friends that do, and they are all freaking out right now when finale announced their closing.
Me too... 30 years. Looks like I will be PDF-ing thousands of arrangements (which I wont). So sadly they will all die a certain BETAMAX death in a obscure file format no one will support in the future. Oh well. It was fun...
We should cherish what we have and rejoice in the moment. Nothing is forever. When they are no longer in our lives, we can only just let them go and remember them fondly as they were with us in our journey. It's the same with a painter's brush or a sculptor's chisel. The only important things are what they helped you create. It isn't fair but such is life. Be happy for what it was and embrace a new chapter.
I have 35 years of work all lost but I’m tying also to be positive also, and embracing the life change. Letting go all my work to eventual dust isn’t the worst thing. I’m still alive and I can start a new career in a different field. Makemusic not releasing the Finale code to the public owing to the bribe given by Dorico, which would allow Finale to stay up to date with new OS changes, was cruel for tens of thousands of users, but that is capitalism and money. Money over kindness I say.
All is not lost, folks! Convert your Finale files to musicXML and you should be protected from not being able to access your work (for at least as long as musicXML remains a de-facto standard anyhow). Maybe not a perfect solution -- takes some effort to do the conversions, and once converted, reformatting in a new program takes some effort, but at least it will prevent you from having to start over completely from scratch on your important projects.
Good job learning all that so quickly! Quick tip, input your project info in the Project Info dialogue, Command + I. Type in your title and composer names and it will populate automatically. To edit where those are and how they are, then you can edit the page template however you like and add more tokens (those are the bits of script that you're editing) by right clicking and finding any info you want to add. Keep going!
The X signpost is not for the text even though it is in the same spot. It is the code for a time signature of "free time". The X time signature is hidden in this case, which is why the signpost appears.
Great video Mathew. My charts are not as graphically complex as your music but needless to say, the end of Finale will result in a massive productivity sink for all of us.
Hi again, Mathew. For your information (and everyone who might wonder), the program will continue to work as long as you keep your current computer working (the one you've installed Finale on). I have the latest version. The issue will happen if you can't install it or run it from scratch after Finale is no longer available. People are stressing out that their current working version will suddenly stop. That is not true. Please make that comment to your member audience.
My 30+ years of arrangements are now un-editable without me re-writing thousands of scores files and parts. This is horrific! We will need a OCR music reader that keeps formatting of printed music to match the original and saves as an editable document in,... whatever program. Again... this is horrific. My career work are now museum pieces waiting until a technology can read them as is. A sad day for prolific finale users.
as long as you keep your current computer(s) running, you should be able to edit your backlog for many years to come! MakeMusic announced that they were backtracking on the "no authorizations" after Aug. 2025, so now you can reauthorize indefinitely and should be able to continue using Finale without any problems. But you're right! we definitely need a solution for this... maybe some clever computer-science majors/software engineers can start developing a new app to solve this major problem!
Why can’t we just keep all our files as Finale? We have the app downloaded, so it’s not going anywhere. There’ll be no new updates, but maybe if one dedicated computer is taken offline, it won’t matter. It would take me way too long to convert all my files
I'm going to continue to use Finale 2010 (I think, one of the best versions) on my old computer. I'll probably eventually get Dorico but I've been using Finale since 1990, so I'm very comfortable with it. Great for hybrid-graphic scores. (also, I'm in my 60s so, . . . old dogs)
I would add the title and composer in the project info section under file. When you entered in the composer you deleted a token. The token will display the relevant info for the project info correct once it's entered
Having already written a comment, I would like to say something else: I hope for all Finale users that after the cooperation between MakeMusic and Steinberg, the two developers will sit down and develop an official, sophisticated import function for Finale files, possibly as a stand-alone programme that converts them into those for Dorico. That would be a strong action! Admittedly, they probably won't take the resources to do this because it's not financially viable, but it would certainly be desirable!
A lecturer from my time as a music student, with whom I am loose friends, who was and is a Finale user, told me that in order to get the best results when transferring Finale projects to Dorico, he exports them as uncompressed MusicXML files, then creates a Dorico project and only then imports the MusicXML file into the project using the import function. Options are already offered here during this process that can clear up the chaos a little before you see it. I can't add anything to the above because I'm just passing on the comment he made to me when I asked him how he was handling the situation.
Something you may consider is changing the XML import options in Dorico before you perform the import. Just bringing the notation in and letting Dorico do its thing might be worth an experiment. My guess is you would be able to more quickly get the formatting you’re looking for. XML contains a lot of extraneous information, display constraints, etc. Bringing that in forces Dorico to deal with it in some way. Dorico‘s natural formatting is drop-dead gorgeous. When you bring in all that extra material, you are tying Dorico‘s hands. Every case is different, but it’s worth a try before you decide on a best process for your compositions.
@@richardtorstrick4631 I’ll have to look into that! I also want to do this process from scratch as well, I feel it’d be worth seeing how the workflow is compared to Finale
@@mathewarrellinThere is a conceptual difference that might be helpful when you first enter and edit music. In Finale, each measure is a container having specific boundaries. Notes MUST be placed in a measure, and then are stuck in that measure. If you write a piece in 4/4 and decide later to rebar it to 3/4, you lose whatever notation originally occupied the 4th beat of every measure. If you rebar to 5/4 instead of 4/4, Finale inserts a rest on the 5th beat of every measure. This makes editing more difficult than it needs to be. By contrast, in Dorico, notes are the basic units (as opposed to measures). They retain whatever duration you assign (until you decide to edit it). They can even be entered with no time signature yet specified. When you add (or change) a time signature, Dorico re-bars the music, preserving all the note durations and timing, and follows whatever convention has been set (it's default, or what you have specified) to produce the best readability of notes that have been split by a barline or a prominent beat. This difference opens many possibilities for entering notation much faster. It allows Dorico to have an insert mode, which works similarly to the same mode in a word processor. This same underlying difference allows shortcutting options for note entry. I love the conventions Dorico has for editing rhythm. You can enter long passages of 8th notes, for instance, then select them all and hit the period key on your computer keyboard, and Dorico converts the whole string into dotted 8th and sixteenth note pairs. So much faster than having to redefine the duration of every note you enter as you enter it. I was told that when Stravinsky wrote The Rite of Spring, he wrote out the notation and rhythms first, without putting in any time signatures or barlines, only adding those when the notation was finished. He could never have written the piece in Finale, but Dorico would have handled it with aplomb.
@@richardtorstrick4631 that sounds amazing! that has always been one of the major Finale headaches, so thanks for letting me know! I look forward to learning more about the software and excited for what seems like a superior workflow (so far). thanks again for taking the time to watch and comment!
Hi Mathew, I'm a composer of Afro-Cuban Music. All my finale files are "scores" and extracted parts. I see a mess on the score. Is there's a way you can just get a plain Score and Extracted parts. Thank you for doing this. Best Regards, Manny
Just a quick note on screenshots, if you do shift command 4 rather than 3 you can just drag over the area you want to screenshot so you don’t need to edit after
I have a friend that has around 800 scores she has done in finale, and she is freaking out. She has viewed this video along with others and yelled out loud next to me saying "I have around 800 scores, am I supposed to do all this 800 times" as she slaps the desk. I feel so bad for her 😢 I am wondering if people can transfer Finale scores to the Presonus Notion 6 application much easier than Dorico 🤔🤷♀ I mentioned that to her and she is looking into Notion 6 now. This is going to be a complete nightmare for people who use Finale. Meaning them trying to find a much easier way to import scores to something else.
it looks like she's not going to have to do this for her 800 scores. Finale will apparently allow authorizations indefinitely and she'll be able to download Finale if her computer ever crashes. The caveat is that the software won't evolve with future OS changes, so make sure to tell her not to update her current computer where she uses Finale so that she can keep using it!
I would immediately batch covert all 800 files to MusicXML just in case, and then I would work on each song at a time, as needed. Imagine the fun that music publishers are going to have!
Why don't you switch to Sibelius - it's a much more intuitive and refined programm. After my 20+ years of experience with Finale I have tried both, Sibelius and Dorico (the second one was very frustrating for me). Finally I decided to stick to Sibelius and I find working with this program to be quite pleasant. It surprised me positively in many ways.
Great stuff Mathew. I'm considering Dorico, and I'd like to ask you where did you first start in learning the program? The manual? The Dorico Y-tube channel? Thx!
@@jade8538 I’m gonna be real, I started with the thought, “I wonder if I can make one of my older scores in Dorico” and the result of what I learned is this video 😂 but I then went ahead and started watching the Dorico UA-cam tutorials and they are absolutely a must watch
For projects you're moving over from Finale, rather than moving stuff around, you're MUCH better off deleting them one by one, and replacing them in Dorico. That way, the newly entered items will KNOW where they're supposed to be. So if you do any further reconfiguration of the score/parts in Dorico, they'll move to the spot they should be without tweaking. The problem with Finale is that so much of the stuff is just thrown in there higgledy-piggledy.
I would use staff-attached text objects (shift-x) for numbers and text. That way they move with the formatting according to the music and not the specific page layout.
I have been using FINALE since 2008 and I like it. At one stage, I tried to update FINALE - but found it so difficult to re-learn that I just scrapped the update version and went back to the first version. I am now in my 80's and am not as active as I used to be and I wonder if I can continue to use FINALE, as I have for the last 16 years, or whether I need to acquire and learn a new system. Can you tell me what is the difference between "Dorico" and "MuseScore" and whether MuseScore is easier or harder (or just different) Jeff (Australia.)
@@jeffcarroll6196 there may be more in depth comparisons between musescore and Dorico already on UA-cam. I think it’s worth giving musescore a shot since it’s free. For most people, it’s going to have pretty much everything you need! It’s also definitely still possible to continue using finale as long as your OS is compatible with it.
May I recommend simply keeping your Finale installation permanently, and just using it to edit those files? They announced today that authorization will continue indefinitely.
Agree. And better to buy a PC to run it on. You don't need a powerful PC. Any mid range PC will do. Windows is less likely to break your software than macOS. Most people should have their work printed out to PDF, anyways. How often do [most] people actually need to go back and edit an old Finale (or Sibelius, or Dorico) file? The best way to move over to Dorico or Sibelius (or MuseScore) is cold turkey. Otherwise, you will just juke yourself for months if not years on end and you will really be screwed due to actual increase reliance on Finale and a retarded acquisition of proficiency with whatever solution you are choosing to move over to.
I don't currently have a video on composing in Dorico--I tend to compose by hand and engrave after the composing is done. I know this is counterintuitive for some but works best for me. I'll look into if there's something like Studio View in Dorico!
@@mathewarrellin Thanks for all the work you do here. I've just discovered your videos and plan to watch a few more. I was just thinking before I read your reply to my Studio View question that I may have to go back to composing on paper. This is my biggest concern. I'm (piano) keyboard challenged, so if no studio view, I'll lose some ability to hear back what I've written in real time as I go through my compositional process. Not too worried about migrating old files.
I am a long time Finale user Just in one day on Musescore I could do things that takes me a week in Dorico. I think for composers and average user Muse is better option. If you need engraving and publishing than maybe you should use Dorico.
@@mirokadoic I agree, for most people, MuseScore may be the better option! As a professional composer myself, I do prefer to have Dorico. Thanks for watching!
I got Dorico first lol, I hate to say it, but I’m glad I bought Dorico and not Finale. Best of luck to all the educators who spent 22 years in Finale now having to go to Dorico or Sibelius!
You're making it sound like finale is going to be killed and no longer usable which is not true. The finale exe file you have installed on your computer will work indefinitely without further support. I started using finale when it first came out. At the age of 80 I'm not in the mood to learn another complex music dictation software. Correct?
in other videos, I mention that Finale users can continue using the software for the foreseeable future! as long as your computer is compatible with the current version, you could theoretically continue to use it for another 10-15 years or even more.
Thank you for your efforts in making this video. I’ve been using Finale since the very beginning. Not really looking forward to the steep learning curve for transitioning to Dorico, but it is proving great exercise for my aging brain. I also appreciate the people who have made comments and suggestions around importing. I’ve had some frustration already trying to understand how things work in Dorico, but your video does a great job at helping me make sense of some important concepts and tasks that are relevant to me. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. My biggest gripe so far is with the manual. I have found it difficult to get quick, clear answers on certain topics, sometimes needing to refer to multiple sections/passages in order to piece together the method for accomplishing a task. I know there are some who find fault with various aspects of Finale, too, but the ability to get quick and well explained answers from the Finale manual is one of Finale’s strengths, in my estimation. I have Notion, too, and it is quite good and simple to use, but it certainly doesn’t have the heavy lifting power of something like Dorico, Finale, or Sibelius. I won’t use Sibelius as I don’t care to get in bed with Avid. Still checking out Musescore, but my initial impressions of that one have been less than stellar. I purchased the Dorico cross grade both to have Dorico and so I could have access to Finale 27 (I had 26, which ran sluggishly on my computer, but 27 seems to fly, which is a welcome perk.) Finale had a good run over the years, and I’m sorry to see it go. As far as I’m concerned, they set and held the gold standard throughout. My only fear is that I’ll invest huge amounts of time into whatever program I decide to go with, and then that company will pull the plug or go belly up for some reason. Oh well, I guess nothing is certain in this world except for change. As they say, “You spins the wheel, you takes your chances!” Let’s just hope we all place our bets wisely and that we all hit the jackpot! Happy writing, folks!🎼🎶🎵😊
@@spocksmusic No reason to change if you don't want to, except that at some point you may decide to upgrade your computer to one that has an incompatible minimum OS, or decide you need to upgrade your OS to something that is incompatible. That may be years away, for me. I decided to get Dorico, and the more I use it, the more I like it. It is quite different from Finale in a number of ways, but in most of the ways that it differs, I'm actually finding I like it quite a bit. The design philosophy is quite different, but I think superior in some ways. Now I'm going to get to work on converting my Finale files to XML so that I can open them in Dorico or other programs. I don't want to reach a point where years of work are lost because I dragged my feet on getting that done -- I've gotten burned on that in the past in similar situations. Best of luck to you however you decide to proceed.
May I recommend simply keeping your Finale installation permanently, and just using it to edit those files? They announced today that authorization will continue indefinitely.
But if you uninstall it, or your drive goes Kaput, and you have to reinstall, it will not authorize. I have seen many people post about that all over the net.
DISCLAIMER: when I made this video, I had literally JUST started using Dorico so there are MANY things I could've done better, as many commenters have suggested! So, take some things with a huge grain of salt, I'll improve on these things in future videos.
To all the Dorico experts: thanks for all the helpful suggestions! remember, I am a beginner and calibrated by all the weird things about Finale--I will learn to incorporate best practices into my Dorico workflow! keep the suggestions coming 😀
ALSO: update for Finale users, you can now reauthorize new devices indefinitely! MakeMusic announced it really soon after backlash from the community, so you should be able to use Finale for years to come!
Why can’t we just keep all our files as Finale? We have the app downloaded, so it’s not going anywhere. There’ll be no new updates, but maybe if one dedicated computer is taken offline, it won’t matter. It would take me way too long to convert all my files
@@ili626 very true! This was just an experiment but I honestly don’t think it’s practical to do this kind of transfer
Maybe remove this video? I mean, it's like teaching text formatting using space bar. So many bad advices... I understand perfectly where you were when recording it but... Why share this? This is extra work for everyone trying to teach the Dorico way. We now need to unlearn thise bad moves 😉
Note that 5.1.60 has made the whoke first half of the video obsolete (but still wrong), since the xml import now retains the original casting off.
Man, the X signpost has nothing to do with your staff text, it's a Meter signpost. First thing is to input your key signature to open, or atonal, instead of hiding signposts... It's completely the wrong workflow you're teaching there. Please, please, learn the proper workflow BEFORE posting anything. Doing mistakes is understandable. Teaching crap is unforgivable.
Thank for shopping what it means to switch from Finale to Dorico. To be honest, this is an absolute nightmare!
The Dorico channel has just uploaded some great videos for Finale users.
Thank you! Huge help with some snags I ran into when editing. This will get me 20 steps ahead without the grind on my own.
Thank you for making my life easier.
I would hate to learn another platform at 80.
Thank you for your efforts in making this video. I’ve been using Finale since the very beginning. Not really looking forward to the steep learning curve for transitioning to Dorico, but it is proving great exercise for my aging brain. I also appreciate the people who have made comments and suggestions around importing. I’ve had some frustration already trying to understand how things work in Dorico, but your video does a great job at helping me make sense of some important concepts and tasks that are relevant to me. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. My biggest gripe so far is with the manual. I have found it difficult to get quick, clear answers on certain topics, sometimes needing to refer to multiple sections/passages in order to piece together the method for accomplishing a task. I know there are some who find fault with various aspects of Finale, too, but the ability to get quick and well explained answers from the Finale manual is one of Finale’s strengths, in my estimation. I have Notion, too, and it is quite good and simple to use, but it certainly doesn’t have the heavy lifting power of something like Dorico, Finale, or Sibelius. I won’t use Sibelius as I don’t care to get in bed with Avid. Still checking out Musescore, but my initial impressions of that one have been less than stellar. I purchased the Dorico cross grade both to have Dorico and so I could have access to Finale 27 (I had 26, which ran sluggishly on my computer, but 27 seems to fly, which is a welcome perk.) Finale had a good run over the years, and I’m sorry to see it go. As far as I’m concerned, they set and held the gold standard throughout. My only fear is that I’ll invest huge amounts of time into whatever program I decide to go with, and then that company will pull the plug or go belly up for some reason. Oh well, I guess nothing is certain in this world except for change. As they say, “You spins the wheel, you takes your chances!” Let’s just hope we all place our bets wisely and that we all hit the jackpot! Happy writing, folks!🎼🎶🎵😊
It seems like you've picked up quite a bit in a short amount of time. My needs are a bit different, but it seems that I could learn a lot from your experience already. Thank you for sharing and posting! Blessings!
What caught me last night (I'm trying to import Finale into Dorico) was the Vertical Justification. That really had me confused for a while, as I simply could not get the Dorico file to look like the Finale file and was becoming rather frustrated. Sometimes, there are reasons for me doing what I do... (Like to facilitate page turns...) Thanks for putting this video together. It is very helpful
What is catching me these days are the number of people showing up [from Finale] who did everything manually expecting Dorico to automatically just make the score look like their hodge-podge of 10,000 manual adjustments in Finale... then saying they couldn't get the Dorico file to look "like the Finale file" and becoming frustrated.
When I moved from Finale to Dorico (over 2 years ago), I simply dropped Finale and went with Dorico - Cold Turkey - after doing a couple (short) Score copies to acclimate myself with its layout and how to access all the basic workflows. I coped from Manuscript, though. Copying from a Finale file would just create a weird psychological bias. That way, I'm not worrying about how I did whatever in Finale or some other application. They didn't have software and printers in the 1700s.
It took me maybe 2 weeks to get highly productive in Dorico. Maybe it's just a generational thing, but I feel like a lot of the people "having trouble" are old, less technologically adept people. There really is not much Steinberg's developers can do about that. These people will always be hamstrung by the fact that they sat on Finale for 5, 10, 20, 25, etc. years and never gained proficiency in an alternative solution to grant themselves insurance in the event that the software they used was discontinued.
Younger users coming into the market are more used to learning 2 DAWs or whatever, specifically to allow them to gain and maintain some flexibility (and marketability). Things were different back in the day, though.
@@iTrensharo Bear in mind, 35 years ago, I was using both Professional Composer and Finale, ultimately moving over to Finale (transferring files via MIDI, so you can imagine the joys of re-formatting in version one of Finale!). I also used Lotus 1-2-3 and Word Perfect. Then they disappeared... I don't think (but could be wrong) that the issue is so much a lack of flexibility but, rather, an level of anxiety of what becomes to (in my case) 3.08 gb of work and how much money/time needed will be needed to edit or revisit older works in the years to come? When WordPerfect, Freehand, Lotus 1-2-3, et al disappeared, other software was able to at least open and retrieve the work - formatting issues aside, the bulk of the work was saved. I realize that the transfer process from Finale to Dorico isn't perfect, but at least there is a path to move forward.
I've been using Dorico since version 3.5, as I decided to matriculate to what I feel is a much better piece of software. Unfortunately, time and time again, I was forced to go back to work in Finale to in order to re-arrange or correct old scores in a very short period of time and didn't have the luxury of time (or perhaps the self discipline) to export the file and clean it up in Dorico. For example, I wasn't keen on taking a 22 minute orchestral concerto that I typeset twenty years ago and spent the time to simply to re-orchestrate a couple of small sections to accommodate a specific situation. HOWEVER, I realize that I need to begin allocating the time to do so and thereby future proof the bulk of my work.
It is my opinion that we Finale users became too fussy about the look of our printed materials because we wasted so much time and spent so much energy fighting the software in order to figure out how to get it to "look right" (to us). I just want to keep Finale around long enough to be sure that I didn't forget any score along the way that I hadn't exported over. (Probably will get an external drive, and batch ALL of my files over to it one evening when I sleep). FWIW, I will also begin working in MuseScore, as Hal Leonard will be (according to some of my colleagues) using that software in house as will all of their subsidiary publishing companies. Yeah... flexibility is going to become even more important.... And trust me, thirty-five years of the old keyboard shortcuts takes time to un-learn! And let's see what Avid does to Sibelius... After all, they fired the original team (hence Dorico)!
I agree whole heartedly with some of the tips already mentioned. Importing an XML file is going to give you a much better experience than trying to open an XML directly. I also think it's incredibly important to spend one project entering everything from scratch. Learning the flow of Dorico first will help inform the your decision process and order of operations. The concept of working at a macro level really makes a difference, and can help prevent focusing on details that you may not need to do. Making the proper page size, margins, and font size first might have stopped you from starting by locking bars, because a lot of those details are minor changes when you start from the right place. -- Also, things like having a player set up ahead of time to import into will fix all the elements like the player name before you start importing. It's good to understand the logic of a "player" versus the logic of an "instrument".
One other thing I forgot. Those "x" signposts are the barlines without a meter. When you selected it, you were likely selecting more items than just the description at the top of the page. Signposts are meant to show you items you cannot see, things that don't print, but are things you can still select and edit.
Other things to look into that will speed up your future: Look into "Tokens" for text. Rather than hardcoding it, you can save it in the file information. Finale had this to a point, but it's more clear in Dorico. Anything with {@text_here@} is a token, and can be stored and called dynamically throughout your file. Things like Master Pages where you can define the look of pages before you enter anything can also help you define fonts, sizes, etc, and then save them as a house file, and they will always be there when you start.
There is a repeat tool, including measure repeats. They will appear as expected, but can also play as expected (most of the time). Things like this will be much faster than trying to draw them in.
Hello, some suggestions:
- to space vertically and horizontally without having to resize staves and cast off, it's better to tweak the Layout Options "Vertical Spacing" and "Note Spacing" settings. Once you find the right spacing, it will be much better and automatic than any other customizing.
- If you want all the text of the score to be Times New Roman, you can change that from "Paragraph Styles" (you can invoke it from the jump bar by typing it there, just type "j" and it will appear).
- I would recommend for graphics, particularly multi-phonics (the way I do it), is to create a new playing technique (go to the Playing techniques dialogue), import the graphic there, and then give it a name. That way, you can use the graphic as a "score item", and you will be able to move it left and right in the grid as per standard key commands, flip it, and you can resize it using the properties window underneath too. If you use a graphic, if you ever resize the score, it will not align with the staves.
Thanks for these amazing tips! I’ll make sure to do that, this comment is gold 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Yeah the playing technique method is the way I would do the multiphonics as well. Another way is you can buy/install special fonts for multiphonics and then you can "type" the fingerings. I used to use those in Sibelius but eventually moved away from them in Sibelius because Sibelius had some glitches where they would randomly all disappear and be lost. Probably Dorico does not have this same glitch.
This was very useful! Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for walking through this. Too much headache to retrofit. I'm simply going to diligently craft templates in Dorico and start fresh.
I think that's a smart idea! I think starting from scratch will ultimately yield better results. This was really just an experiment to see if it is even possible to save time
You can flip the text below the staff in the properties panel at the bottom and choosing "below staff" instead of manually dragging it down underneath.
This is one of the finale ticks that may take a while to get rid of! Thanks for the tip!!!
"F" is the shortcut to flip things around the staff. Top to bottom or bottom to top.
Oh man. My head hurts now. I have 30 years worth of work in Finale. Just downloaded Dorico the other night…
I don't know if this will work for you, but have you tried Notion 6 by Presonus ? Meaning, trying to transfer finale scores to Notion 6 ?
I've been mentioning it to many people in case they don't know about it. 🤷♀ I don't know much about Notion 6, because I am not a heavy composer like that.
But I have some friends that do, and they are all freaking out right now when finale announced their closing.
Me too... 30 years. Looks like I will be PDF-ing thousands of arrangements (which I wont). So sadly they will all die a certain BETAMAX death in a obscure file format no one will support in the future. Oh well. It was fun...
We should cherish what we have and rejoice in the moment. Nothing is forever. When they are no longer in our lives, we can only just let them go and remember them fondly as they were with us in our journey. It's the same with a painter's brush or a sculptor's chisel. The only important things are what they helped you create. It isn't fair but such is life. Be happy for what it was and embrace a new chapter.
I have 35 years of work all lost but I’m tying also to be positive also, and embracing the life change. Letting go all my work to eventual dust isn’t the worst thing. I’m still alive and I can start a new career in a different field. Makemusic not releasing the Finale code to the public owing to the bribe given by Dorico, which would allow Finale to stay up to date with new OS changes, was cruel for tens of thousands of users, but that is capitalism and money. Money over kindness I say.
All is not lost, folks! Convert your Finale files to musicXML and you should be protected from not being able to access your work (for at least as long as musicXML remains a de-facto standard anyhow). Maybe not a perfect solution -- takes some effort to do the conversions, and once converted, reformatting in a new program takes some effort, but at least it will prevent you from having to start over completely from scratch on your important projects.
Good job learning all that so quickly! Quick tip, input your project info in the Project Info dialogue, Command + I. Type in your title and composer names and it will populate automatically. To edit where those are and how they are, then you can edit the page template however you like and add more tokens (those are the bits of script that you're editing) by right clicking and finding any info you want to add. Keep going!
thank you for the valuable tips!!!
The X signpost is not for the text even though it is in the same spot. It is the code for a time signature of "free time". The X time signature is hidden in this case, which is why the signpost appears.
Ah! Thanks for catching that! Appreciate the clarification!
Great video Mathew. My charts are not as graphically complex as your music but needless to say, the end of Finale will result in a massive productivity sink for all of us.
Hi again, Mathew. For your information (and everyone who might wonder), the program will continue to work as long as you keep your current computer working (the one you've installed Finale on). I have the latest version. The issue will happen if you can't install it or run it from scratch after Finale is no longer available. People are stressing out that their current working version will suddenly stop. That is not true. Please make that comment to your member audience.
Thanks for doing this. BTW, I also got my doctorate in composition from Northwestern. 😊
nice to meet you, Chris! great to see fellow NU composers on here!!!
My 30+ years of arrangements are now un-editable without me re-writing thousands of scores files and parts. This is horrific! We will need a OCR music reader that keeps formatting of printed music to match the original and saves as an editable document in,... whatever program. Again... this is horrific. My career work are now museum pieces waiting until a technology can read them as is. A sad day for prolific finale users.
as long as you keep your current computer(s) running, you should be able to edit your backlog for many years to come! MakeMusic announced that they were backtracking on the "no authorizations" after Aug. 2025, so now you can reauthorize indefinitely and should be able to continue using Finale without any problems. But you're right! we definitely need a solution for this... maybe some clever computer-science majors/software engineers can start developing a new app to solve this major problem!
So much for putting all my eggs in one basket. The chicken has changed. No more eggs.
Thanks mate
Why can’t we just keep all our files as Finale? We have the app downloaded, so it’s not going anywhere. There’ll be no new updates, but maybe if one dedicated computer is taken offline, it won’t matter. It would take me way too long to convert all my files
I'm going to continue to use Finale 2010 (I think, one of the best versions) on my old computer. I'll probably eventually get Dorico but I've been using Finale since 1990, so I'm very comfortable with it. Great for hybrid-graphic scores. (also, I'm in my 60s so, . . . old dogs)
I would add the title and composer in the project info section under file. When you entered in the composer you deleted a token. The token will display the relevant info for the project info correct once it's entered
This is vitally important if you want to have parts etc. with the same information.
Cmd/Ctl + i
thanks for the tip!
Having already written a comment, I would like to say something else: I hope for all Finale users that after the cooperation between MakeMusic and Steinberg, the two developers will sit down and develop an official, sophisticated import function for Finale files, possibly as a stand-alone programme that converts them into those for Dorico. That would be a strong action! Admittedly, they probably won't take the resources to do this because it's not financially viable, but it would certainly be desirable!
This would be muuuch harder than you imagine as they are compleatly different programs. Creating a common file format as xml is hard enough.
A lecturer from my time as a music student, with whom I am loose friends, who was and is a Finale user, told me that in order to get the best results when transferring Finale projects to Dorico, he exports them as uncompressed MusicXML files, then creates a Dorico project and only then imports the MusicXML file into the project using the import function. Options are already offered here during this process that can clear up the chaos a little before you see it.
I can't add anything to the above because I'm just passing on the comment he made to me when I asked him how he was handling the situation.
Bravo Doctor...
Something you may consider is changing the XML import options in Dorico before you perform the import. Just bringing the notation in and letting Dorico do its thing might be worth an experiment. My guess is you would be able to more quickly get the formatting you’re looking for. XML contains a lot of extraneous information, display constraints, etc. Bringing that in forces Dorico to deal with it in some way. Dorico‘s natural formatting is drop-dead gorgeous. When you bring in all that extra material, you are tying Dorico‘s hands. Every case is different, but it’s worth a try before you decide on a best process for your compositions.
@@richardtorstrick4631 I’ll have to look into that! I also want to do this process from scratch as well, I feel it’d be worth seeing how the workflow is compared to Finale
@@mathewarrellinThere is a conceptual difference that might be helpful when you first enter and edit music. In Finale, each measure is a container having specific boundaries. Notes MUST be placed in a measure, and then are stuck in that measure. If you write a piece in 4/4 and decide later to rebar it to 3/4, you lose whatever notation originally occupied the 4th beat of every measure. If you rebar to 5/4 instead of 4/4, Finale inserts a rest on the 5th beat of every measure. This makes editing more difficult than it needs to be.
By contrast, in Dorico, notes are the basic units (as opposed to measures). They retain whatever duration you assign (until you decide to edit it). They can even be entered with no time signature yet specified. When you add (or change) a time signature, Dorico re-bars the music, preserving all the note durations and timing, and follows whatever convention has been set (it's default, or what you have specified) to produce the best readability of notes that have been split by a barline or a prominent beat. This difference opens many possibilities for entering notation much faster. It allows Dorico to have an insert mode, which works similarly to the same mode in a word processor.
This same underlying difference allows shortcutting options for note entry. I love the conventions Dorico has for editing rhythm. You can enter long passages of 8th notes, for instance, then select them all and hit the period key on your computer keyboard, and Dorico converts the whole string into dotted 8th and sixteenth note pairs. So much faster than having to redefine the duration of every note you enter as you enter it.
I was told that when Stravinsky wrote The Rite of Spring, he wrote out the notation and rhythms first, without putting in any time signatures or barlines, only adding those when the notation was finished. He could never have written the piece in Finale, but Dorico would have handled it with aplomb.
@@richardtorstrick4631 that sounds amazing! that has always been one of the major Finale headaches, so thanks for letting me know! I look forward to learning more about the software and excited for what seems like a superior workflow (so far). thanks again for taking the time to watch and comment!
Hi Mathew, I'm a composer of Afro-Cuban Music. All my finale files are "scores" and extracted parts. I see a mess on the score. Is there's a way you can just get a plain Score and Extracted parts. Thank you for doing this. Best Regards, Manny
@@mannycepeda1 thanks for the question! I’ll look into this
Just a quick note on screenshots, if you do shift command 4 rather than 3 you can just drag over the area you want to screenshot so you don’t need to edit after
@@theashen that’s a game changer!!! Thanks for the tip 🙏🏻
Musescore!
I have a friend that has around 800 scores she has done in finale, and she is freaking out.
She has viewed this video along with others and yelled out loud next to me saying "I have around 800 scores, am I supposed to do all this 800 times" as she slaps the desk.
I feel so bad for her 😢
I am wondering if people can transfer Finale scores to the Presonus Notion 6 application much easier than Dorico 🤔🤷♀ I mentioned that to her and she is looking into Notion 6 now.
This is going to be a complete nightmare for people who use Finale. Meaning them trying to find a much easier way to import scores to something else.
it looks like she's not going to have to do this for her 800 scores. Finale will apparently allow authorizations indefinitely and she'll be able to download Finale if her computer ever crashes. The caveat is that the software won't evolve with future OS changes, so make sure to tell her not to update her current computer where she uses Finale so that she can keep using it!
@@mathewarrellin
VERY Good to know, thanks for the heads up. I will call her right now and tell her. Thank you. 🥰🥰🥰
I would immediately batch covert all 800 files to MusicXML just in case, and then I would work on each song at a time, as needed.
Imagine the fun that music publishers are going to have!
Ain't Nobody Got Time for That
Song by Sweet Brown
Why don't you switch to Sibelius - it's a much more intuitive and refined programm. After my 20+ years of experience with Finale I have tried both, Sibelius and Dorico (the second one was very frustrating for me). Finally I decided to stick to Sibelius and I find working with this program to be quite pleasant. It surprised me positively in many ways.
Great stuff Mathew. I'm considering Dorico, and I'd like to ask you where did you first start in learning the program? The manual? The Dorico Y-tube channel? Thx!
@@jade8538 I’m gonna be real, I started with the thought, “I wonder if I can make one of my older scores in Dorico” and the result of what I learned is this video 😂 but I then went ahead and started watching the Dorico UA-cam tutorials and they are absolutely a must watch
@@mathewarrellin Good to know. I look forward to more of your Dorico tutorials.
How did you learn this so quickly?!? I’m amazed.
Lots of tutorials, a good online manual, and use of Google searching with more terms than fewer in the search.
For projects you're moving over from Finale, rather than moving stuff around, you're MUCH better off deleting them one by one, and replacing them in Dorico. That way, the newly entered items will KNOW where they're supposed to be. So if you do any further reconfiguration of the score/parts in Dorico, they'll move to the spot they should be without tweaking. The problem with Finale is that so much of the stuff is just thrown in there higgledy-piggledy.
@@LeeBlaske yes! I agree. In this experiment I realized it would be better to just start off from scratch with the text, maybe even other elements
I would use staff-attached text objects (shift-x) for numbers and text. That way they move with the formatting according to the music and not the specific page layout.
thanks for the suggestion!
I was wondering if your fingering symbols wouldn’t be available as a font instead?
I have been using FINALE since 2008 and I like it. At one stage, I tried to update FINALE - but found it so difficult to re-learn that I just scrapped the update version and went back to the first version. I am now in my 80's and am not as active as I used to be and I wonder if I can continue to use FINALE, as I have for the last 16 years, or whether I need to acquire and learn a new
system. Can you tell me what is the difference between "Dorico" and "MuseScore" and whether MuseScore is easier or harder (or just different) Jeff (Australia.)
@@jeffcarroll6196 there may be more in depth comparisons between musescore and Dorico already on UA-cam. I think it’s worth giving musescore a shot since it’s free. For most people, it’s going to have pretty much everything you need! It’s also definitely still possible to continue using finale as long as your OS is compatible with it.
Yes we hear you, you will need some time to recover from your exposure to Finalé.
May I recommend simply keeping your Finale installation permanently, and just using it to edit those files? They announced today that authorization will continue indefinitely.
Agree. And better to buy a PC to run it on. You don't need a powerful PC. Any mid range PC will do. Windows is less likely to break your software than macOS.
Most people should have their work printed out to PDF, anyways. How often do [most] people actually need to go back and edit an old Finale (or Sibelius, or Dorico) file?
The best way to move over to Dorico or Sibelius (or MuseScore) is cold turkey. Otherwise, you will just juke yourself for months if not years on end and you will really be screwed due to actual increase reliance on Finale and a retarded acquisition of proficiency with whatever solution you are choosing to move over to.
Do you have a video on composing in Dorico? Is there anything like Studio View in Dorico?
I don't currently have a video on composing in Dorico--I tend to compose by hand and engrave after the composing is done. I know this is counterintuitive for some but works best for me. I'll look into if there's something like Studio View in Dorico!
@@mathewarrellin Thanks for all the work you do here. I've just discovered your videos and plan to watch a few more. I was just thinking before I read your reply to my Studio View question that I may have to go back to composing on paper. This is my biggest concern. I'm (piano) keyboard challenged, so if no studio view, I'll lose some ability to hear back what I've written in real time as I go through my compositional process. Not too worried about migrating old files.
I am a long time Finale user Just in one day on Musescore I could do things that takes me a week in Dorico. I think for composers and average user Muse is better option. If you need engraving and publishing than maybe you should use Dorico.
@@mirokadoic I agree, for most people, MuseScore may be the better option! As a professional composer myself, I do prefer to have Dorico. Thanks for watching!
I got Dorico first lol, I hate to say it, but I’m glad I bought Dorico and not Finale. Best of luck to all the educators who spent 22 years in Finale now having to go to Dorico or Sibelius!
I'm not sure about Dorico. I think Staffpad had the right idea unfortunately not really developed.
You're making it sound like finale is going to be killed and no longer usable which is not true.
The finale exe file you have installed on your computer will work indefinitely without further support.
I started using finale when it first came out. At the age of 80 I'm not in the mood to learn another complex music dictation software.
Correct?
in other videos, I mention that Finale users can continue using the software for the foreseeable future! as long as your computer is compatible with the current version, you could theoretically continue to use it for another 10-15 years or even more.
I use Musecore 3 lol
Alto Sax = best sax.
pppp, or ppppp and pppppp for that matter, don't even exist in real life. At that point, just ask the musician not to play.😉
😂
😂
Ever see Ligeti scores? pppppppp
@@markbrooks7157 Yeah, I know. What does that prove? I'm calling BS on him, too.
Thank you for your efforts in making this video. I’ve been using Finale since the very beginning. Not really looking forward to the steep learning curve for transitioning to Dorico, but it is proving great exercise for my aging brain. I also appreciate the people who have made comments and suggestions around importing. I’ve had some frustration already trying to understand how things work in Dorico, but your video does a great job at helping me make sense of some important concepts and tasks that are relevant to me. I’m sure I’ll get there eventually. My biggest gripe so far is with the manual. I have found it difficult to get quick, clear answers on certain topics, sometimes needing to refer to multiple sections/passages in order to piece together the method for accomplishing a task. I know there are some who find fault with various aspects of Finale, too, but the ability to get quick and well explained answers from the Finale manual is one of Finale’s strengths, in my estimation. I have Notion, too, and it is quite good and simple to use, but it certainly doesn’t have the heavy lifting power of something like Dorico, Finale, or Sibelius. I won’t use Sibelius as I don’t care to get in bed with Avid. Still checking out Musescore, but my initial impressions of that one have been less than stellar. I purchased the Dorico cross grade both to have Dorico and so I could have access to Finale 27 (I had 26, which ran sluggishly on my computer, but 27 seems to fly, which is a welcome perk.) Finale had a good run over the years, and I’m sorry to see it go. As far as I’m concerned, they set and held the gold standard throughout. My only fear is that I’ll invest huge amounts of time into whatever program I decide to go with, and then that company will pull the plug or go belly up for some reason. Oh well, I guess nothing is certain in this world except for change. As they say, “You spins the wheel, you takes your chances!” Let’s just hope we all place our bets wisely and that we all hit the jackpot! Happy writing, folks!🎼🎶🎵😊
I'll just keep using Finale on a dedicated compute. Why change?
@@spocksmusic No reason to change if you don't want to, except that at some point you may decide to upgrade your computer to one that has an incompatible minimum OS, or decide you need to upgrade your OS to something that is incompatible. That may be years away, for me.
I decided to get Dorico, and the more I use it, the more I like it. It is quite different from Finale in a number of ways, but in most of the ways that it differs, I'm actually finding I like it quite a bit. The design philosophy is quite different, but I think superior in some ways. Now I'm going to get to work on converting my Finale files to XML so that I can open them in Dorico or other programs. I don't want to reach a point where years of work are lost because I dragged my feet on getting that done -- I've gotten burned on that in the past in similar situations. Best of luck to you however you decide to proceed.
May I recommend simply keeping your Finale installation permanently, and just using it to edit those files? They announced today that authorization will continue indefinitely.
But if you uninstall it, or your drive goes Kaput, and you have to reinstall, it will not authorize. I have seen many people post about that all over the net.
@@TwstedTV that's not true. Origen17 is correct, the authorization will continue indefinitely.