March 18, 2024

A while ago, I did an article about using FinaleScript to format charts for an iPad. I’ve been working on some charts for a new group I might be playing with, and further added to my script to make the charts work on the iPad.

page layout tool
menu item "Page Layout/Page Margins/Edit Page Margins"
type "0.3" 
tab
type "0.10069"
tab
type "0.10069"
tab
type ".12153" 
tab
select radio "all pages"
press "apply"
press command + "."
select first meas to the end
note spacing
unlock systems

First part of the script opens the selects page layout tool and opens the menu for editing the page margins (first two lines). Then we start filling in what we want (assuming inches are set up as the document default). 0.3″ at the top, 0.10069″ at the sides (why, I dunno, just have used that. You could probably set it to 0.1). Then selecting ALL PAGES and applying it to the pages. Next command closes that window. Then we select ALL the measures, and apply note spacing again. Then we finish off by having it unlock the systems, and it then adjusts how many measure per system to better fit with the new spacing and margins.

Generally, I love how this works. Save a TON of time, and on Finale 25, it works perfectly every time. In the last version of Finale, it would frequently not fire off correctly.

Anyone who uses an iPad for music, you really NEED to get rid of your margins. Things look better on the iPad if you have it formatted like above. I’ve said this for years, since the iPad came out.

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