IWBNI it were possible to specify the default length of shortened stems for unbeamed, flag-less notes as a function of the vertical position of a note. As it is now, the settings Normal Stem Length and Shortened Stem Length on the Music Options dialog box may be used to control the length of stems. The latter length is used for all up-stemmed (down-stemmed) notes that are above (below) the Stem Reversal staff position specified on the Staff Setup dialog box.

Many engravers use stems of length 3-1/2 spaces under normal conditions. A length of 2-1/2 spaces is often used for up-stemmed (down-stemmed) notes that are far above (far below) the middle staff line. To accomplish this in Finale, one may set Normal Stem Length and Shortened Stem Length on the Music Options dialog box to 84 EVPUs and 60 EPVUs, respectively. However, this approach has the following disadvantage: The tip of a down-stemmed A on the 2nd space of a standard 5-line G-clef staff will be higher than that of a down-stemmed B on the middle line. For example, see the following figure:

To avoid this, one may increase the Shortened Stem Length to 72 EVPUs (i.e. 3 spaces). The feature proposed here would eliminate the need for this compromise.

This feature could be implemented by replacing the existing edit control Shortened Stem Length on the Music Options dialog box with a button called Shortened Stem Lengths. This button would display a new dialog box called Shortened Stem Lengths that could contain the following controls:

----------------------------------------------------------------
Shortened Stem Lengths Dialog Box
 
 

Range of Staff Positions  (Relative to Stem Reversal Staff Position)		Shortened Stem Length (EVPUs)
First Position of Range	Last Position of Range	Initial Length	Final Length
0	3	84	84
4	6	72	72
7		60	60

[x] Match Lengths for Symmetric Positions

Default Shortened Stem Length: _____

----------------------------------------------------------------

These shortened stem lengths would be used for all unbeamed, flag-less down-stemmed (up-stemmed) notes that are below (at or above) the Stem Reversal staff position specified on the Staff Setup dialog box. The table could consist of up to 16 user-defined ranges. The checkbox option Match Lengths for Symmetric Positions could be selected to automatically have the stems for down-stemmed and up-stemmed notes that are of equal distance from the stem reversal staff position be of the same length. The value specified in the edit control Default Shortened Stem Length would be used for all unbeamed, flag-less down-stemmed (up-stemmed) notes that are below (at or above) the Stem Reversal staff position and have a position that falls outside of the user-defined ranges. For a given range, the First Position of Range or the Last Position of Range could be left blank to indicate an unbounded range. In the example table show above, the third range consists of all positions at or above the 7th position above the stem reversal position.

In the example table shown above the Initial Length and Final Length are equal for each range of staff positions. If, for a given range these lengths were different, the stem lengths would be automatically varied linearly from the initial length to the final length over the range of positions. For example, to have shortened stems gradually reduced from 3-1/2 spaces (i.e. 84 EVPUs) to 2-1/2 spaces (i.e. 60 EVPUs) in 1/6th-space increments, one could define the following ranges:
 
 

Staff Position Range		Shortened Stem Lengths (EVPUs)
First Position of Range	Last Position of Range	Initial Length	Final Length
0	6	84	60
7		60	60

For example, with these settings the stem length of a down-stemmed A on the 2nd space of a standard 5-line G-clef staff would be 80 EVPUs and the lengths for the G, F, E, D and C immediately below that would be 76 EVPUs, 72 EVPUs, 68 EVPUs, 64 EVPUs and 60 EVPUs, respectively. This would yield stems as shown in the following figure:

Created: February 12, 2000 (based on a submission from Michael Cook)
Last Updated: February 12, 2000
Version: Finale 2000b