Okay, I don't know a better place to put this so it's going here.
Today I had Latios and Olimar both tell me to use the Finale template so that I could submit files that had the proper formatting. They really pushed this template. I don't have anything against it, it's a good template, but there's a problem: for Finale Notepad users, it's COMPLETELY, 100% WORTHLESS.
Maybe some of you who have had upgraded Finale for a long time have forgotten this, but Notepad does not allow you to change time signatures of key signatures from pre-sets. Not every song is in the key of C major in 4/4 time. Many aren't. And copy-pasting from another Finale file (say, an import from another program) does not carry the time and key signatures from the original to the template. So, using the template will fix your formatting problems! Yaaaaaay hooray! Except now it's in the complete wrong time and key signature. But I guess formatting's more important, eh?
What I'm trying to say here is that pushing the template when people have formatting issues is absolutely not going to fix them. Many times, it will actively be a problem: people will spend wasted hours futilely trying to get their time and key signatures to carry over without realizing it's not going to work and so that's plenty of wasted hours that could have been spent, y'know, just having someone with an upgraded Finale fix the files. As it stands the constant push to use the template is akin to saying "Oh, you want to paint the wall but you have no tools? Here, have a potato! It doesn't work? Nonsense! All the great painters use potatoes."
Recommendation: Make a note about the fact that the template is worthless to Finale Notepad users so that people don't waste hours to it. And stop pushing the template to people who use non-Finale programs for the bulk of their sheets. It just wastes time and frustrates people like me to no end. If I could have fixed my formatting, I would have. But the template is useless.
I see you've found this thread. (http://forum.ninsheetmusic.org/index.php?topic=685.0) I don't really see any issue other than maybe updaters giving you the incorrect resource for the situation.
Will help out more later, but basically the template file is useless to those who don't know how to use it.
Quote from: Olimar12345 on September 28, 2015, 03:49:47 PMWill help out more later, but basically the template file is useless to those who don't know how to use it.
... The template doesn't allow you to change time or key signatures. At all. How is that not knowing how to use it? It literally lacks those functions. I tried. I looked things up to see if it was possible and as far as I can tell it isn't. Please don't treat me like I'm stupid for not knowing how to paint that wall with the potato.
I think the purpose of the template is to primarily demonstrate proper formatting.
I just make sure the fonts and stuff are correct in Musescore and export as XML to Finale Notepad as is, which is good. I "work between" the two.
Quote from: skiaak on September 29, 2015, 03:55:14 PMI just make sure the fonts and stuff are correct in Musescore and export as XML to Finale Notepad as is, which is good. I "work between" the two.
Well yea, if you're in the Notepad/Musescore situation, you can try to do that. But sometimes (not always) converting with XML can mess up some of the formatting.