Dolet 3 for Finale Release Notes

Version 3.6.1 for Windows

May 30, 2007

Installation - Using Dolet - What's New - Translation Limits - Reporting Problems - Thank You!

Installation

The Dolet 3 for Finale installation kit uses the Windows Installer. If you do not have Windows Installer on your computer, the Dolet3Finale.exe installation program will install it first. This may require a reboot of your computer.

During the installation, you will be asked for the directory where most of the Dolet files go, including the MusicXML language definitions. By default, this will in the Program Files directory on the drive with the most space available (for example, C:\Program Files\Dolet 3 for Finale).

The actual Finale plug-in file (Dolet3.fxt) will be installed into the MusicXML folder of your Finale plug-ins directory. The plug-in will automatically install into your default version of Finale. If you have multiple versions of Finale installed on your machine, the plug-in will also be installed automatically into your installations of Finale 2003 and later. To install into Finale 2000, 2001, or 2002, copy the Dolet3 plug-in file from the default plug-ins directory to the plug-ins directories for these versions of Finale. You do not need to copy any of the other Dolet files.

Note that this version of Dolet for Finale requires that either Java 1.4, 5.0, or 6.0 be installed on your machine. You may install Sun’s Java 6.0 software from http://java.com.

Using Dolet for Finale

Dolet^® software serves as a translator between music programs. These translations are done using the MusicXML file format. Dolet can read and write MusicXML files, allowing you to exchange music between Finale and any other program that can read or write MusicXML.

To bring MusicXML files into Finale, first create a new Finale document. Go to the Plug-ins menu and select the MusicXML submenu. Then select the "Import MusicXML..." item. You will only be able to import MusicXML into an empty Finale document. If your current document is not empty, this item will be grayed out. If there are no documents open, Dolet will create a new default document and import the MusicXML into this new file.

To bring files from other programs such as Sibelius and SharpEye Music Reader into Finale, first save the files in these programs in MusicXML format. Then use the Import MusicXML feature to read the file into Finale.

To save a Finale document as a MusicXML file, go to the Plug-ins menu, the MusicXML submenu, and then select the "Export MusicXML..." item.

If you want to read a Finale file in an earlier version of Finale, first save a MusicXML file in the newer version of Finale using Export MusicXML. Then read this MusicXML file in the older version of Finale using Import MusicXML.

You may translate an entire folder of Finale files to MusicXML format or vice versa. These batch routines will overwrite any files with the same name that are currently in that directory. Use the "Translate Folder of MusicXML Files..." menu item to save Finale files from your MusicXML files (batch import). Use the "Translate Folder of Finale Files..." menu item to save MusicXML files from your Finale files (batch export). Batch translation requires Finale 2004 or later, and is not available during the 30-day free trial period.

Dolet 3 for Finale supports Finale 2000 through 2007 on Windows, using MusicXML 1.1.

If you are using the full version of Dolet 3 for Finale with Finale 2006 or 2007, be sure to just use the full version from the plug-ins menu. Going back and forth between the MusicXML functions in the Plug-ins and File menus may confuse Finale and produce error messages. If this happens accidentally, just restart Finale to get things working correctly again.

What's New

Version 3.6.1 is a Windows-only release that fixes problems initializing the Dolet 3 for Finale plug-in when Java 6 Update 1 or Microsoft's Comprehensive Security Update for Internet Explorer 7 (KB931768) are installed.

Version 3.6 adds better support for MusicXML files imported from PDFtoMusic Pro and Notation Composer. It also fixes the following problems:

Inverted triangle noteheads are now supported.
Some very long MusicXML files would not import completely.

Version 3.5 added support for Java 6. It also fixed the following problems:

The stroke articulations (e.g. Maestro characters 39 and 174) are now correctly supported with the MusicXML spiccato element. A parallel change in Dolet 3.3 for Sibelius allows these articulations to be translated correctly from Sibelius to Finale.
Files with a # in the file name can now be imported.
Accent tenuto and staccatissimo articulations are now imported more accurately.
Accidental marks that appear above a note without other notations like a turn or trill are now imported correctly.
Slur positioning data is now exported correctly on resized staves.
Lyric font sizes are now exported more accurately when page and system reduction are both being used.
Empty percussion noteheads now export more accurately.

Version 3.6.1 uses the new installation program introduced in Version 3.2. This version automatically installs into multiple versions of Finale. It fixes problems installing on Windows 98 and Windows ME systems, and eliminates the need to reboot your machine after the installation is completed.

Fixes in previous releases are listed in the Dolet 3 for Finale Version History at http://www.recordare.com/finale/v3versions.html.

Dolet 3 for Finale has been completely rewritten from version 1.5 to support both Windows and Macintosh OS X. Dolet 3 for Finale now reads and writes files in the MusicXML 1.1 format. MusicXML 1.1 adds many formatting features to MusicXML 1.0. Currently this allows for much higher fidelity transfers between different versions of Finale. As more applications add support for MusicXML 1.1 features, we expect to see these higher fidelity translations become more widespread.

MusicXML 1.1 support makes possible many of the new features in Dolet 3 for Finale, including:

Page formatting, including page size and page margins
System formatting, including system margins
Staff formatting, including system optimization
Page-attached text blocks, including credits
Barre symbols in fretboard export
Lyric alignment

Other new features in Dolet 3 for Finale compared to Dolet for Finale 1.5 are:

Page breaks
Improved chord symbol support:
- Chord symbols are now always imported
- Chord symbols without playback definitions are supported
- Unrecognized chord symbols are exported as text
Improved positioning for smart shapes and measure-attached expressions
Fretboard and guitar bend export
Text-only shape expressions
Export positioning of articulations and note-attached expressions
Export formatting for manually adjusted slurs
Import of Sibelius guitar tablature
Falloffs, doits, plops, and scoops
Single note tremolos
Export repeats and endings defined using features added in Finale 2005
Export of text in non-Western scripts
Export of old-style (pre-Finale 2003) tablature
Sonata font support
Export of measure-attached trills and fermatas
Improved tuplet positioning
Text repeat positioning
Pedal and pan playback
Augmentation dot horizontal position
Improved support for the Japanese version of Finale, including the Kousaku and Chaconne fonts

Some of these features are limited to certain versions of Finale. Many of the formatting features, for instance, start to be available in Finale 2003 and only become fully supported starting with Finale 2004.

Translation Limits

Any type of translation has limits. Things expressed in one language sometimes cannot be expressed the same way in another language. Sometimes the translator does not yet understand all the idioms and vocabulary in both languages. Dolet and MusicXML provide much greater music notation accuracy than MIDI translations, but both types of limits apply to this software.

Dolet for Finale supports most of the musical features that are shared between Finale and MusicXML. However, this Version 3 release does not support the following Finale features:

Figured bass
Multi-note tremolos
Most MIDI tool performance details
Beam extensions
Graphical Finale shape expressions
Exact articulations and expressions in music fonts other than those provided with Finale, GoldenAgeMusic, or Sonata
Importing fretboards and guitar bends
Importing tablature into Finale 2000 to 2002

Reporting Problems

Given Finale's great flexibility, you may find problems in how we handle scores set up in your particular format. Please contact us at if you encounter problems with our software.

If you do find a problem, please give us a description of what Dolet is doing, compared to what you expect it to do. Attaching a .mus or .etf file that shows the problem will help us to find and fix the problem more quickly. Please let us know which versions of Finale and Windows you are using. Should you see a message box reporting an error, please be sure to include the text of the message.

Thank You!

Thank you very much for your interest in Recordare^® and MusicXML. We greatly appreciate your support of an open, Internet-friendly format for representing musical scores.

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Last updated August 13, 2007.