My tutorials for the music notation application Finale (Coda Software) were originally developed for a workshop course at the University of Oregon School of Music first offered in 1990. The course is still being offered each year, and the tutorials have been updated for each major new version up to Finale 2006. See below for more information about the tutorial files. Tutorials for Finale 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2002 are available from me by sending an email request to
Tutorials for earlier versions of Finale are available from:
Finale 3.7:
Download WKSHP37.pdf for text; WKSHP37.sit.hqx for Enigma files for Macintosh; WKSHP37.zip and WKS37EX.zip for Enigma Files for Windows.
Finale 97:
Download Tut97.sit.hqx for text and Enigma Files for Macintosh.
Finale 2000:
Download Tut2k.sit for text and Enigma Files for Macintosh or tut2kpc.zip for text and Enigma Files for Windows.
Finale 2001:
Download Tut2k1.sit.hqx for Macintosh, Tut2k1.zip for Windows.
The tutorials were developed for use with the Macintosh, but can be used as well on the Windows platform. In Finale for Windows, some of the keyboard commands and mouse clicks are different. For example, when "option" appears in the text, Windows users should substitute "control." For that reason I have made a comparison file that shows the keyboard commands and mouse clicks for both platforms.
I am happy to share these materials without charge. However, a donation of $10 deposited in my PayPal account or sent to my home address at 2830 Emerald Street, Eugene, Oregon 97403 would be greatly appreciated. If you use them with a class, please give me credit. I have considered publishing this material, but I'm afraid that as soon as a little volume could be printed, a major upgrade would be available, and the materials would need to be brought up to date.
With an application as comprehensive and complex as Finale, I cannot get to all advanced features in a single term. Several areas are not even touched (the Transcription Tool, FinaleScript, for example). There are notes on some of the plug-ins, however. I have found that my students have fared very well after taking the class and have produced fine-looking scores.
To subscribe to the Finale Discussion List, visit http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale.
You can contact me at hjowen@uoregon.edu