Editing

Once the notes are in, most corrections go through the Selection tool: pick some notes or measures, then decide what to do with them. This chapter covers selecting, copy and paste, transposing, deleting, moving items by hand and undoing what you did.

The Selection tool

The Selection tool is the first one in the palette on the left: choose it with ⌘1 (Ctrl+1 on Windows) or from the Tools menu. When playback is stopped, Esc also brings you back to it.

The tools with their own palette (Articulations, Expressions, Lines, Tuplets, Repeats and Jumps, Layout) select exactly like the Selection tool, and the selection stays put when you switch between them.

Selecting notes and measures

Notes

• Click a note to select it (you also hear it).
• ⇧-click more notes to add them; ⇧-clicking a note that is already selected removes it.
• Drag from an empty spot (or an empty part of a measure): a rectangle selects the notes it touches, across staves too; with ⇧ they are added to the notes already selected. It also works in the palette tools (Articulation, Expression…), and with an articulation or dynamic key held down it marks those notes right away (see Markings and text).

A single note of a chord

Clicking a chord selects all of it. To work on just one of its notes, as with the Speedy Entry caret, click its notehead again once the chord is selected, or ⌥-click the notehead straight away (on Windows Alt-click): only that note turns blue. Then ↑ ↓, ⇧↑ ⇧↓, + − and N change only that note, ⌫ removes it from the chord (the rest stays selected), and Copy and Cut take only that note. Clicking another notehead moves to that note; clicking elsewhere goes back to selecting whole notes. From the keyboard, ⌘↑ and ⌘↓ (on Windows Ctrl+↑ and Ctrl+↓) move to the note above or below; with the whole chord selected they choose the highest or the lowest note. Other commands (ties, articulations…) apply to the whole chord. In Simple Entry a single click on the notehead is enough.

Measures

• Click an empty part of a measure to select that measure on that staff.
• ⇧-click another measure to extend the selection to it, and down (or up) to the staff you clicked.
• ← → move the selection to the previous or next measure; ↑ ↓ to the staff above or below (in the score; hidden staves are skipped). With several measures or staves selected, the whole block moves.
• ⇧→ ⇧← (Shift and the arrows on Windows) extend the selection to the next or previous measure; ⇧↓ ⇧↑ to the staff below or above, as in Finale. The measure you started from stays put: going back shrinks the selection, then extends it the other way.
• ⌥-click (Alt-click on Windows) selects the measure on every staff.
• ⌘A (Ctrl+A on Windows), or Edit → Select All, selects the whole score.
• Double-click a measure to jump into Speedy Entry right there.

Selected measures are shown as a rounded box on each system.

Changing the selected notes

With notes selected (or measures: then every note inside them counts) you can use the keyboard:

Key	What it does
← →	Go to the previous or next note (or rest), across barlines, and play it
↑ ↓	Move the notes one step, following the key signature (with measures selected ⌥↑ ⌥↓, Alt+↑ Alt+↓ on Windows: the arrows alone move the selection)
⇧↑ ⇧↓	Move the notes an octave (with measures selected, ⌥⇧↑ ⌥⇧↓)
+ −	Raise or lower by a semitone (on percussion, switch to the other sound at the same position)
N	Natural: removes sharps and flats, including those from the key signature
9	Enharmonic spelling: the same sound with its other name (C♯ ↔ D♭)
T or =	Tie to the next note; again, removes it
P	Courtesy accidental: in parentheses, without parentheses, removed
/	Breaks the beam before the note, or joins it to the previous one
;	Turn the note into an acciaccatura, then an appoggiatura, then back into a normal note
⌫	Delete (see below)

Duration, dots, ties and articulations can also be changed in the Inspector.

The right-click menu

A right-click (on the Mac also ⌃-click or a two-finger click on the trackpad) selects what’s under the pointer and opens its menu:

• on a note: articulations, dynamics, tie, notehead, beaming, flip stem, courtesy accidental, enharmonic spelling; then chord symbol, text, lyrics and rehearsal mark; finally cut, copy, paste and delete. With several notes selected also slur, crescendo and diminuendo;
• on a measure (away from the notes): chord symbol and text, key signature, time signature, clef, new system or new page from that measure, alternate notation, inserting or clearing measures, and the clipboard;
• on a chord symbol, dynamic, text or slur: automatic position, delete; chord symbols can also be edited and slurs flipped.

If you right-click a note or measure that is already selected along with others, the selection stays as it is and the commands apply to all of them. In Speedy Entry, a right-click moves the cursor to the note.

Copy, cut and paste

Copying works on the selected measures of the selected staves, with everything in them: notes, rests, layers, articulations, dynamics, hairpins, text, chord symbols, lines, slurs and glissandos.

Command	Mac	Windows
Cut	⌘X	Ctrl+X
Copy	⌘C	Ctrl+C
Paste	⌘V	Ctrl+V
Paste Multiple…	⌥⌘V	from the menu
Paste with Filter…	⇧⌘V	Ctrl+Shift+V

All of these are in the Edit menu.

1. Select the measures to copy (click, ⇧-click to extend, ⌥-click for all staves).
2. Choose Copy (or Cut, which copies and then empties the measures: the measures stay, with a rest).
3. Click the measure where the music should go, or put the Simple or Speedy Entry cursor there.
4. Choose Paste.

Good to know:

• Pasting replaces whatever is in the target measures. If the score runs out, measures are added.
• When you copy several staves, they are pasted from the clicked staff downwards.
• Notes are copied at concert pitch, so pasting into a transposing instrument writes them in its own key.
• The target measures need a time signature of the same length as the copied ones.
• After pasting, the pasted music stays selected, and the whole paste undoes in a single step.
• The clipboard works between different windows and documents.
• While you are typing in a text field, ⌘C and ⌘V copy and paste text, not music.

Copying part of a measure

To copy just a stretch (two beats, a phrase starting on an upbeat…) select notes instead of measures: click, ⇧-click or drag a rectangle. The stretch of time from the first to the last selected note is copied, on every staff it touches, with the rests, dynamics, chord symbols and text inside it.

Paste it from the Speedy Entry cursor, from the selected note or, with ⌘-click (Ctrl+click on Windows), from the point you click: mid-measure or on an upbeat too. The copied stretch replaces the same stretch at the destination and the rest of the measures stays as it is:

• notes that cross a barline in their new position are split and tied;
• destination notes cut by the edges of the stretch are shortened;
• the destination may have a different time signature;
• a tuplet (triplet…) can’t be split: if the stretch would cut one, Maestro says so and doesn’t paste.

Cut with notes selected copies the stretch and leaves rests in its place.

Paste Multiple

Edit → Paste Multiple… (⌥⌘V on the Mac) asks how many times to repeat the copied music and pastes the copies one after the other, starting from the selected measure. Handy for a riff, a drum groove or a repeated accompaniment pattern.

Paste with Filter

Edit → Paste with Filter… (⇧⌘V; on Windows Ctrl+Shift+V) is Finale’s edit filter: you check what to paste among notes and rests, articulations, dynamics and hairpins, slurs and glissandos, lyrics, chord symbols, figured bass, texts and symbols, octave lines and text lines. Maestro remembers your choice for next time.

• With “Notes and rests” it pastes as usual, but whatever you didn’t check stays as it was in the destination: for example new notes that keep the dynamics and lyrics that were there.
• Without “Notes and rests” the destination notes stay where they are and receive the articulations, lyrics and slurs of the copied notes that start at the same point. Dynamics, chord symbols, texts and lines of the copied passage replace the ones that were there. This is how you copy the bowings and dynamics of the first violins onto the seconds, or one section’s articulations onto another with the same rhythm.

Afterwards the notes that changed stay selected, and it all undoes in a single step.

Copying with a click or by dragging

As in Finale, with the Selection tool you can copy without the clipboard. Select the measures (or the notes, for part of a measure), then:

• drag the selection to where you want the copy: grab a selected note, or an empty spot inside the selected measures, and release the mouse at the destination;
• or hold ⌘ on the Mac (Ctrl on Windows) and click the destination.

Either way a grid appears above the measures: the beat numbers and a tick for every offbeat. The destination snaps to the grid, and a line with a caption (“measure 5, beat 2½”) shows where the copy will go; clicking a note copies from its start. While dragging, 4, 8 and 6 change the grid step (beats, eighths, sixteenths) and esc cancels.

The selection stays where it was, so you can copy it elsewhere too. Whole measures copied onto a downbeat stay measures (same time signature); copied onto an offbeat they shift, following the rules for copying part of a measure. Each copy is undone on its own.

Transpose

Edit → Transpose… transposes the selected notes, or the selected measures of the selected staves. In the dialog, choose:

• By an interval: from a minor second to an octave, Up or Down, with one or two extra octaves if needed.
• Into another key: the target key and the direction (The nearest, Above or Below).

Spelling is handled properly (B♭ up a major third becomes D), chord symbols move along with the notes, and percussion stays where it is.

If all staves are selected (⌥-click or ⌘A) you can tick Change the key signature too: the key signature then changes for the transposed passage only. Beyond 7 sharps or flats the enharmonic key is used.

Deleting

• With notes selected, ⌫ (on Windows also Del) removes them from the measure. To turn a note into a rest instead, use ⌫ in Speedy Entry.
• With measures selected, ⌫ empties those measures on the selected staves (on every staff after a ⌥-click, Alt-click on Windows); clefs stay.
• To remove the measures from the score altogether, use Document → Measures → Delete Selected Measures (⌘⌫ on the Mac, Ctrl+Del on Windows). See also Instruments and staves.

Moving items by hand

Maestro places dynamics, text and lines automatically, but sometimes you want to nudge something. With the Selection tool you can grab and drag dynamics, text, rehearsal marks, chord symbols, slurs, hairpins, octave lines and text lines with the mouse.

After clicking the item:

Key	What it does
← → ↑ ↓	Move it by a quarter of a staff space
⇧ + arrows	Move it by a whole space
⌫	Delete it
Esc	Deselect it

Edit → Automatic Position (⌥⇧⌘R on the Mac) puts the selected item back where Maestro wants it.

The offset is relative to the automatic position, so when the layout changes the item follows the music. It is saved with the document and applies to the parts as well.

The Inspector

View → Inspector (⌥⌘I; Ctrl+I on Windows) opens a column on the right showing the properties of whatever is selected, or of the note under the Speedy Entry cursor. Changes are made in place and undo like any other edit.

• Note: pitches, measure and layer; note value and dots; tie to the next note; articulations, switched on and off with a click; tuplet. With several notes selected, a change applies to all of them.
• Measure: key and time signature from that measure on; repeat start and end; new system and new page.
• Staff: name and short name, instrument, sound, transposition, staff size, distance from the staff above, percussion, guitar fretboards.
• Document: title, composer, metronome tempo, page format.

Undo and redo

Every change can be undone one step at a time, and redone.

Command	Mac	Windows
Undo	⌘Z	Ctrl+Z
Redo	⇧⌘Z	Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z

On the Mac the menu shows the name of the operation (“Undo Transpose”), and the toolbar has Undo and Redo buttons with the operation’s name in their tooltip. Large operations (a paste, a transposition, a harmonization) undo in a single step.