In a recent blog, Justin shared some great tips regarding the Score Name insert in Finale. In short, if you’d like to change the text  “Score,” which appears in the upper left corner of your score, to something else (or simply make it go
away
), you should go to File > File Info and edit the Score Name Insert text.

In the comments section of that blog, my friend Jeff Whitmill said:

“I wish I could change the default “Score” to “Conductor.” That’s a change I have to make, every time I start a new ensemble (I save it in templates, but that’s useless for new ensembles).”

Today’s tip is to create or edit a Document Style. Then the next time you need to create a score for a new ensemble, select this document style from Finale’s Setup Wizard. The resulting score will automatically show “Conductor,” regardless of instrumentation.

What’s more, Document Styles can include ALL your text preferences (like whether or not you want text inserts for “Subtitle,” “Lyricist” “Arranger,” and others) and is extremely easy to make. Simply take any existing Finale file that has these items configured the way you like, drop it in the Document Styles folder, and that file has become a Document Style you can select from the Setup Wizard.

The only trick is finding the correct folder. On Mac it’s pretty easy:

<user>\Library\Application Support\MakeMusic\Finale 2011\Music Files\Document Styles

On Windows this location is version-specific (and it’s a little trickier to boot), but here’s my tip to find the folder: it’s listed in Program Options > Folders > Document Styles.

What makes this additionally challenging in Windows is that you have to show hidden folders to see these locations. One way to do that is to go to Control Panel >Folder Options, select the View tab, and select “Show hidden files and folders.”

Does this help? Have any questions? Let us know by clicking on “Comments” below.