Customer Reviews

Finale 2005 Power!

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Finale Power 2005a book review.

The book starts off with the usual preliminary global view of the whole program. I expected this part to be boring, but I read it through and picked up lots of details that I did not know. Throughout these first chapters, there are references to the subject to later chapters, where you can find more details. The book itself is well layed out with tips throughout. The whole book reminds me of the format used by David Pogue's Missing Manuals.
Although there is a comprehensive Finale manual on line, this book actually goes into more detail, not so much in describing every little detail, but more into how you actually perform the functions. Years ago I printed out the whole Finale manual which filled two 3-inch binders. At the beginning of each chapter, I wrote out all the `How to's" at the end of each chapter, so that I could go to a function right away. The Finale Power 2005a book expands on all of these `How to's', to show you how to handle these functions in detail.
The end of the book tackles integration of Finale with the web and other programs and also shows some examples of using third party plug-ins. I hav not gone into specific details of the functions, but I will just mention that I did find one plug-in of real interest to me. It is `Smart explosion of Multi-part Staves. I did not find it in TGtools in Finale, and found that I needed to download it. It can be used free of charge for 30 days. The book describes how to use it. What it does is it takes a staff with multi parts in it, and seperates the parts, such that each part is on a different stave. A little bit like the explode function, but much much smarter. There are other plugins that are explained in this chapter, and references to all the third party sites where you can obtain those extra plugins that make Finale so much easier to use.
As an intermediate user of Finale, I would say that the book is most helpful for me. I think that when I have read through it, I will be able to be a more powerful user and if I need even more nitty gritty details, I will be able to read the online comprehensive manual more easily and also be very savvy to the more advanced details that are often discussed in the Finale bbs forums.
I would recommend the book to all Finale users; beginner, intermediate or advanced.

for someone who has prior knowledge of finale, it is probably informative. But for someone like myself, who wanted to understand the basics, the book was not very helpful. Overall, the book lacked consistency in providing information - some parts were very detailed, while other parts presumed the reader already knew a lot.

Either for the beginner or the seasoned composer, Finale 2005 Power! is a must-have reference both for Mac and Windows users. It is an excellent guide, ranging from setting up Finale on your computer to using Finale with MIDI devices. Page layout is clear and full of "how-to" and "what-is" graphics. Finale features and how to use them are explained step-by-step. The author has a clear writing style and obviously knows his subject since he works for the company that produces Finale. This text will give one the help needed to master both the basics of Finale and the many features needed by seasoned composers.

Though this book was written in 2005 and my Finale is 2010, it is a lot easier to use than the on-line help, in my opinion. Some things have changed, but for basic operations, the book's index is easy to reference and beats opening up screen after screen to drill down to the information I need at the moment. As an older book, it was quite inexpensive. Since my needs are pretty simple (I am not writing multi-part musical pieces) I passed on the more expensive 2010 Finale guide.