;Version History ;v3.0225 2024-09-21 Fixed: -In rare cases an error could occur if the last staff system had an invalid measure number for a non-existing following staff system. Fixed now. -Fixed an error that could occur in rare cases on totally hidden staff systems in linked parts. -In rare cases an error could occur on note collisions in multi-layer scenarios. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved detection of copyright texts and automatic page margin adjustment on single page scores. -"BlueNotes", "Vintage BH", "Maestro-Extra", "GoFigure" and "Bracketura" fonts added as music font -If "Create MM Rests in Parts" is deactivated and a linked part has corrupted multi-measure rests that spans several staff systems (e.g. multi-measure rests there were not updated and include the wrong measures), then these multi-measure rests will be at least partially fixed. Otherwise it would lead to many other problems. -Improved handling of multi-measure rests, if "Create MM Rests in Parts" is deactivated and a linked part has corrupted multi-measure rests that spans a full staff system -Improved internal handling of invalid smartshapes that end after the final measure. -Improved handling of invalid end staves (ID:-1) in selected regions -Improved detection of movement names as page texts: page texts with font size<12 are ignored now -Added translations for the latest new texts -Support for automatic page bottom adjustment when the single page score has extra text blocks below the last staff system (e.g. lyrics for extra verses) -If the first coda measure is the first measure on a staff system in all linked parts and in the score, the "Begin a new staff system" attribute will be activated in the measure attributes. This will improve the measure distribution in some cases. -More technique expressions get an improved placement ifthey overlap the last barline of a staff system -System dividers in the score were already hidden in the linked parts in previous versions. Now they are also shifted away from the visible page area to make them even less disturbing in the parts. -A warning message pops up at that start of the plug-in when Finale's measure reflow settings don't match the recommended settings of the plug-in. Recommended are the activated options "Reflow Across Systems (Maintain System Locks)" and "Reflow Across Pages". -Added updated and more demo files for the plug-in -The "Hide bow marks in score" feature is now also correctly auto-detected when the factory or last saved settings are loaded. -The plug-in will display a warning message if the file has parts, but no measure number regions, or if the file has some linked parts where the "Show measure numbers" attribute in the staff settings is deactivated and the measure number regions don't have "Show on Top Staff" or "Show on Bottom Staff" activated. -If reflow across systems is activated and a linked part has all measures squeezed into one system, the measures will reflow right after the start of the plug-in to also take this part into account for all linked part statistics that are used later during the processing. ;v3.0223 2024-09-03 Fixed: -No Finale error message anymore on invalid composite time signature definitions where the beat duration field is empty Improved: -Improved PDF manual -On the very first start of the plug-in a dialog asks to open one of the demo files first for an easier introduction to the plug-in -More fine-tuned 5-staff line symbols for clef changes one a 1-line staff before a 5-line staff -Support for rehearsal marks of the format number + . (optional) + letter (e.g. "17.a"). -Improved lyrics metrics, if lyrics optimization is deactivated and syllables have individual offsets New feature: -The plug-in will display a warning message if the parts have no visible measure numbers. ;v3.0221 2024-08-02 Fixed: -When applying PL to a linked part only that has different staff scalings in the score and in the part and both are different from 100%, then PL could change the staff scaling the score. Fixed now. -An error message could occur when only a few measures were selected in the score and a new (sub-) movement start was in the unselected measures before. -Fixed an error message that could occur in rare cases when only few measures were selected on one staff with certain dynamics and the selected area was preceded by a multi-measure rest on all staves. Improved: -Some little processing speed improvements, especially on large documents on macOS -In some cases improved detection of font files. It requires a regeneration of the ESFontFileNames.txt file at the beginning of the first run of the plug-in with this version. If there are many fonts installed, it may take a minute or even longer. ;v3.0219 2024-07-31 Improved: -Improved detection of cue notes under invalid multi-measure rests in parts. If detected, the multi-measure rests will be removed. -In some cases improved detection of font files ;v3.0217 2024-06-21 Fixed: -Superimposed staves are not slightly torn apart anymore because of rounding errors -If "Show Rests" is deactivated on the staff or through a staff style, the (hidden) multi-measure rest number is not taken into account for staff distances anymore. Improved: -If the "Force Hidden Rests On Layer 1 On Cue Notes" feature (added in v3.0203) is activated, then ties on cue notes are no longer flipped. -The "Laissez Vibrer" feature now also supports string and plucked string instruments from the non-Western instrument collections. I.e. the plug-in doesn't remove open l.v. ties from these instruments anymore. -In rare cases improved metrics calculation when some staff systems start with a non-zero distance of the first staff (only if measure reflow is set to "Only Within Systems" and "Reflow Systems Across Pages" is deactivated) -Expressive texts that have a tiny overlap with hairpins are not shifted below anymore, but only horizontally -RGP Lua 0.68+: improved cross staff metrics support (Note: RGP Lua 0.68+ is NOT supported yet by Perfect Layout. Because of the new Lua version 5.4 that it uses there are still some incompatibilities. It will be available in a later update.) -In some case improved placement of rehearsal marks when an "above the staff" articulation is attached to the previous measure, but placed after the next barline. -Windows: In some cases improved detection of OTF font files (if the font name is totally different from the font file name) -Improved note/accidental collision removal between several layer in dense measures -Improved (non-)detection of the cue note layer when small sized notes are not used as cue notes, but for other purposes -Improved detection of superimposed staves: 1 EVPU difference is also sufficient (was: 0 EVPU in previous editions) -Improved collision removal in some cases of four expressions on one beat (one rehearsal letter, two tempo or rehearsal texts, one technique text expression above the staff) New feature: -Added new option on the "Express." tab: the vertical distance between several tempo and rehearsal marks can be set with the new distance to "Other Tempo and Rehearsal Marks:". The default value is 23 EVPU - as it was in previous versions of PL. ;v3.0215 2024-06-19 Fixed: -In rare cases an error message could occur on flipped stem detection on beamed notes with slurs under tuplets. Fixed now. -In rare cases Finale could hang on glissando smartshapes close to rests. Fixed now.(Bug introduced in v3.0203) Improved: -In some cases of mid-measure clef changes an extra clef before a hidden cue note section is now hidden -Windows: The two helper files for the progress bar and the window minimization were renamed to ESProgressBar.exe and ESMinimizeFinaleWindow.exe to allow easier access for other plug-ins. ;v3.0213 2024-06-17 Improved: -In some cases improved placement of dynamics on two layer unisons -In some cases improved tuplet metrics on cross staff tuplets and tuplets where the inner tuplet notes have influence on the bracket placement -Improved handling of some scenarios where staff styles only span partial measures. This leads, for example, to improved lyrics metrics in some cases. -A warning message about very wide expressions is no longer displayed if the expressions are invisible ;v3.0211 2024-06-13 Fixed: -If only one measure in one staff was selected from a two staff group (e.g. piano), in rare cases an error message could occur. Fixed now. -Blank notation staff styles in linked parts that only affected some visible layers (but not all), could lead to a too small measure width in that measure. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved note collision removal on unisons and seconds across two layers or two voices -Extra clef changes on empty measures within a cue note section that spans several measures (including empty measures) are now hidden -The Finale undo/redo feature now also works correctly on single measures -Improved PDF manual -More music fonts are detected: Solmisation, AKFlute, AKOboe, AKSax, AKFagott, AKClarinet, AKVerticalFlute ;v3.0209 2024-06-10 Improved: -Automatically repairs slur playback problems because of a missing smartshape flag -Measure numbers more than 1000 EVPU away from the staff are ignored for vertical system/staff spacing ;v3.0207 2024-06-06 Improved: -In some cases of mid-measure clef changes an extra clef before a hidden cue note section is now hidden ;v3.0205 2024-05-30 Fixed: -In rare cases (organ parts with a three staff notation) pickup measures of (sub-)movements in a score could be shifted to the previous system. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved collision detection on custom lines and trill smartshapes far above the staff -Improved detection of movement starts when the score includes several movements, both with text expressions and page texts as movement title names. -Improved metrics on ties close to the staff -RGP Lua: improved metrics on some modified ties (still not all modified ties are fully supported) -RGP Lua: improved metrics on flipped ties with the "Flip tie" attribute -Improved metrics on rehearsal marks when the rehearsal marks placement is set to "Keep position" -Improved metrics on some ties on the 3. line on a 5-line system ;v3.0203 2024-05-07 Fixed: -When the plug-in is applied to a small selected region, in some cases an error message could occur. Fixed now. -In rare cases on two staff groups (piano, harp) an error message could occur on expression collisions with articulations. Fixed now. Improved: -macOS: Corrected text output when using the progress bar with several monitors -Improved detection of multi-measure rest ranges when the measure number region is only defined for a few bars -Improved Test File 11: the demo file now includes demos for all new cue note features. -Extra clef changes in the very last measure of the piece are now correctly hidden when this measure only contains cue notes in the score -In some cases improved placement of rehearsal marks on collisions above the staff (shifted slighty to the left instead of further above). -In some cases improved staff distances on piano groups when slurs span at least two systems and include some cross staff notes -Improved processing speed on glissando optimization -In some cases improved vertical and/or horizontal placement of ottava shapes -Finale 26+/RGP Lua only: in rare cases improved vertical placement of articulations (when the articulation direction settings contradict the current placement and additionally the stacking feature leads to an unexpected placement) -RGP Lua only: The "Add 32nd Secondary Beam Breaks" is not applied anymore to notes that already have a secondary beam modification New feature: -Added a new hidden option "ForceHiddenRestsOnLayer1OnCueNotes" which can be set to true or false directly in the Perfect Layout settings file (in the Finale user folder JALAYOUx.ini where the letter x can be "G", "B" or "H"). It hides layer 1 in cue note measures in parts. -RGP Lua only: Detection and correction of lifts and falls created with the tab slide tool that occur between two notes. The plug-in now tries to detect whether it is a glissando between two notes or a lift/fall attached to just one note. If the lift/fall is only attached to one note, it's obvious. If it is still attached to two notes (which occurs in Finale by default), the angle and placement/offsets in the score determines whether it is a lift/fall of one note or a glissando between two notes. ;v3.0201 2024-05-06 Fixed: -Cue note in measures where the next measure had a time signature changed were not hidden in the score. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.0199) Improved: -When an Asian OS is detected (Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese), the safety unicode mode is activated by default to prevent crashes with unicode symbols. -Improved detection of hidden time signature changes -Slightly improved settings of the "Hide Cue Notes in Score" staff style New feature: -Corrupt expressions with negative IDs are automatically deleted ;v3.0199 2024-05-05 Fixed: -In cue note measures with time signatures shorter than 2/4 (e.g. 3/8, 3/16 or 1/4) it was possible that the "Display Empty Rests" would be deactivated in that bar in the score after Perfect Layout. Fixed now. -Text expressions with a "Hidden Text" style and the attribute "Break Multimeasure Rest" activated now also break multi-measure rests in linked parts (not only in extracted parts or the score). Improved: -subito dynamic expressions (e.g. sub.p) that are connected to a centered whole rest are now correctly aligned at the beginning of a measure (and not at the whole rest anymore). -The "Lighthouse" music font is now supported -In some cases improved placement of "outside tuplet" articulations, if the tuplet also includes "inside tuplet" articulations -Improved tuplet placement on many mixed up-/downstem tuplets -In some cases improved placement of split nested tuplets -Collision support for several tuplets nested in one large tuplet (e.g. three 16th note triplets in an 8th note triplet) -Improved collision removal between two notes, especially on accidental/note collisions -Improved detection of hairpin/dynamic connections if the hairpin is upon a staff line (not above or below) and both a dynamic above the staff and a dynamic below the staff follows -Improved handling of word extensions in the final bar -In some cases improved alignment of the hairpin start on long notes (more than 3072 EDUs) -New warning log message when a cue note measure in the score includes no rest on the "normal" layer and it's a (short) pickup measure where "Display Rests in Empty Bars" makes no sense -When hiding notes in cue note measures in score the "Display Empty Rests" attribute in that bar will remain the same as before. -When hiding notes in cue note pick up measures in the score, rests in non-cue layers will remain. -Improved alignment of tempo marks and alterations on bars with one (long) note only where the tempo marks goes slightly beyond the next barline and either collides with another expression or is on the last bar of that system. -When the score has a single measure system on the last page, the measure will be shifted to the previous page (if there is enough space). In previous versions of Perfect Layout this feature was only activated for linked parts. -If chords in linked parts are not on the vertical default position, then in some cases expressions above the chord may now get an improved placement on collisions. -Chords are not shifted anymore to above an expression with both the ABOVECHORDS and the EXCLUDE tag. -Improved checking of expressions that are "Scaled with the Attached Entry" to avoid slightly moving an expression to a beat where the scaling changes. -In some cases improved vertical staff/system layout, if there are several lyrics staves -macOS: Improved position of the progress bar on setups with multiple monitors. -macOS: Support for several multiple monitor setups stored in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist (earlier versions of Perfect Layout supported only ONE multiple monitor setup) -Improved PDF manual -More preview images New features: -Tuplets that start with a rest and only include whole notes are now placed on the correct side (fixes a Finale bug) -Mixed up-/downstem tuplets are now handled more precisely. Finale's default placement of these tuplets is very often poor. These tuplets can now get the "Always Flat" attribute and will be placed on the proper side according to Gould in "Behind Bars" on page 198. It takes into account the number of collisions with slurs, articulations, dynamics and hairpins and finds the best placement, preferably on stem-side and/or above the staff. For this feature the Gold edition of Perfect Layout gets three new options: "Tuplets->Flip Mixed Up-/Downstem Tuplets, if Necessary" (activated by default) "Tuplets->On Dynamics or Hairpins Always Shift Above the Staff" (deactivated by default) "Tuplets->Flatten Mixed Stem Tuplets" (activated by default). -PL Gold only: New option "Multi-measure Rests->Allow Hidden Expressions to Break Multi-Measure Rests". When activated hidden expression with the "Break Multi-measure Rest" attribute activated, will break multi-measure rests. This feature is deactivated by default. However, it's still possible to break multi-measure rests with visible expressions that use the "hidden" text style. This feature also works in PL Silver/Silver400. ;v3.0197 2024-04-11 Fixed: -In rare cases an error message could occur on backwards tied notes. Fixed now. -In rare cases an error message could occur when there were many hidden staff systems in a part. Improved: -In some cases improved measure layout per staff system in the linked parts -Improved placement of measure counting expressions on drum set/percussion staves even if the notes are far above the staff -Improved placement of measure counting expressions on collisions with repeat text (e.g. D.S. al Coda) -In some cases improved spacing between colliding chords -In some cases of improved placement of hairpins below cross staff notes on the bottom staff of two staff groups (e.g. piano) -Improved metrics of some tuplets that include whole notes -Clef changes at the end of a bar before an empty bar remain at that position and are not moved to before the bar where the notes start -In some cases improved direction of cue note stems -Faster processing of the plug-in on large files with more than 1000 measures -In some cases improved detection of (falsely) hidden accidentals through wrong "Tie End" flags -Improved handling of "Tie End" flags where the previous tied note is on a different layer -Improved handling of "Tie End" flags where the previous measure has a backward repeat or a slash/repeat/blank notation staff style New feature: -Removal of collisions of repeat texts with measure numbers at the start of a bar ;v3.0195 2024-04-04 Fixed: -When both "Odd" and "Even" pages were activated for page turn optimization, then the standard system optimization that spreads all systems equally over two pages didn't work. Now the user dialog works correctly: it's only possible to activate either "Odd" or "Even" for the page turn optimization. Improved: -The Finale undo/redo feature for a quick before/after Perfect Layout preview no longer messes up the bar widths anymore. A solution to a long-standing bug in the original Finale plug-in interface that seemed unsolvable by the Lua plug-in was discovered by accident. This Finale bug also affected some other Finale plug-ins, which will hopefully now receive a fix. -In some cases improved placement of hairpins in complex cross staff scenarios where the hairpin crosses some stems. -A few minor processing speed improvements -Improved connection of dynamics with expressive text expressions on long notes where the EDUs distance between the dynamics and the expressive text is more than 650 EDUs. -Collisions on wide repeat texts with notes or slurs from the previous measure are now fixed. -In some cases improved metrics on repeat texts in parts when the staff property "Items to Display: Ending and Text Repeats" is deactivated, but the repeat symbol is forced to show up. -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (Articulation and staff system problems) -In rare cases slightly improved measure layout/system optimization in the linked parts -Much faster startup process of the plug-in, especially on macOS and on large files with more than 1000 measures -Improved metrics and collision removal on enclosed expressions that includes tempo definitions with upstem notes -Gold only: When changing the measurement unit in Perfect Layout a minor rounding inconsistency (e.g. 799.99 instead of 800 EVPU) could occur on the two "Systems->Max. Distance Between Staff Systems" values. Fixed now. -PL Gold: Added three new options to the user dialog for the new "break lyrics alignment feature": "On Huge Vertical Leaps Create Two Separated Lyric Blocks per Staff System" "Min. Horizontal Distance Between Two Lyric Blocks": the default value 4096 EDUs (=4 beats). "Min. Vertical Distance": the default value is 67 EVPUs. In PL Silver/Silver400 the default values are used. New features: -RGP Lua 0.68+: When a new update is found, the plug-in will now list all the new features and improvements of the new version. (Note: RGP Lua 0.68+ is NOT supported yet by Perfect Layout. Because of the new Lua version 5.4 that it uses there are still some incompatibilities. It will be available in a later update.) ;v3.0193 2024-03-22 Improved: -In some cases lyrics improved handling of lyrics above the staff for optimization of staff distances -Improved handling of repeat symbol visibility, if repeat symbols are hidden in the staff properties of some staves -Improved detection of linked expressions in score/linked parts when the expression is horizontally aligned to start or end of measure and the measure position is set to a value not equal to 0. -Improved support for corrupted smartshapes (removed an error message that could occur in rare cases) -A few minor processing speed improvements -Improved detection of coda expressions at the start of the coda block -Corrected the lyrics distance value "Distance to Bottom Staff Line". In previous versions the "Distance to Lowest Note" value was added to this value. Now it's only the distance to the bottom staff line. Unless you use the default value (which is automatically adjusted with this update), make sure to update this distance value. The new default value is 36 EVPU. The old value was 14 EVPU (+ 22 EVPU from "Distance to Lowest Note" = 36 EVPU). New feature: -Perfect Layout will break lyrics alignment into two blocks per staff system, if there are two separated lyric phrases where one lyrics text is placed very far away from the bottom staff line and one very close. They must be at least separated by x EDUs, while the default value is 4096 EDUs (=one empty 4/4 bar). This is only activated if there is only one line of lyrics. ;v3.0191 2024-03-14 Fixed: -In very rare cases an error message could occur on MusicXML imported documents with certain expression properties. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.018) -macOS: in very rare cases an error message could occur on using "Bold Italic" fonts. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved collision detection of word extensions on lyrics staves if the word extension has a large offset at the end -Improved handling of documents with corrupted staves with negative staff IDs -Improved detection of dynamics above the staff with vertical alignment set to "Staff Reference Line" -In some cases improved horizontal placement of dynamics above lyrics staves -In some cases improved metrics of word extensions -In some cases improved placement of hairpins below word extensions and hyphens -Improved metrics on percussion staves on note clusters with unknown percussion maps -In some cases improved connection of hairpins with dynamics, if the staff has several hairpins below and above the staff. -Improved next staff detection in 3-staff groups when the inner staff is completely hidden -The "Maestroquartertones", "Accidental" and "Graphira" fonts are supported -In some cases improved tuplet number placement on tuplets with "Center number using duration" activated -Hidden slurs remain hidden even if "Reset Manual Slur Adjustments" is activated -In some cases improved metrics on some slurs with a system break, on flipped slurs with direction set to "Over" -Finale 26/27: in some cases improved metrics on slurs with articulations on the inner notes -Improved (non-)detection of rehearsal mark-like expressions that have huge horizontal or verticals offsets above 500 EVPU -In some cases improved staff distances on (empty) lyric staves if more lyric staves follow below -A few minor processing speed improvements ;v3.0189 2024-03-06 Fixed: -In rare cases an error message could occur on pedal articulations in combination with hidden staves. Fixed now. -In very rare cases an error message could occur on custom lines with a system break. Fixed now. -An error message could occur in a scenario with lyrics, rests and niente hairpins in the same measure. Fixed now. Improved: -Custom lines far away from the staff (left and right offset >500 EVPU) are ignored for staff spacing -Custom lines with an empty space symbol for as line character are ignored for spacing on the inner staves if they span at least three staves and thus the inner staves don't have any line or text symbol from this custom line. -In some cases improved spacing of tempo marks, if there are at least four text expression above the staff (one rehearsal mark, one tempo expression and two other expressions) -Improved detection of movement title page texts when they overlap with the staff system -A few minor processing speed improvements -Improved placement of smartshapes above the staff in some cases -Improved handling of very badly placed (corrupted?) hairpins where the start point is attached to the end of the measure and the end point is attached to a measure position beyond the duration of the measure. Still these hairpins are not handled perfectly, because the intended end point is unknown. -Improved staff/system distance slider values for extra space in vertical spacing when there is very much free space between the systems on less than 4 systems per page with a max. of 3 staves. -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (Region problems) New feature: -To avoid collisions of articulations with lyrics and to prevent the lyrics from being shifted too far away from the notes, two new options have been added for articulation placement on lyric staves (see Gould, Behind Bars, p.434) Articulations->Shift Articulations on All Lyric Notes Above Staff (deactivated by default) Articulations->Shift Articulations on Low Lyric Notes Above Staff (activated by default) This option moves all articulations that could interfere with lyrics to above the staff. On the "Low Note" option you can set max. distance below the staff that is stil ok before shifting the articulation to above the staff (default value 42 EVPU). In PL Silver/Silver400 the default setting is always used. ;v3.0187 2024-01-29 Fixed: -Improved movement title detection in page texts. In some cases, especially when combining fixed size fonts with non-fixed fonts the detection didn't work and could lead to movement title placement at the wrong position. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved detection of tuplet bracket collisions with ties -In rare cases improved vertical lyrics layout (when there are two verses at the beginning of a system and the system ends with only a third verse in the last measure) -In case of at least three layers with two rests and one note at the same measure position, there will be no consolidated rests on the middle of the staff anymore. Even if "Optimize Rests->Force Consolidated Rests" is activated. -In some cases improved detection of invisible lyrics (which leads to improved staff metrics and staff distances) -Improved handling of several l.v. tie articulations on chords -In some cases improved collision removal on expressive text on the same beat with dynamics that also collide with accidentals. -Improved decision of whether tuplet brackets are required for the case of notes where the duration was slightly changed manually (for playback purposes) and where the duration doesn't match its actual note length. Accetable is note duration deviation of 30 EDUs -Improved metrics of the bottom staff if the bottom staff has more than 96 EVPU of size (e.g. 6 strings or 5 tab lines with wider line spacing). -Two ending brackets (without repeat brackets) in adjacent measures don't overlap anymore, when the repeat bracket is missing in the first measure. -Improved metrics and collision detection on double flats and double sharps -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (Beat chart and measure width problems) -Small measure texts above the first measure that actually should be page texts are ignored in vertical system spacing (e.g. composer names) -Improved support for ffz, ffp, fsf and fffz dynamics -A few minor processing speed improvements -Two more preview images added -In some cases improved placement of dynamics in MusicXML documents -Resets the corrupt cross staff note entry flag if no cross staff notes are found -RGP Lua/Fin26+27: in some cases improvement placement of articulations on slur start and end notes -Improved metrics for fonts that have integrated enclosures (like EnclSans or RehearsalSans), if they are used for measure numbers or rehearsal marks. -Improved slur metrics if the start or end note has two articulations where one has the "inside slur" and the other one the "auto inside/outside" flag set, but still are both placed outside the slur. -Improved detection of percussion notation staves, if neither the staff name nor the instrument attribute includes any hints. Now the group name and the staff clef are also taken into account. This is relevant for some percussion specific notation features. -Improved width optimization of single empty bars. -On rhythmic notation where an accent is set below the staff (instead of above), then a dynamic on the same measure position will not be moved before that (very low) note anymore, because the accent will be moved on top (if that feature is activated). -Improved detection of tempo alteration expressions visually connected with dashed smartshape lines. -Slur to tie conversion now also takes place when both notes have the same pitch, but one has the enharmonic flip bit set to "not flip". -JW Lua: Added a new warning message to check if 'Document Options->Accidentals->Use cross-layer accidental positioning' is activated if the horizontal alignment of multiple accidentals feature is activated. This mainly affects very old Finale documents from the 90s, as the cross-layer feature is activated by default in all new Finale templates. -RGP Lua: If the plug-in is run on a selected region only (and not the full document) and 'Document Options->Accidentals->Use cross-layer accidental positioning' is not activated, then the 'Alignment->Alignment of Multiple Horizontal Accidentals' feature is now deactivated. Otherwise it would be possible that duplicate accidentals on multi-layer unisons pop up. This mainly affects very old Finale documents from the 90s, as the cross-layer feature is activated by default in all new Finale templates. -RGP Lua: If Perfect Layout activates Finale's 'Document Options->Accidentals->Use cross-layer accidental positioning' on old documents, then Perfect Layout will remove all accidental duplicates that are generated on multi-layer unisons that only have one accidental to keep the original accidental look of the old document. -Piu, subito and sempre text expressions are not shifted before a dynamic anymore, if the dynamic is connected to a hairpin on the left -RGP Lua only: If "Use Cross-Layer Accidental Positioning" is not activated, Perfect Layout will now keep the congruent position of identical accidentals on multi-layer unisons. -The "Document Options->Music Spacing->Maximum Measure Width" is not reset to 1800 or 2000 EVPU anymore, if it was set to a value above 1800 EVPU before running Perfect Layout. -Improved detection of hidden measure numbers when "Clear Individual Measure Number Positions and Visibility" is deactivated -In some cases improved placement on dynamics on very low notes (if followed by expressive text expressions) -Improved handling of (misused) slurs as laisser vibrer ties or articulations -Improved recognition of text elements on the first page that are actually invisible (far outside the page) -Improved metrics of enclosed rehearsal marks with thick lines -Improved collision detection for hairpins (far) above the staff on upstem notes -Improved detection of rehearsal mark expressions in case of combined rehearsal mark plus tempo mark text expressions. -Improved handling of jazzy "Fall" articulations -Improved handling of colliding copyright page text at the bottom of the first page when "Expand Horizontally" is deactivated for that text block -In some cases improved tuplet metrics New feature: -Tuplet collisions with accidentals are now detected and fixed ;v3.0185 2023-12-13 Fixed: -When running the plug-in on the last page of a multi-page part an error could occur caused by the page turn optimization feature. Fixed now. Improved: -In Finale 27.4 the option "Alignment->Alignment of Measure Numbers->Move Left-Aligned Measure Numbers onto Barline" is now deactivated by default as this is a new built-in feature of Finale 27.4. When Perfect Layout supports RGP Lua 0.69+, it will read the Finale option and activate the value again when it's deactivated in Finale. -In some cases improved tuplet metrics on tuplets that end at the barline and which have the "Bracket Full Duration" option activated. -Improved PDF manual -The log file now includes the version number of the plug-in. ;v3.0183 2023-10-28 Fixed: -On cue note sections that include clef changes and transposed instruments, the key signature will not change to the score key signature during these empty bars (in the score) anymore. The original transposed instrument key signature will remain visible during these empty bars in the score. -If there were two chord symbols in one measure at the identical measure position, an error message could occur. Fixed now. However, stacking of chord symbols is not supported in Perfect Layout. If you need two chord symbols on top of each other, please do it manually. -When the "Deactivate All Settings" preset is loaded, then the measure number alignment will now be saved correctly as "Keep Current Position" (and not as "Automatic Detection" anymore). Improved: -Improved vertical staff distances on two-staff groups (e.g. piano) when a dynamic is placed at least -185 EVPU below the top staff on a cross staff note. -If "Alignment->Place Rehearsal Marks at Start of System" is set to "Keep Current Position", then the rehearsal marks will stay at their position even if they get horizontally very close to measure numbers. -Improved dialog: when run on parts only, the option "Alignment->Place Measure Number at Start of System" is disabled in the dialog. -Improved font name and font file detection: scanning the font files now takes a slightly longer, but detects more different (sub-)font names. -Windows only: new software certificate -In some case improved alignment of rehearsal marks with tempo marks when the alignment option "Per System (On the Line of Best Fit)" (Don't Skip Rehearsal Marks) is selected and some other tempo marks on that system absolutely don't fit on that line. -Improved detection of multi-word "molto" expressive texts below hairpins (e.g. "molto cresc.") -On cue note sections that include empty bars and clef changes in the score, the unnecessary clefs in the empty bars are now also hidden by default. -Hairpins with a width of 1 EVPU or less are not taken into account for measure widening anymore, as they probably are not used as standard hairpins. -Gold only: The option "Alignment->Measure Numbers->Move Left-Aligned Measure Numbers onto Barline" can now be deactivated. By default (and it Silver) the option is still activated. -In some cases improved vertical alignment of repeat brackets -Windows only: Support of non-850 ANSI Code Pages for the activation of the plug-in (e.g. Taiwan Windows). New features: -Dashed or solid lines that are visually connected to expressions can now be aligned horizontally with them (but not vertically!). The horizontal distance can be set with the new option "Align Expressions with SmartShape Lines Horizontally. Distance: x EVPU". In PL Gold this option is on the "SmartShapes" tab, in PL Silver it's on "Alignment". -Gold only: New option "Repeats->Hook Heights". With this option you can select whether the hooks of repeat endings will remain their height when shifted upwards or whether they should be extended. By default "Auto-Detect" is selected which automatically analyzes the hooks of the first three repeat endings. In PL Silver the auto-detection is always used. ;v3.0181 2023-10-26 Fixed: -RGP Lua only: In very rare cases the pickup measure duration was reset to 0 as RGP Lua falsely reported invisible rests on beat 1 as visible although they were actually hidden because of the pickup measure setting. In JW Lua this problem didn't occur. Fixed now. -In rare cases an error message could occur on dynamics/hairpin connections. Fixed now. ;v3.0179 2023-10-24 Fixed: -The "ES Perfect Layout - Apply to Parts Only" plug-in could throw an error message in the Ialian and Japanese version of Finale. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.0177) Improved: -Improved DOS code page error message -Imprved placement of dynamics on two-staff groups (e.g. piano) with cross staff notes that have a default placement above (!) the staff, but which are placed below the staff. -Improved detection of duplicate identical expressions on the top staff when one expression is assigned both to score and part, and one expression to score only. -In some cases improved hairpin/dynamics connection -Improved detection of tempo mark expressions with notes made of grace note symbols -Italian Finale version only: support for plug-in detection. Needed for the "ES Perfect Layout - Apply to Parts Only" plug-in and for accessing other plug-ins. -In some cases improved vertical distance between two-staff groups (e.g. piano) in scores that also include other instruments. ;v3.0177 2023-09-30 Fixed: -Silver only: The "Repeats..." text in the user dialog appeared on the wrong tab. Fixed now. -On corrupt documents with invisible custom smart lines in rare cases an error message could occur when the invisible smart line ended in a deleted measure beyond the current last measure. Fixed now. Improved: -If an extracted part includes fretboards, then "Chords->Set Chord Alignment to 'Left'" feature is not activated by default anymore. -During the beta phase the beta download is now correctly preselected when calling the download dialog from within the plug-in. -On collisions of right-aligned coda symbols with measure numbers above the barline from the next measure, the coda symbol is moved before the measure number. -Improved horizontal alignment of dynamics followed by a technique/expressive text expressions when the technique/expressive text expressions starts at the exact horizontal position as the dynamics. It's not necessary anymore to be place them slightly to the right. -Windows: Improved DOS code page error message on the "Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support" option. It will now appear less often (only when code page 65001 is selected). -Some minor improvements in the user dialog -Japanese Finale version only: support for plug-in detection. Needed for the "ES Perfect Layout - Apply to Parts Only" plug-in and for accessing other plug-ins. -Japanese Finale version only: support for Japanese expression category names New feature: -Two technique text expressions from the same category and with the same text style that are placed above the staff and at the same measure position are now correctly aligned on top of each other, if they were colliding. If they were already separated, then the top expression will remain on top. If they were overlapping, then the expression with the smaller expression ID will be put on top. This feature will only be activated if there are no chords in that measure. ;v3.0175 2023-09-24 Improved: -Made compatible with the latest PHP version -Updated Elbsound.studio forum to the latest release -Added more preview images to the Gold version -Improved metrics calculation on unicode characters from the "nonspacing mark" category (https://www.compart.com/en/unicode/category/Mn) -RGP Lua only: Improved support for fractional time signatures like 16.25/4 ;v3.0173 2023-09-11 Fixed: -Under the contradictory situation that a linked part didn't have multi-measure rests yet, but multi-measure rest creation was activated in PL, while at the same time "Only With Systems" was activated in the Finale "Measure Reflow" settings, an error message could occur under certain multi-measure rest scenarios. Fixed now. -The "Double Barline Preceding Key Changes" feature in Finale is not activated anymore when an invisible key signature change on a percussion staff is detected. -In some cases the distances between empty and used single line tablature staves could be slightly different (e.g. in guitar tabs). Fixed now. Improved: -Added more preview images to the Silver version -Added an error message when the default DOS code page is set to a value other than 850. This typically occurs when the Windows Beta option 'Beta: Use Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support' is activated in the Windows "Region Settings" dialog. It's a known Windows issue that this option doesn't support old DOS commands like the ones Perfect Layout requires. -Improved detection of invisible key signature changes -A score consisting only of one staff plus its tablature staves is now detected as a part, and not as a score anymore. -Updated the macOS installer builder to work with notarytool instead of altool New feature: -Added collision detection for tablature staves with stems and beams over/under the staff. In previous versions the stems and beams were ignored. ;v3.0171 2023-09-05 Improved: -Improved PDF manual -Windows/RGP Lua: The self-update feature has been improved. Self-update sometimes did not work on slow computers. -Added one more other error message for self-update problems -Improved Spanish translation -Windows: Improved stability and more error messages for the activation process when (probably) the antivirus system blocks the activation -Some improvements to the new "vertical alignment of ending repeat brackets" feature -Added some preview images ;v3.0169 2023-08-18 Improved: -Improved Spanish translation -Windows: Improved antivirus resistency during the activation process. There should be less false antivirus alerts now (especially with BitDefender Total Security). -Improved detection of copyright page texts below first page/first systems when the same copyright text also appears on a text only page before. This leads to improved system margins on that page. -When the "Use Thin Inner Barline" is selected in the repeat prefences and the repeat bracket spans multiple measures, then in some cases the width of the repeat bracket is improved -Improved violin clef metrics when the previous staff system ends with a double or final barline. -When "Optimize Slur Settings" was deactivated, then "Optimize Slur Systen Break Settings" was still activated on the next plug-in start. Fixed now. -Improved support for bars with only one centered note (as often in old scores from the 19th century) -In rare cases improved placement of tempo/rehearsal marks on slur collisions with the previous measure. -One more "Black Popup Window" on Windows removed -Improved section dection and improved measure layout: in more cases shifting of a measure that starts with repeat bracket to the start of a system, and a measure that ends with a repeat bracket to the end of a system. It depends on the amount of free horizontal space and only occurs if only one measure is shifted to the previous or next system. -In some cases improved staff distances on piano notation in case of hairpins with expressive text below. -In some cases improved measure width on wide tempo/rehearsal marks above the staff that go past the barline when the next bar starts with an expressive text expression on beat 1 -Improved processing speed for searching dynamic expressions in a given region -Improved connection of dynamics with hairpins where the dynamic has a large horizontal offset (compared to the attached beat position), but it is visually attached to the hairpin in the score -Manual break offsets on slurs that span multiple systems and that at least have two bars in between on the second system are not removed anymore -Improved calculation of estimated new measure widths and horizontal stretching for checking if shifting a measure to the previous/next system makes sense -Improved placement of technique expressions that go beyond the right margin of the system -In some cases improved measure reflow on tempo/rehearsalmark collisions -Improved compatiblity between the measure reflow options "Maintain System Locks" and "Remove System Locks" when a part has no locked systems -Support for detecting and eliminating collisions of repeat texts with multi-measure rest numbers in SMuFL documents -The "Freeze Stem" not flag is not deleted anymore on a certain cross staff notation scenario. -In some cases improved placement of rehearsal mark letters after an ending bracket instead of above -Cue texts on highpitched stem-up notes above the staff don't collide anymore with the note New feature: -Vertical alignment of first and second ending brackets is finally available in Perfect Layout. You will find this new feature under "Groups/Repeats->Repeats->Align Ending Repeat Brackets Vertically". With the first release of this feature all notation elements will be put under the ending bracket, except tempo and rehearsal mark expressions. Current Limitations: The feature currently only works in scores with just one repeat bracket per measure (e.g. not one bracket above the score and one bracket somewhere in the middle of the staves). Also the property "Allow Individual Edits per Staff" must be deactivated for the repeat element. However, ending brackets in linked parts are already supported. At the moment the feature has six options: 1. "Align Ending Repeat Brackets Vertically": (de-)activates the feature 2. "Reset Ending Brackets to Default Height": If deactivated and a bracket was manually set to a high offset, it will remain there. I.e. it will only be shifted upwards on collisions, but never shifted downwards. If activated, the plug-in will always first reset the brackets to the default distances and increase the distance on collisions. 3. Gold only: "Additionally Reduce Default Height On 1-Line Staves": on 1-line staves the height of the ending repeat can be reduced which usually looks better (default reduction: 20 EVPU) 4. Gold only: "Reset Ending Text Position": if activated, the ending text position will first be reset to the default position and shifted upwards in case of collisions. Deactivated by default and in Silver. 5. Gold only: "Vertically Align All Adjacent Ending Brackets": by default it aligns all adjacent brackets on a staff system vertically. If deactivated, each ending bracket will get its individual height. 6. "Vertical Distance on Collisions": the distance of the bracket/ending text to the next notation element (20 EVPU by default) -Gold only: New option "Reset/Hide->Reset Note Offset to 0 even for Bars with Only one Note" (deactivated by default). If there is only one note in a bar that lasts for the whole measure duration, it is common in older notation to have these notes centered in the middle of the bar. By default Perfect Layout now keeps these notes centered unless they have a shorter duration than the measure duration. In Silver this feature is always deactivated which means that shifted single notes that last for the full measure or longer always keep their current offset. ;v3.0167 2023-08-09 Fixed: -In corrupt documents (invalid staff IDs with values above 15000) in rare cases tempo/rehearsal expressions with a staff list would be hidden in parts. Fixed now. Improved: -In some cases improved slur metrics on system breaks and with custom slur offsets. Typically this is not relevant with the default settings of Perfect Layout, but only when "Reset/Hide->Reset Manual Slur Adjustments" is deactivated or on special slurs where custom offsets are not automatically reset (e.g. slurs across staves). -Minor processing speed improvements ;v3.0165 2023-08-03 Fixed: -Windows/RGP Lua only: In some cases the auto-update didn't install and a second message that an update available appeared. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved detection of automatic above/below staff placement of dynamics in some cases -Improved PDF manual -In some cases improved hairpin start on two staff groups (e.g. piano) -Improved shifting to beat 1 of a horizontally misplaced dynamics on a full measure duration chord in the last measure -In 3-staff groups (e.g. organ) improved assignment of dynamics to the correct staff (below top staff instead of above middle staff) -Improved recognition of lyrics syllables when the font changes to a font with spaces in the font name within the same verse ;v3.0163 2023-07-25 -More improved collision eliminations in some cases of two note chords with two accidentals ;v3.0161 2023-07-22 Improved: -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (Staff system problems) -Fingering articulations remain at their position in multi-layer scenarios where some articulations are on the wrong side -Improved collision elimination in some cases of two note chords with two accidentals ;v3.0159 2023-07-18 Improved: -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (Staff system problems with staves with ID -1) -If there is a "Begin a new staff system" flag in measure 1 only, it won't trigger the warning message to remove all "Begin a new staff system" entries any more. -In some cases improved metrics and collision detection when custom lines are used for glissandi. However, it's recommended to use the Glissando or Tab Slide tool instead which attaches the glissando to noteheads (instead of beats). ;v3.0157 2023-07-12 Improved: -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (More glissando connections, lyrics baselines and a few more) -Improved translations and user dialog -Improved auto-detection for the "Systems->Adjust Top System Margin to Max. Position of Top Staff in Parts" option on page text elements that use the "Position from: Page Edge" setting. New feature: -New sub-option "Keep Duplicate Circle Symbols from String Harmonics" in the "Reset/Hide->Remove Duplicate Articulations" section. If there are multiple string harmonic articulations, then they are kept by default. In PL Gold this feature can now be deactivated/activated. In PL Silver it is always activated. ;v3.0155 2023-06-28 Improved: -In some cases improved placement of tuplets in linked parts (if they had certain different settings between score and parts, and the default settings were set to "Always Flat") -macOS: The "System Events" problem detection is now more tolerant against macOS system library problems that shouldn't affect Perfet Layout. -Improved individual handling of dynamics below very low notes, if the score and the linked part have different "Display in Concert Pitch" settings -Improved detection if respacing is required in the case of only one chord per measure -Improved respacing in the case of measure stacks that only include hidden notes -In some cases improved placement of text repeats in linked parts when the measure width changes -In some cases improved placement of dynamics and hairpins on very low notes -Improved detection of "best layer" for optimized layer assignment of dynamics in multi-layer scenarios with linked parts that only show selected layers ;v3.0153 2023-06-06 Fixed: -Chord placement on grouped staves where the chords are visible above the top staff, but assigned to the bottom staff could throw an error message if the chord alignment features are deactivated. Fixed now. Improved: -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (glissando connections, accidental distances, loading pages and a few more) -Improved translations -In some cases improved placement of dynamics that were assigned to rests before a new phrase starts in two-staff notation in the bottom staff (e.g. piano). -In some cases improved bottom page text collision detection with the page margin on the first page -Invalid hairpins where the start and/or end measure don't fit the measure of the SmartShapeMeasureMark are now deleted (and not made visible anymore). A warning message is issued. -RGP Lua only: The processing speed was improved on huge orchestra scores (>500 measures with many staves) by using the "Change to Default/Whole Rests" plug-in instead of using a Lua function. It is required for detecting all clef changes. -Improved detection of instrument changes and key signature changes when one instrument uses a percussion notation and the other one doesn't -In some cases improved measure number placement when there differrent placements between the score and linked parts -Improved handling of invalid/corrupt text expressions -Slightly improved metrics on the measure number ranges below multi-measure rests New feature: -Invalid staves (ID:-1) are now detected and removed. ;v3.0151 2023-05-28 Fixed: -RGP Lua: in some cases the tie placement and contour settings were not set to the default values. Fixed now. Improved: -Corrected accidental symbols in the font engine for the latest versions of the fonts November2 and Sebastian (SMuFL) -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (FCBeatChart.ReferenceWidth, FCSmartShapeSegment:SetEndpointOffsetX, FCExpression:SetHorizontalPos, FCExpression:SetVerticalPos, FCTextRepeat.HorizontalPos) -Improved support for niente symbols from text fonts that end with a dot ("n.") -macOS: better error codes when entering the wrong or no password during the auto-update feature -When multiple layers are used, then in some cases improved placement of articulations on articulations with slur/tie collisions -Improved translations New feature: -Gold only: New suboption "MMRests->Allow Reflow Across Pages". When automatic measure reflow on multi-measure rest (re-)creation is activated, this new option let's you decide whether the measures will reflow across pages when "Finale->Preferences->Edit->Reflow Across Pages" is deactivated. In previous versions this was always activated. It's still activated by default and in the Silver edition. -RGP Lua/Finale 27 only: When most of the "Smart Shape Placement" settings are still set to 0,0, Perfect Layout initializes the slur placement settings with Finale's default settings. However, for whatever reason this does not work with very old files created with Finale v1.x or v2.x. ;v3.0149 2023-05-26 -In some cases of tuplets on note clusters improved tuplet metrics -Better support collisions of percussion notes that are not found in the percussion layout. However, it's recommended to always have the used percussion notes included in the percussion layout. -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (Angle calculation, HorizontalPos limit) -Less log messages when several duplicate identical expressions are found on the same beat ;v3.0147 2023-05-22 Improved: -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (FCSystemStaves with no staves, tonumber() with numbers, support for negative chord suffix IDs, FCPage:GetFirstSystem) -Wide text expressions on beat 1 that collide with a rehearsal mark in the next measure now also widen the measure if their expression category name is user-defined, but the expression definition is set to break multi-measure rests. -Slightly improved processing speed -Improved metrics on inverted backwards oriented slurs -Improved automatic adjustment of the "Adjust Top System Margin to Max. Position of Top Staff in Parts" feature -RGP Lua: Automatic activation of the "Layer/Cues->his document uses linked parts with "Specify Voicing"..." feature if necessary -Improved vertical spacing of systems in linked parts: if optimized page turns leads to only few systems per (<=6), then they are less often spread to the bottom of the page. (In previous versions it was set to <=5) -Improved detection of rehearsal mark with repeat bracket collisions on the top staff when "Ending & Text Repeats" is deactivated in the staff attributes dialog, but the repeat bracket is set to "Top Staff" only -Improved collision elimination on rehearsal marks with repeat brackets -The default value of previous systems to search in for good page turns is now "2" (was: 4). New feature: -Invalid negative chord suffix IDs are repaired (reset to 0). ;v3.0145 2023-05-11 Fixed: -Windows only: some rare cases the automatic self-update didn't install the update, but confirmed that it was correctly installed and would ask again for the update installation on the next run. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Windows/RGP Lua only: more prevew images included in the installer ;v3.0143 2023-05-09 Improved: -Improved placement of dynamics on slash notation staff styles in empty measures that include only quarter rests (instead of no rests or a whole rest) -Improved rest optimization under slash notation staff styles with measure counting expressions -Coda expressions that are set to align with the "Horizontal Click Position" and which have a huge offset (>30 EVPU) are not reset to 0 EVPU anymore as it is unclear where are to be placed exactly. -Improved detection of coda symbols in expressions for shifting down coda systems -RGP Lua: Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67/Lua 5.4 (FCBeatChartElement:SetWidth requires EVPU16 value) -Improved PDF manual -Improved page turn optimization when empty bars are found at the end of the first system on the next page, but not in the previous systems New feature: -New option: "Systems->Distribute Single Staff Systems Evenly Over Last Two Pages if at Least (5) Systems on Last Page". When activated (by default), this feature distributes all systems on the last two pages evenly. When deactivated, it's possible that the last page only has very few systems which only fill the top part the page. ;v3.0141 2023-05-07 Fixed: -RGP Lua only: In documents with linked parts that use the "Specify Voicing" setting in some cases an irrelevant debug message is shown during the startup phase of the plug-in (Bug introduced in v3.0139) Improved: -Improved translations ;v3.0139 2023-05-04 Fixed: -When only partial systems on a page in a linked part were selected, in some cases their bottom margins would be decreased. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -RGP Lua only: on a staff that is included with the "Specify Voicing" option in linked parts the feature "Layer/Cues->Remove Unnecessary Use of Layers 2-4, if possible" is not executed anymore -Improved vertical spacing of systems in linked parts: huge vertical gaps are now removed automatically. -Improved vertical spacing of systems in linked parts: if optimized page turns leads to only few systems per (<=5), then they are less often spread to the bottom of the page. Now the bottom of page is now usually left free. -Added "Lelandia" fonts family to the list of known music fonts -Improved detection of page texts if only some measures were selected or when running the plug-in on parts only ;v3.0137 2023-04-25 Fixed: -In rare cases an error could occur because of system reflow across pages (Bug introduced in v3.0135) Improved: -Very long rest symbols (8192, 16384, 32768 EDUs) are not converted to whole rests anymore if there is only one of this rest in a measure. -Very large copyright texts (e.g. on medleys) are now also detected correctly for the automatic adjustment of the bottom margin of the first page. ;v3.0135 2023-04-13 Fixed: -On smartshapes that span at least three systems and two pages in some cases a rehearsal mark/tempo mark/tempo alteration expression could be placed at the wrong vertical position. Fixed now. -When clicking on "Load->Last Saved Settings" the measure number alignment setting and the rehearsal mark aligment setting sometimes selected the wrong algorithm. However, this didn't occur with the last saved settings that are automatically loaded when starting the plug-in: in this default case the plug-in always selected the correct algorithm. Fixed now. Improved: -Perfect Layout's check and warning message if "Display in Concert Pitch" is activated now works again in Finale 26 and 27. In Finale 25 it only works correctly in the default "RGP Lua" engine (in JW Lua it's deactivated in Finale 25). It also works correct (and has always been) in Finale 2014/2014.5. -When a half rest is used in a 2/4 measure (instead of a whole rest), it is automatically converted to a whole rest. If the half rest was also shifted to the right, its position will be reset as whole rests are automatically placed in the center of the bar. -All four system divider symbols from SMuFL fonts are now detected correctly (0xE007 - 0xE00A). -Improved placement of system dividers (slightly higher) -Improved vertical system/staff spacing in parts -Improved installer stability for finding the node.js files -Improved detection of font files with style names (bold, italic, etc.) on non-English Windows/macOS -Improved page turn optimization algorithm (very wide measures on the next page are avoided as they probably can't be shifted to the previous system) -Predefined arpeggio symbols are now supported in horizontal alignment if they don't have the "Copy Main Symbol" articulation property activated -Improved default value for "Systems->Max. Distance Between Staff Systems (Parts)": 280 EVPU (instead of 300 EVPU). -Added one more scenario for vertical dynamics alignment on the baseline New feature: -New expression tag "USEENCLOSURE": if an expression has an opaque enclosure without a visible border, then this tag will force Perfect Layout to use the margins of the opaque enclosure as the metrics for collisions. Without that tag it would use the metrics of the text symbols even if the opaque background is slightly bigger than the text. ;v3.0133 2023-04-11 Fixed: -Fixed dialog in the Silver version: the options "Systems->Max. Distance Between Staff Systems" were overlapping.(Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Support for the expression category names in the new French edition of Finale 27.3 -Improved detection of font files on non-English Windows/macOS, especially for the French edition of Finale 27.3/Windows 11. -Improved PDF manual ;v3.0131 2023-04-04 Fixed: -In a rare combination of much free space on the first page, a strong system reduction, several hidden staves and activated system reflow across pages, it was possible that a system moved to the first which messed up some metrics on the following pages. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -In one case the option "Express.->Max. Vertical Snap Distance" was grayed out though it had to be enabled. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Windows: Some improvements on font file detection -Improved detection of movement names on first page -Improved PDF manual -Added more help for rare installation problems to the FAQ -In some cases improved vertical system layout at the top of the page in parts -Cue notes on slash/rhythmic and repeat notation are not taken into account anymore for automatic detection of cue note layers and removal of cue notes in the score -"Express.->Vertical Offset to Closest Symbol" is not cut off at 50 EVPU anymore. The new max. value is 300 EVPU. -Improved placement of rehearsal letters over fixed size measure numbers on individually resized staves -In some cases improved placement of measure numbers at system start -Improved auto-detection for the best setting of "Adjust Top System Margin to Max. Position of Top Staff in Parts" option. When "Reflow systems across pages" is activated and the staff systems don't have a huge top margin (<=110 EVPU), it's not deactivated automatically anymore. Make sure to put your top page texts above the top page margin before running Perfect Layout to avoid collisions with systems. -Gold (only:) The "Slur/Tie/Gliss" tab has been renamed to "SmartShapes" -Added more fonts to the list of known music fonts (Bravaccidental, Engraver Time C) New feature: -Gold (only): The distance of smartshapes above the staff (i.e. trills, ottava lines) can now be set on the new "SmartShapes" tab. Three distances are available: distance to top staff line (default: 25 EVPU), distance to top staff line on 1-line staves (58 EVPU), distance to top note symbol (23 EVPU). These settings were already used in previous versions, but were not adjustable. -New expression tags "DONOTRAISE" and "DONOTLOWER" for text only expressions that are affected by the "Snap Text Expressions to Symbols" feature. This feature prevents a placement too close to the staff while at the same it allows movement away from the staff in case of collisions. If the description text of the expression includes any of these tags, the expression will not be moved closer to the staff than the default settings of the expression allow. I.e. the expression is "stopped" at its baseline. "DONOTLOWER" is for expressions above the staff, "DONOTRAISE" for expressions below the staff. ;v3.0129 2023-03-18 Improved: -Improved PDF manual -Minor improvement in processing speed -Set the minimum version number for RGP Lua to v0.66. Make sure to not have any older versions of RGP Lua in any other Finale plug-in folder. -Improved measure number alignment at system start for the "Above/Below Clef" options -On detected movement names as page texts, PL now automatically sets the "Begin a New Staff System" attribute, so that the the start measure of the new movement always remains at the beginning of the measure, even if "Reflow Measures Across Systems" is activated. -Improved measure layout optimization if the document includes several movements separated by page texts -macOS: Added more error messages -macOS Installer: Improved stability -Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.67: some improvements on mathematical functions -In some cases improved vertical system distances in linked parts (especially on the Tight Spacing option) New Feature: -New options: "Centered above Clef, Center Justified, Above Staff" and "...Below Staff" are two new options on "Alignment->Measure Number Alignment at System Start" -New option: "Systems->Max. Distance Between Staff Systems (Parts)". The max. distance between staff systems can now be set for score and parts separately. By default this is handled automatically. So you have to activate each option manually. The score uses a default of 800 EVPU, loose spacing 300 EVPU and tight spacing 200 EVPU. ;v3.0127 2023-03-13 Improved: -The Perfect Layout installer now includes RGP Lua v0.66 -Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.66: no more dialog pop-up at the end of the processing when using Perfect Layout in batch processing -Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.66: Updated the "Apply to Parts Only" plug-in to work with the "return value" feature of RGP Lua. -Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.66: Music spacing now also works in the redesigned beat chart spacing behaviour of RGP Lua v0.66 -Making PL compatible with RGP Lua v0.66: In rare cases an error message came up in PL's "Time Signature Width" function which didn't occur in previous versions. Fixed now. -Probably less false positive antivirus alerts by having even more tools directly included in a single RGP Lua file -Added more fonts to the list of known music fonts -Windows: Improved installer stability for installations in Finale 2014 and 2014.5 -macOS: Improved installer for updating the RGP Lua version -macOS: Improved installer when changing the installation folder -Improved music spacing with lyrics over hidden notes and multiple layers with repositioned notes -The "Apply to Parts Only" plug-in now displays the current RGP/JW-Lua version number in the title to make it easier to track version-related issues -A user reported that after the "Apply to Parts Only" the user dialog wasn't visible anymore because the JALAYOUx.ini file included "nil" instead of "false" values values for the bypassing of the user dialog. This could not be reproduced, but we have added a fix that prevents a nil value. However, if you force-quit the "Apply to Parts Only" plug-in durig the processig, it is possible that the user dialog is suppressed next time. In this case follow the solution in the FAQ on how to reveal the suppressed user dialog ( https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/faq.php#go-to-other37 ). New: -Support for corrupt staff systems where the first measure of the staff system is set to 0. This probably comes from very old versions like Finale 3.5. Perfect Layout will reapply a page update which fixes this issue. ;v3.0125 2023-03-09 Improved: -Improved music spacing with lyrics over hidden notes and multiple layers with repositioned notes -Improved log files for the Node.js installer -Windows/Finale 25-27: Less black and blue popup Windows in the "Apply to Parts Only" plug-in -Windows: improved installer stability ;v3.0123 2023-03-01 Fixed: -Under certain circumstances the "Two Activation" license had problems when one computer had a IPv4 address and the other one an IPv6 address. Fixed now. -If no staffsystem is visible in the score at all (i.e. Finale is used for non-music things), then an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -If the activation of the plug-in has failed, then in very rare cases an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Windows/Finale 25-27: Less black and blue popup Windows. -Improved music spacing on lyrics over hidden notes -Improved closer vertical staff spacing if lyrics below staff are also intended for the staff below. The lyrics spacing follows the values for piano two-staff groups (default distance 280 EVPU). -In some cases of multi-layer bars with slurs improved vertical placement of lyrics -Improved detection of page text elements that mark new movement starts ;v3.0121 2023-02-23 Fixed: -Fixed a bug in the PL font symbol database. (Bug introduced in v3.0097) -When measure numbers centered in each measure below the bottom staff had a collision and needed to be shifted down, an error message could occur if some staffsystems were totally invisible. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Detection of notehead modifications if only the enharmonic flip flag was set -In some cases slightly improved placement of tremolo articulations on whole notes -Some minor processing speed improvements -Updated PDF manual -More preview images -No more layer optimization when a note has a smartshape and a freeze stem -Slightly improved slur metrics in some cases of slurs with no ending note -Improved horizontal placement of dynamics on stemless staff styles. Note: Stemless staff styles can lead to a number of metric problems. If possible, avoid them. -Chord symbols will now be placed below centered measure numbers above the staff. Make sure to give enough vertical space below the measure numbers above the staff as they won't be shifted upwards automatically in case of collisions with chord symbols. -Multi-measure rests are not created automatically anymore on aleatoric measures: these are detected if "Display Rests in Empty Measures" is activated on the staff, but deactivated on the current staff style. ;v3.0119 2023-02-21 Fixed: -Gold only: When "Load Last Saved Settings" was clicked, not all parameters were loaded. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.0117) Improved: -Improved "Shift Expressions From Above to Before Note if High Vertical Offset" feature if there are only rests before the expression, but also other expressions at the beginning of the measure. -Improved collision detection on expressions with the left barline -Improved text font file detection on font names with LT/MT Std, "Roman" in the file name and/or where the Finale font name is written with blank spaces and the internal OS font name is written without blank spaces. -In some cases improved measure number placement in extracted and linked parts -In some cases improved placement of articulations above ties, if the articulation has a large area below the baseline. -Improved tie metrics on downstemmed bottom notes ;v3.0117 2023-02-15 Fixed: -Under rare circumstances a crash could occur when the document used a clef font that was not installed on the system. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.0115) Improved: -Updated PDF manual -The page bottom margin on the first page is also adjusted when the page text at bottom (e.g. copyright) is accentidentally assigned to the page top with a very low offset and also appears on other pages. -Added more fonts to the list of known music fonts -Support for the Concerto, CapoScore and cap1800 SMuFl fonts -When SmartShapes with line style "Character" are used in the score (e.g. trill extension), PL now makes sure that the SmartShape is not shortened so that it becomes invisible: at least a "one character width" is now achieved. -Fermata expressions near rests (<120 EDU) are now also recognized for rest optimization. Especially in very old Finale documents where expressions didn't snap to notes, the fermata expressions were not correctly detected. However, usually it is recommended to use fermata articulations above notes and rests. Fermata expressions, for example, should be used above barlines or if unrelated to notes. -Improved detetion of groups where the curved group bracket is missing -If an unknown SMuFl is was used where the niente symbol (0xe541) is missing, then PL doesn't show an error message anymore. -Improved handling of barline collisions with technique text expressions New feature: -Text expressions that collide slightly with the left barline are moved to the right (like already on right barline collisions to the left) -New option "Shift Expressions From Above to Before Note if High Vertical Offset": Short standard technique text expressions like pizz., arco, div., a2, etc. on very high notes are now put close to the staff before the note if there are only rests before that note and if the expression otherwise would have a very high offset. ;v3.0115 2023-02-11 Fixed: -In the rare case of an (unreadable) measure number directly on the 5 staff lines an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Updated PDF manual (mainly the "Quickstart: How to Use"-section) -Measure numbers are now also corrected on clef collisions at system start if the standard clefs (violin, bass, alto) are not on their vertical default position. -Windows/RGP Lua: more changes to the internet access function to remove even more false positive antivirus alerts ;v3.0113 2023-01-30 Fixed: -Windows only: In some cases the "Submit License Key" on the activation dialoge wasn't enabled by default, but only after clicking in the license key field. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Windows/RGP Lua: Removed a few black popup windows -Windows/RGP Lua: changed the internet access function to (hopefully) be more resistent against false positive antivirus alerts -If a Finale document was exchanged between macOS and Windows which had different MacSymbolFonts.txt settings and used symbols from a legacy "MacSymbol Font" from the slots 0x0152 to 0x2200, then the metrics calculation was incorrect in some cases. Now the plug-in checks if the corresponding MacSymbolFont symbol is available and, if so, uses the correct metrics from that symbol. This affected, for example, enclosure symbols from the SwingText font. To be detected correctly the Perfect Layout font annotation format (.f2n) was updated, so, if necessary, all .f2n files will be automatically be recreated by PL. The Finale font annotation files (.fan) are not affected. -On large jazz style clefs improved detection if the measure numbers fit to the left of the clef or need to be put above -In some cases improved vertical alignment of several dynamics in parts where the second hairpin is also followed by a very low hairpin. In much more cases these two dynamics are not vertically aligned anymore. -Improved placmenet of staff systems in parts: in very rare cases the top staff system was partially placed above the top page margin and thus could collide with a page number, if page turn optimization was activated -If two dynamics on adjacent measure positions are followed by an expressive text (like cresc.), then in some cases the expressive text now aligns better with the second dynamics New feature: -Automatic vertical offsets for measure numbers improved when the violin clef has a different height than in the Maestro font ;v3.0109 2023-01-22 Improved: -On lyrics measures with multiple layers tuplet brackets are not put on top of a note -In some cases improved of vertical placement of reh./tempo mark expressions if there are at least two expressions on that beat and the measure also includes more expressions -"Show Measure Numbers on Top Staff Only Instead of on All Staves" is now also active when only measure numbers "on every xth bar" are used (not only on measure numbers at start of staff system). -Glissando lines with horizontal note offsets above 250 EVPU on both sides are ignored for placement optimization -Finale 27.3: Improved individual horizontal placement of measure numbers in parts in some cases -Improved user messages in the "ClearPerfectLayoutWindowsInstallation" tool which totally removes Perfect Layout on Windows. ( https://elbsound.studio/download.php?f=ClearPerfectLayoutWindowsInstallation.zip ) -Improved Polish translation -Better placement of below staff expressions that collide with measure number ranges on multi-measure rests that are far below staff (more than 50 EVPU below the lowest the staffline) -Expressions from user-defined "Expressive Text" categories are now also taken into account for vertical/horizontal alignment with dynamics ;v3.0107 2023-01-21 Fixed: -When only one system and a part of the next system (not the full system) on the first page were selected, then the vertical staff distance in the first system would be reduced to the minimum collision distance, but not expanded if there was sufficient space. Fixed now. -If only a partial region was selected and "Show Measure Numbers on Top Staff Only Instead of on All Staves" activated, then the measure number in the non-selected area would also disappear on non-top staves. Fixed now. Improved: -In rare cases improved horizontal ending of hairpins at system end before barline if the next system starts with a key signature change, Finale's "Display courtesy key signature at end of staff system" is activated and the top and the bottom staff of the staff system don't have a key signature change. -In some cases improved of vertical placement of reh./tempo mark expressions if there are at least two expressions on that beat ;v3.0105 2023-01-20 Improved: -In rare cases improved horizontal ending of hairpins at system end before barline if the next system starts with a time signature change, Finale's "Display courtesy time signature at end of staff system" is activated and the top and the bottom staff of the staff system don't have a time signature (i.e. the time signature only appears on inner staves, not on outer staves). -Added new warning message if antivirus software blocks the plug-in registration -Improved PDF manual ;v3.0103 2023-01-16 Fixed: -The "MMRests->Set Repeat Staff Style Measure Width to" value is now correctly updated when changing the measurement unit. -When only few measures were selected in a linked part, then in some cases an optimization of all system staves of that part was performed. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Improved placement of consolidated rests in "two octave" transposing instruments when "Keep Octave Transposition" is activated -In some cases improved placement of dynamics before very low notes with accidentals ;v3.0101 2023-01-14 Improved: -In some cases improved vertical and/or horizontal placement of hairpins -One more case added where a dynamic on a rest before the start of a new phrase is automatically shifted to the starting note ;v3.0099 2023-01-11 Fixed: -Windows only: In very rare cases a download error caused by an SSL problem lead to an error meassage. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Improved Polish translation -Start of supporting the Lua OS Utils by Robert Patterson (additional file installed in the plug-in folder: luaosutils.dll on Windows / luaosutils.dylib on macOS). Only supported in RGP Lua with Finale 25-27. ;v3.0097 2023-01-02 Improved: -Increased the default value for "Systems->Page Breaks->Only Optimize if Number of Staff Systems is at Least" to 23 -Measure counting expressions are not added on bottom staves of two staff groups (e.g. piano) anymore -Added a few new font symbols to the font engine to recognize at least all SMuFl symbols from the Finale 27 default document ;v3.0095 2022-12-30 Fixed: -When applying the plug-in on a part only with "Prefences->Edit->Reflow Across Systems" activated, then in some cases the system distances in other parts would be reduced too. This also affected the "Apply to Parts Only" feature. Fixed now. Improved: -In some cases of steep diagonal hairpins improved vertical placement of surrounding dynamics ;v3.0093 2022-12-24 Improved: -Finale 2014-25: Improved placement of two articulations where one is set to inside slurs and one isn't ;v3.0091 2022-12-19 Improved: -Duplicate expressions are now detected where one expression is assigned to all layers and one to a single layer, but only one layer exists in that bar. In this case the single layer assigned expression is removed if all other attributes are also identical. -Under a multi-measure rest with hidden expressions and non-hidden expressions both hidden under a blank notation staff style with invisible notes in parts in some cases PL used to break the multi-measure rest. Now it is kept as a multi-measure rest. -Improved support for the old "Special Part Extraction" feature: correct horizontal alignment of repeat brackets -Improved support for the old "Special Part Extraction" feature: correct chord width detection -Improved user dialog/translations -RGP Lua/Finale 26/27: Improved placement of two articulations where one is set to inside slurs and one isn't -Improved slur metrics if the start or end note have two articulations where one is set to inside slurs and one isn't -Ending brackets that extend over several measures are not shortened to a one bar width if they have an ending hook of at least "10 EVPU" height. In previous versions at least 17 EVPU was required for the hook. -Windows: the Progress Bar application on Windows now had its first update since v1.x. In batch processing and on the new "Apply to All Party Only" plug-in it used to show the progress bar only on the first file or part. Now it is shown on each file/part. To update the Progress Bar file you need to run the Perfect Layout full installer. The self-update does not include it. ;v3.0089 2022-12-18 Fixed: -Fixed one error message that could occur when the plug-in was run on a small selection of measures and included hidden measures with less than 5 staff lines. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -In Finale 25-27 "Automatic Music Spacing" is now deactivated automatically through Perfect Layout. The warning message doesn't pop up anymore. RGP Lua v0.65 now allows access to this Finale option. -New warning message at the end of the processing if "Automatic Music Spacing" has automatically been deactivated. -Improved handling of corrupt staff styles: invalid staff style assignments (=not existing, corrupt staff styles with no name) are deleted from the score. -Improved PDF manual -Improved chord collision removal, especially in measures with several collisions -Improved error message when there is a problem with the RGP Lua version number. -In some cases slightly improved processing speed on the vertical system layout algorithm -RGP Lua: when the new "Stretch Horizontally" property (introduced in Finale 27.2) is deactivated in the multi-measure rests documents options, this is now correctly applied to new multi-measure rests created by Perfect Layout. -"Apply to All Parts Only" plug-in improved: it doesn't check for available updates anymore and now requires the same RGP Lua version as Perfect Layout New Feature: -New option "Systems->Max. Distance Between Staff Systems". It's now possible to explicitly set the maximum distance between staff systems. This also means: if the maximum distance is reached, then the systems won't align with the page bottom margin on that page anymore. ;v3.0087 2022-12-16 Fixed: -In some cases hairpin in piano staff groups could cause an error message if only some measures were selected. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -In rare cases an error message could occur during the shift of a measure to the next system. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.0077) -Fixed two error messages that could occur when the plug-in was run on a small selection of measures. (Bug introduced in v3.0077) ;v3.0085 2022-12-13 Improved: -Improved user dialog and translations -Pages with the size of 0 height x 0 width are not taken into account for page size dimensions anymore. -More stability for the page break algorithm for corrupt pieces (with missing pages, page size 0x0, etc.). ;v3.0083 2022-12-12 Fixed: -In rare cases an error could occur in the system layout features when "Allow Overlapping Systems" was activated. (Bug introduced in v3.0077) Improved: -Improved detection of new phrases after at least three rests. This can lead to improved dynamics placement if they were assigned between the rests and the first note of the phrase. -Improved PDF manual New Feature: -More options for the new page break feature: if rests within a measure are sufficient for page breaks, the rest duration can be set here. "Allow Rests within Measures" activates this feature, "Minimum Rest Duration" sets the rest duration. If no measure starts or ends with that rest duration, it looks for measures that start or end with the rest duration set in "If not found, check for". The default ist 3072 EDU for the first rest to look for, 2048 for the second. The feature is activated by default. ;v3.0081 2022-12-09 Improved: -Updates that require running the full installer (e.g. when RGP Lua has been updated) now have an extra message and the automatic self-update won't work in that case. -Some improvements in the user dialog and the translations -Improved stability on macOS installer -Corrupt text expressions with a negative ID less than -1 are automatically deleted -"Apply Perfect Layout to All Parts Only" now also supported on macOS and in the German version of Finale. New Feature: -New Option "Reset/Hide->Convert False Beat-Attached Slurs to Entry-Attached": Especially in old Finale documents slurs are sometimes beat-attached instead of entry-attached, but still have the entry attributed activated. This leads to some problems and these slurs usually don't look as good as the standard engraver slurs. With this option activated the slurs are attached to the closest notes. If there is no close note (>= 256 EDUs away) or if there are notes in multiple layers, then it won't be changed. This feature is activated by default, but only enabled if also "Reset Manual Slur Adjustments" is activated. ;v3.0079 2022-12-08 Fixed: -An error message could occur if a "TACET" part included many systems, but not a single visible staff (i.e. only hidden staves). Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -A tremolo articulation on a whole note could lead to an error message if the staff and measure was hidden in the score through the "Collapse" staff style. Fixed now. Improved: -RGP Lua v0.65 is now installed by default. Note: if you update Perfect Layout with the self-update feature within Finale, only the Perfect Layout plug-in will be updated. It's not possible to update RGP Lua while Finale is running. So to automatically install RGP Lua v0.65 please run the full installer of Perfect Layout v3.0079. -Finale 25-27/RGP Lua: the annoying "DO FIRST" tab has been removed. With the recent release of RGP Lua 0.65 it's not necessary anymore. The slur contour settings are now automatically read from Finale and don't need to be filled out manually. And so are the trill accidental shapes. -Some improvements in the Polish translation -Improved page break algorithm when ending repeat brackets are involved. -Improved error message when an unsupported version of RGP Lua is installed. New Feature: -Windows: "Apply Perfect Layout to All Parts Only" is a new feature that was requested a lot. If you have completed the score and have run Perfect Layout, then you do the parts and want to apply Perfect Layout to the parts only, you can use this new sub-plug-in "ES Perfect Layout - Apply to Parts Only". It will appear in the Finale menu below your original ES Perfect Layout entry. This will run Perfect Layout separately on each part (so the plug-in will be called for each part individually). But you have to adjust the settings in the user dialog values only once. Perfect Layout will then be applied to all parts. You can either apply the plug-in to all measures (default) or you select a measure stack in the score and it will only be applied to these measures. It's currently not possible to apply it to selected parts only. The macOS version will follow in one of the next updates. Note: running the plug-in on parts only reduces the number of available Perfect Layout features. To be consistent with the score, all features that would also affect the score are deactivated or not applied. It is recommended to always apply Perfect Layout to the score at least once, before applying it to the parts later: this is required to prepare the whole document for Perfect Layout. ;v3.0077 2022-10-14 Fixed: -In some cases "Remove Page Breaks in Parts" didn't remove all page breaks. Fixed now. -"Re-tie Notes Which Cross the Middle of the Bar" could cause a problem if the end note of the tie had the "Voice 2 Launch" flag activated. Fixed now. -Some versions of the "Sebastian" (SMuFl) font lead to an infinite display of the "MacSymbolFonts.txt-Problem" dialog. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.0073) -In rare cases an error message could occur when a new coda system started right to a second system and the automatic measure shifting in parts lead to systems with no measures. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -In very rare cases many multi-measure rests (>30) on the last page of a part could lead to multi-measure rests being spread to many systems with only one MM rest per system. Fixed now. -In some cases the plug-in suggested a measure number placement below the top staff in the score. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -In some case an error message could occur in RGP Lua on multi-staff assigned expressions if multiple layers were used in that measure. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -Under certain conditions on a score page with multiple staffsystems with different number of staves, the vertical alignment was not correct and lead to negative staffsystem top margins. Fixed now. -Windows: If PowerShell, wmic or cmd are not accessible, the error message is now displayed at the correct place. -In some rare cases of a word extension smartshape being only attached to a starting note, but not to an ending note, under certain circumstances an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -When you use the v3 beta version and are forwarded to the download homepage, your beta version will now be preselected (and not the v2 main version). -Expression category names of the Spanish Finale version are now correctly detected -Improved placements of the ottava symbols 0xe510, 0xe511, 0xe514 and 0xe515 from the font "Finale Maestro" in Finale 27 (in other Finale versions it already worked fine) -Improved tie/articulation collision detection of whole notes on a rhythmic notation staff style when there is also a hidden note above the staff -RGP Lua: Some adjustments for the RGP Lua 0.65 version -RGP Lua: The font "Finale Maestro Text" and "Finale Broadway Text" are now correctly recognized as non-SMuFl fonts in RGP Lua (although they have some SMuFl symbols). This can lead to improved metrics on multi-measure rests and time signatures. -Improved vertical staff/system layout in some cases: more intelligent algorithms that automatically update options to prevent unnecessary pages or too wide vertical spacing -Added "Legato Music Font" and "Groove" to supported SMuFl music fonts. Make sure to not have the other "Legato" font from Melody/Harmony Assistant installed. These two fonts don't work together. -Improved vertical staff/system layout dialog layout. Separated into four sections: staff distance, system distance, system alignment at the page margins and other system options. -Improved connection of niente expressions with hairpin if the niente expression is at the beginning of a measure and the hairpin ends in the previous measure -Improved vertical staff spacing on parts with multiple staves (multiple instruments) -Windows: Installer automatically repairs false Windows registry Path entries for PowerShell, cmd and wmic -When a staff on a staff system only has word extensions or just a few lyrics, but long word extensions, it will now be detected as staff with lyrics which improves the vertical spacing. -In some cases improved niente expression/hairpin connection -Improved placement of niente expressions below chord clusters with notes on the opposite of the stem -Duplicate hairpins whose start attachment point is identical to the end point and which both have the identical start and end point are now correctly identified as "duplicate hairpins" and one of them is automatically removed. -Clef/multi-measure rest collisions are now also handled when the multi-measure has a width of x measures where x = the value "Use Symbols for Rests Less Than x Measures". In previous versions it was only handled if the mm rests had a width of x+1 measures. -Improved algorithm for shifting measures to the next/previous system: it now takes into the horizontal stretching and the number of accidentals. If there are no or only few accidental a more dense spacing is possible. -If the measure numbers at system start in the score are below staff and in parts above staff (or vice versa), then PL will now automatically select the "Alignment->Keep Current Position" placement for measure numbers. -G.P. text expressions ("Generalpause") are now taken into account for collision detection and shifted upwards if necessary -When the default music font from the "Dynamics" expression category is not in the Perfect Layout database, you will now be asked if the font is Maestro-compatible. On 'Yes' it will use the Maestro entries from the font database. On 'No' the plug-in will cancel. -RGP Lua: Help buttons now have a question mark symbol -On multiple nested tuplets the tuplet brackets of all nested tuplets are now placed on the opposite side. -"Minimize Rests" now also supports rests with activated "Voice 2 Launch" flags -"X" time signatures (i.e. "No Time Signature) with expressions are now supported. They are not detected as "Rehearsal Marks" anymore. Note: to be detectly correctly they must be between 46 and 124 EVPU of size, use the horizontal alignment "Left Barline" or "Start of Time Signature" and the vertical alignment "Staff Reference Line"
-When only some staves are selected in the score from first to last measure and these staves have their own linked parts, these parts are now handled as "fully selected parts" which enables more features for that part -Some improved translations -Some improvements in the user dialog -Improved PDF manual (changed format from Letter to DIN A4, the "Systems" section ("Vertical Systems/Staff Layout") was partially rewritten) -Main user interface screenshots updated on the homepage and in the documentation New Feature: -New feature: Optimized page breaks with rest bars: Perfect Layout now includes an option to find good page breaks and adjust the systems and/or the measure layout that rest bars will be at the end of the page or at the beginning of the next page. This system is very powerful has many options (PL Gold: 8 options, PL Silver: 5). Details are described here: https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/systems.php#go-to-system4 -New option "Systems->Auto-Suggest 'Parts' Value" (activated by default): automatically suggests a value for "Systems->Min. Bottom Margin for Parts" dependent on the current system distances in the parts before Perfect Layout. -Gold: New option "Alignment->Center if Also Dynamics on Bottom Staff" as sub-option of "Center Dynamics and Hairpins Between Two-Staff Groups". If there are dynamics below top staff and below bottom staff on a piano two-staff group, then the top dynamic will not be centered between top and bottom staff anymore, but attached to the top note. On Silver this is deactivated by default. -Gold: Three sub-options for the staff distances. While the "Max. Distance Between Staves" (Default 470 EVPU) is only reached, if there is very much empty space on that page, the other three values limit the max. distance on "normal" pages with not much space left. These values were also used in previous version of Perfect Layout, but they were not editable. They were calculated automatically from the max. value. The "If too much space on page, only use max. distance" value is 310 EVPU by default (=470 EVPU*0.66). The "If only two staff systems on page, use max. distance" value is 380 EVPU by default (=470 EVPU*0.809). The "If more than two staff systems on page, use max. distance" value 350 EVPU by default (=470 EVPU*0.745). These values may become relevant if your score staff systems are different on each page and in some cases they might stretch to the bottom of the page and in some cases not. If they should not stretch, you should reduce the 470 EVPU (to maybe 350 EVPU). If more systems should stretch, you may have to increase the 470 EVPU (although this doesn't look that good...). -Gold: New option "Reset/Hide->Manual Note Positioning->Allow Upstem Notes Overlapping with Downstem Flags on Same Beat" (Deactivated by default). If there are notes on two layers on the same beat and the upstem note collided with the downstem flag, activating this option allows the notehead to be shifted slightly away from the other notehead, but still on top of the flag. If deactivated, the note will be shifted further away after flag: so no collision, but quite a huge distance. (See https://elbsound.studio/assets/img/ES/allowoverlappingnotewithflag.jpg ). In Silver this is always deactivated, so that no collision will occur. ;v3.0075 2022-10-12 Fixed: -Windows: Finale could crash during the plug-in activation when Panda Dome antivirus was installed. Solution described here: https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/faq.php#go-to-installation53 Improved: -Windows: Improved system accesses for better acception of some antivirus software (Avira and Panda Dome) -Improved PDF manual -macOS: Improved installer stability for RGP Lua ;v3.0073 2022-09-26 Fixed: -RGP Lua/Finale 26+: In rare cases the repeat dot symbol could be reset/made unreadable and lead to a Finale crash (RGP Lua bug). The new PL version avoids this problems and also reinstalls the original symbol. Improved: -The "Hide Measure Range if <= x Adjacent MM Rest Bars" is not activated anymore by default. -Improved detection of adjacent "empty" measures over multiple measures with rests and fermatas only. -Improved metrics for some upstem notes above the staff -The "shifting down on measure number below staff collisions" now allows higher shifting distances. -The "General->Bypass Empty Staves" feature now also supports staves that are totally hidden in the score and parts (=collapsed). When this feature is deactivated, this doesn't irritate the staff/system vertical spacing algorithm anymore. -Gold only: The measure number "On Collisions..." option can now be deactivated. In this case the measure number collisions remain. -Support for "ghost staff systems": A valid hidden "ghost" staff system below a regular staff system in the score doesn't mess up the layout on that page anymore. Valid means: all staves with the "collapse" staff style and at least one measure included on that system. -Improved vertical placement of multiple reh./tempo mark, alteration expression above the staff if they are all from different categories, but have the identical font size and style. -Perfect Layout now breaks multi-measure rests on collapsed or cutaway measures. This is a different behaviour than Finale's own multi-measure creating algorithm. But it makes more sense and is more what the composer would expect. -If Node.js and/or the required plug-in scripts are not installed and thus an OTF font can't be read, Perfect Layout will now display an error message. Just re-run the Perfect Layout installer to solve this. -Improved detection of the Sebastian font which exists in a SMuFl and a non-SMuFl version with some identical attributes -Improved registration and activation process -Improved auto-update process to work with v2 and v3. -macOS: Improved installer stability -Windows: Improved installer stability -Improved stability for RGP Lua -macOS: Solved one rare installer bug on macOS: the -10673 Error which affects installers from many software companies (see https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/faq.php#go-to-installation46 ) -Added a few more translations -More preview images -Improved PDF manual New Feature: -If your computer has crashed and you need to deactivate the plug-in in the Elbsound database to be able to reinstall it, this can now be done online on the homepage under Support->Deactivate Plug-in ( https://elbsound.studio/reset-activation.php ). -Partial support for ledger line collisions with expressions. Only the top ledger line is taken into account and only with a fixed ledger line width. ;v3.0071 2022-09-24 Fixed: -RGP Lua: In rare cases when using SMuFl fonts in Finale 27 an error message could occur when SMuFl symbols were used on smart shapes. Improved: -Improved placement of measure numbers below barline colliding with ties/slurs when a hairpin starts on beat 1: if the hairpin is at least 22 EVPU away from the measure number, the measure number will be shifted down. If the measure number has to be shifted very low (more than 35 EVPU), then the distance to the colliding object will be reduced by 6 EVPU. The maximum distance that the measure number will shifted down is 36 EVPU (=42-6 EVPU). -If only one layer above layer 1 is used (Layer 2-4) and the automatic "move to layer 1" feature is activated, Perfect Layout will now also include measures with ties to previous/next measures if this doesn't mess up the tie. -Improved PDF manual -RGP Lua: Improved metrics on 8VB, 15MB and trill symbols in smart shapes -Windows: Improved installer stability New Feature: -macOS: The installer now installs RGP Lua 0.64 (instead of JW Lua) in Finale 25-27. ;v3.0069 2022-09-20 Fixed: -Chords where only the alternate bass is visible are now correctly aligned again (Bug probably introduced in v3.0053) -On macOS in some cases the font annotation creation could make Finale hang. Fixed now. (Bug probably introduced in v3.0057) Improved: -"Systems->Min. Bottom Margin of Staff System" is now available separately for score and (linked) parts -More preview images from the "Systems" tab -Windows: improved installer stability for the JW Lua installer -Improved PDF manual New Feature: -Windows: The installer now installs RGP Lua 0.64 (instead of JW Lua) in Finale 25-27. RGP Lua supports more Finale features than JW Lua, so now all these features are finally available in Perfect Layout by default. In Finale 2014/2014.5 (32Bit) JW Lua is still installed, because RGP Lua only supports 64bit as in Finale 25-27. ;v3.0067 2022-09-18 Improved: -Improved detection of tie collisions with expressions on grace notes -Improved lyrics metrics in some multi-layer and multi-verse scenarios -In some cases improved visually balanced parts ("Systems->Allow Overlapping Systems" is now activated by default). -The "Remove Unnecessary Use of Layers 2-4" now also checks the MIDI channel before allowing the layer change. The MIDI channels are different between layer 1 and layer x, then it won't change the layers anymore. -The title of the main user dialog now also includes the version number of JW Lua or RGP Lua ;v3.0065 2022-09-17 Improved: -Improved lyrics metrics in some multi-layer and multi-verse scenarios -Improved tie metrics on ties starting on grace notes -RGP Lua: Support for new features from the upcoming RGP Lua 0.65 ;v3.0063 2022-09-16 Improved: -Added more Italian and Spanish translations -Improved error messages for activation problems -In some cases improved visually balanced parts -Improved handling of "single measure multi-measure rests" when "Start Numbering At" is set to 1. ;v3.0061 2022-09-10 Fixed: -In some cases where the bottom margin on the first page in parts was shifted up because of a copyright text above the page bottom margin, the first system from the second page would lead to problems in vertical system spacing and might end up as a single system on a single page. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x). -In rare cases an error message could occur on tuplets where the tuplet number is hidden. Fixed now. -In some cases the algorithms "Bottom Staff Line" and "Lowest Element on Bottom Staff" for aligning the bottom system staff with the page bottom margin were not applied to all pages in parts. (Bug introduced in v3.x). -In some cases the activation dialog always showed "Gold" even if it was the Silver or Silver400 installer.(Bug introduced in v3.x). Improved: -The title of the main user dialog now includes a JW Lua or a RGP Lua tag -Note entries on two staff (piano) groups placed on the top staff, but with downstem beams below the bottom staff don't influence the vertical spacing anymore. -RGP Lua: Partial support for beam extension modifications added. -RGP Lua: Partial support for tie modifications added. -Metrics of page texts attached to measures now support borders and the "Expand Horizontally"/"Expand Vertically" feature. -Improved dense vertical spacing between systems in extracted or linked parts with the "Allow Overlapping Systems" feature -In some cases improved visually balanced parts -Improved horizontal placement of dynamics at the end of the final bar of a system with a backwards repeat where a dynamic collides with the wings of the repeat bracket. -The activation dialog now also shows the version of the current plug-in in the title. -Improved PDF manual -If there are multiple measure number regions with a "Show Measure Ranges on MM Rests" activated, PL handles them better to not have multiple ranges in the parts. However it's not recommended to have multiple measure number regions with identical settings as this might lead to many problems. -Improved metrics of text repeats elements over 1-line staves -Improved metrics on some tuplets with the "Always Flat" option where the first note is unbeamed or the beam is broken within the tuplet -Improved French translation (more than 200 new lines) and fixed some user dialog issues of colliding texts ;v3.0059 2022-09-07 Fixed: -MacOS/M1/Finale 27.2: the Perfect Layout registration now supports to switch between native and Rosetta mode. In both modes the activation data is now valid. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -In some cases of corrupt expressions an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -In rare cases of hidden staves/measures an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.0055) Improved: -Support for "fake cross staff rests" in vertical staff spacing: if a rest is placed so low (e.g. rest offset -40) that it virtually appears on the next staff although it is not a cross staff note, then the rest will be ignored in vertical staff spacing and not lead to large vertical staff distances anymore. -Improved PDF manual (including a new FAQ chapter on how to install Perfect Layout in RGP Lua manually) -Added more error messages on installation problems -Improved macOS installer details ;v3.0057 2022-09-03 Fixed: -When a user-defined preset is loaded, in some cases the measure number positioning algorithm is not saved in the "Last Saved Settings" file. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.0047) -Hidden arpeggio articulations don't lead to weird spacing anymore. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Improvements in the macOS installer -MacOS: improved font file detection and conversion for OTF fonts -Windows 7: improved installer stability -Partial support for mirror measures (Rehearsal mark expressions in mirror measures). Still mirror measures are officially not supported by PL. -More tolerance when detecting two matching Ped. * articulations that are placed on slightly different vertical positions. If they are more than 20 EVPU apart, they are not kept like they are, but vertically reset when "Reset Pedal Articulations" is activated. When less than 20 EVPU apart, they will remain at their place. -If hidden/corrupt expression definitions are found, a warning message is shown. This can occur especially in old Finale documents that have gone through several different versions of Finale. It might be possible to fix this by running the "Delete Corrupt Expression Definitions" lua script before Perfect Layout. (Available from https://elbsound.studio/download.php?f=DeleteCorruptExpressionDefinitions.lua ) -Updated Node.js to current version v16.17.0 to support native M1 -Making Perfect Layout compatible with RGP Lua (Part 9): In some cases improved placement of an articulation over grace notes if the articulation is actually assigned to the following non-grace note. -RGP Lua: Unnecessary warning message about Fin26 compatibility removed -RGP Lua: Installation video for Perfect Layout ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERHlYu71Lkg ) ;v3.0055 2022-08-24 Fixed: -In rare cases a single empty measure on the final system could lead to an error message if also all (!) previous measures are on single measure systems and empty. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x). -In rare cases an expression with the EXCLUDE tag could cause an error message. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved placement of rehearsal marks when Document Options->Key Signatures->Cancel Outgoing Key Signature->When switching between sharps and flats is deactivated -Improved default placement of measure numbers in some cases (especially on very wide measure numbers) -The option "Artics.->Inside Slur: Offset Before Articulation Gets 'Inside Slur' Style" which auto-generates inside slur articulation if otherwise too far outside the slur will now also work in some cases in Finale 26+. In RGP Lua it will now always work, in JW Lua it will work if the articulation is set to slur interaction mode "Ignore". -Windows: Improved dialog for language selection for RGP Lua and JW Lua -Improved automatic detection whether a part needs to have music spacing applied. This is still an incomplete check that only tests a few measures. If required, then the Optimize->Always Apply Music (Re-)Spacing will be activated, but it will only be applied to those parts where the plug-in detects it. When you manually activate this option, it will be applied to all parts. -Partial support for mirror measures (Multi-measure rests). Still mirror measures are officially not supported by PL. -Dynamics with an EXCLUDE tag are not aligned with hairpins anymore -Making Perfect Layout compatible with RGP Lua (Part 8): In Fin26+ articulations that are usually inside the slur and that are set to slur interaction mode "Auto Inside/Outside" are set to "Ignore". -RGP Lua (0.64): help images are now shown directly in the plug-in and not in the external web browser anymore. New Feature: -New Option "Systems->Shift Single Measure with Double Barline ('New Section') to Previous or Next System". It will only be shifted if there is sufficient horizontal space after shifting (i.e. the horizontal stretch must be at least >0.95). To enable this feature you also need to activate "Reflow Across Systems" in Finale's preferences. ;v3.0053 2022-08-16 Fixed: -If many score pages full of empty measures followed the last non-empty measure, then in rare cases an error could occur during vertical system optimization. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -The "Have you saved the document" dialog will not popup anymore when the document was saved right before calling the plug-in. -Support for invalid/corrupt chord suffix IDs (e.g. ID 0 with no root): the plug-in will not crash anymore, but ignore these suffix IDs -RGP Lua only: The automatic "Use Cross-Layer Accidental Positioning" option now works the same way as the manual activation in Finale (including deleting all manual accidental positionings). -RGP Lua only: Added one more scenario of colliding accidentals that can only be detected in RGP Lua -Making Perfect Layout compatible with RGP Lua (Part 7): More articulation compatibility stuff, fixed an issue with stem modifications in RGP Lua in Finale 26+, fixed an issue with accidental detection in RGP Lua ;v3.0051 2022-08-06 Fixed: -Trill articulations without attached smartshape wiggle lines are now reset again (accidentally deactivated in 3.0049) -In rare cases an error could occur on chords alignment. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x). -In rare cases of dynamics above the staff that are assigned flexibly to the "Top Staff" (instead of a predefined staff) an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -If the very last measure was empty and appeared as a single measure on a system in a part, then in rare cases an error could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -In some cases (especially if there are many completely empty staves in a huge orchestra score) an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -Windows: Fixed a bug when reading the list of fonts from the system. Either the new November2 font 2.32 update or a new Windows update has changed the format of the font entries in the Windows registry. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -In scores with many empty systems (no measures or staves at all) and only one actual system after the empty sytems an error could occur. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -If the Windows system had a corrupt WMI component, then the new PL v3 Windows installer could produce an error message. According to the user where this occured you have to run the "Windows Repair Tool" from tweaking.com (https://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html) which also fixes the WMI system with its "WMI Repair" component. Elbsound.studio can't confirm this fix as we couldn't reproduce the problem. But it seemed to have been solved this way. -When the repeat dot symbol didn't exist in the selected repeat dot font, an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -The new Windows installer had a problem when JW Lua was already installed and its ini-file was existing, but incomplete. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) Improved: -Corrupt (=empty) expression definitions are cleared and replaced with a valid expression with no text -Improved detection of multiple line expressions on expressions with hidden text -Misspelling corrected in English dialog -In some cases improved placement of Expressive Text expressions in old Finale documents that use "Vertical Click Position" alignment -Rest optimization now supports more composite time signatures that are usually written in a more simple way, e.g. (3+3/8)=6/8 -In some cases improved spacing for hairpins in dense measures -Improved PDF manual -Improved stability of new Windows installer if temporary files folder leads to problems -Improved support for dynamics in the wrong category (Miscellaneous) that are assigned to flexible staves (top staff, bottom staff) -Measure texts in the middle of a score with a very high vertical offset (>200 EVPU) are only taken into account for vertical spacing, if the vertical offset minus the text height is below 200 EVPU. -In one case improved placement of hairpins in very stretched measures if the hairpin ends close to the dynamics. -Dynamics above the staff on beat 1 on a rest are not shifted to the end of the previous measure anymore. However in most cases it's not recommended to place dynamics on rests as this might be confusing for the player. -Technique Text expressions that collide only collide a little bit with the barline or that are very short (4 letters) are now shifted before the barline if the barline collision feature is activated -Making Perfect Layout compatible with RGP Lua (Part 6): The "Stack Automatically" option is now detected in JW Lua. ;v3.0049 2022-07-27 Improved: -Improved handling of expressions in parts that are far, far away from their (0,0) original attachment point (like 1000 EVPU to the right and 500 EVPU to the top). These are kept where they are. -Improved shifting of wiggle lines next to trill articulations when the articulations are shifted (however it's recommended to use trill smartshapes instead of articultion+wiggle lines as they are much easier to handle and to place correctly) ;v3.0047 2022-07-04 Fixed: -The Safari/macOS browser appended a .txt file ending when downloading the additional .lua files from the homepage. Fixed now. -If only some measures in the score were selected, in cases of certain multi-measure rests in parts an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -If only some measures on one system of a part (with multiple systems) were selected, in rare cases an error message could occur. Fixed now. -In rare cases on "empty" systems that had no stafflines and no barlines, but only clefs and rehearsal marks an error message could occur. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.x) -Fermatas on empty measures could cause an error message if the measure was hidden in a part, but visible in the score. Fixed now. (Bug introduced in v3.0039) Improved: -Support for Scherzo/Scherzo Std fonts -One more cases of handling hairpins going beyond the last visible measure added -Slightly improved processing speed -Finale's hairpin opening width and tuplet default settings are not optimized anymore when the score is only selected partially -Improved connection of niente expressions to hairpins in one case (niente expression at end of measure, followed by a rest and a new dynamic on the next beat 1) -If the very last measure is a single coda measure, then it will not be automatically shifted at the end of the previous system. -As unlinked separate measure numbers are still not possible in JW Lua measure number shifts that affected other parts negatively were removed. -In some cases improved placement of breath mark comma articulations at the end of the measure (However it's recommended to use breath mark expressions instead, because they are not dependent of a note entry position) -Improved stability of Windows installer -In two cases improved placement of hairpins spanning multiple systems on collisions with slurs -Better automatic vertical staff spacing on scores with two systems per page: very large empty areas between the two systems are now automatically reduced if it looked better to give slightly more space to the staves. -Support for system dividers with different font sizes on each page: if each page has a different page scaling and uses system dividers with different font sizes, these system dividers now keep their original font size. However for a good score look it's usually not recommended to use a different page scaling and differently sized system dividers on each page. -Finale 26/27: improved detection of vertically overlapping/stacking articulations -One 1-line staves one more case for not creating diagonal hairpins was added -Improved alignment of hairpins with dynamics when a bar only has one long note, a hairpin ending somewhere in the middle of the bar and a dynamic attached to beat 1, but visually attached to the ending of the hairpin. -Improved placement of rehearsal marks over barlines on tied upstem notes that cross the barline -In one case of hairpins/tie collisions on hairpins that span at least three systems improved vertical placement of the hairpin on the final system -Improved arpeggio placement on dense systems if the arpeggio shape has to be shifted quite a lot (more than 30 EVPU) -Improved placement of notes on note/accidentals collisions: if after inserting space, the note flag at the end of the measure collides with the barline -In one case improved placement of Technique Text expressions on collision with a note with a flat accidental (no movement to the right, only downwards) -In some cases improved detection of note/accidental collisions. -One case of connected cresc./dim. hairpins with improved vertical alignment -Partial support for mirror measures: in some cases wrong note metrics were calculated -Default measure number placement is now dependent on loose/tight spacing preset and number of bars New Feature: -The Silver edition now also has the "Bypass Empty Staves" option on the General tab which can speed up the processing time in some cases. By default this is activated. -Measure numbers in the score on each measure below the bottom staff are now optimized to not collide with the notation symbols above. This is done consistently over the whole score: they will all get the new vertical distance. In the Gold edition the distance can be adjusted with the new option "Alignment->Measuren Numbers->On Collisions with Other Objects Below Bottom Staff Shift Down by" plus the value of "Alignment->Extra Collision Offset". In the Silver edition the distance is only handled indirectly with the "Alignment->Extra Collision Offset" value. The default distance is 19 EVPU (=14 EVPU Vert. Distance + 5 EVPU Extra Offset). This only affects measure numbers on a score below the bottom (!) staff. Note: if there is no collision because the measure numbers are already very far below the staff, then they will keep their position. They will not be shifted upwards. ;v3.0045 2022-06-27 Fixed: -When only some measures were selected in the score, in some cases (lots of multi-measure rests in parts) an error message could appear (bug introduced in v3.x). Fixed now. Improved: -Improved slur metrics on end notes of slurs that have several "Inside Slurs" articulations -Improved compound f + p detection, if both dynamic expressions are on the same beat together with a hairpin -Improved placement of dynamics when three (!) dynamic expressions are attached to the same beat. However: To avoid ambiguities it's not recommended to attach three dynamics to the same beat. -Minor processing speed improvements -Improved Polish translation ;v3.0043 2022-06-26 Fixed: -Hungarian Windows version gives an error message (bug introduced in v3.0039). Fixed now. Improved: -Updated PDF manual ;v3.0041 2022-06-21 Fixed: -Some browsers automatically appended a .zip file extension to the .exe installer. -When coda systems in parts started with a multi-measure rest, then in some cases the systems were not shifted down. Fixed now. -If only some measures were selected in a part which included a multi-measure rest with a dynamic expression (!) at the end of the system, then in some cases the dynamic used to be shifted to the beginning of the system. Fixed now. -When only one staff in one system is selected, then the previous measure could be affected in music spacing if the selected system started a clef change - although it was a outside the selected region. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved placement of rehearsal marks in case of multiple collisions with stems, articulations and other expressions. -Improved placement of custom smart lines below the staff at the right barline -Improved bottom page text element detection on the first page in parts and adjusting the page bottom margin, if the system neither have a "Bottom Margin" greather than 0 nor a "Distance Between Systems" value greater than 0. -The "Shift Coda Systems Down" feature now also works in linked parts -In some cases improved placement of rehearsal marks between two chord symbols -Improved metrics calculation of the inner side of beams -In some cases improved placement of rehearsal marks on collisions with text repeat symbols -Improved vertical staff/system spacing in some cases of three systems per page with at least four staves -Improved vertical staff/system spacing on pages where the systems don't fill the whole page -Improved vertical staff distance on piano systems with cross staff notes when beams come very close to the upper staff. New Feature: -New option: "Keep Chords Below Staff" (activated by default). If chords are placed below a staff, they are not automatically put above the staff anymore if this is activated. ;v3.0039 2022-06-04 Fixed: -In rare cases an error message could occur in a tuplet bracket scenario (bug introduced in v3.x). Fixed now. -When slurs are independent in parts in some cases the metric calculation was not correct (bug introduced in v3.x). Fixed now. -When only some staves/measures from a two-staff instrument (e.g. piano) were selected in a score with more than two staves, in some cases an error could occur (bug introduced in v3.x). Fixed now. -When only a few measures were selected, an error could occur in some cases of repeat text definitions. Fixed now. -In some cases an error message could occur on bracket and underscore symbols in lyrics texts. Fixed now. -In very rare cases an error could occur when deciphering page text elements (this only occured once in an old score from Finale 2001 which also had other problems). Fixed now. -In rare cases of invalid expressions (i.e. expressions that were already deleted in the score, but that are still somewhere hidden in the internals of the Finale document) an error could occur (bug introduced in v3.x). Fixed now. -In rare cases niente expressions on the last system of a page were not fully connected to the hairpin (bug introduced in v3.x). Fixed now. -If the chord baseline was unnecessarily far above the staff (e.g. 144 EVPU), then in some case tempo marks above the chords were not shifted together with the chords towards the staff (bug introduced in v3.x). Fixed now. Improved: -When activating/deactivating the "Optimize Staff/System Distances" on some scores you will now get a message to restart the plug-in, as some system processing may already have been performed before changing the feature (which can't be undone) or because some processing needs to be done before the main dialog of the plug-in. In that case just re-run the plug-in and confirm everything with "Ok". The settings from your plug-in setup have been saved before re-running the plug-in. -Improved PDF manual -In some case the option "Place Harmonics Outside Tuplets" didn't save correctly -Windows: The font annotation file is now also included for the optional Bach font -Rehearsal/tempo mark expressions with chord symbols in the same measure, but without collisions are placed vertically better in some cases -In some cases improved snapping of hairpins to dynamics if the hairpin ends on beat 1 and the dynamics is on the next beat -In some cases improved snapping of hairpins to dynamics if the dynamic is connected to a very long note (at least dotted whole note) -Improved metrics of centered measure numbers on 0-line staves -Improved detection of unnecessary freeze stem flags under tuplets and under slurs -Vertical system/staff spacing reworked with many improvements -Resorted text expression creation in the code to reduce number of text expression definition accesses to make the code slightly faster -Slighty faster processing speed in many functions -Inside slur articulations on steep slurs are now also automatically created when the note has (additionally) a tremolo articulation -In rare cases improved hairpin placement on slur collisions where only the hairpin has a system break -Improved placement of rehearsal marks between two chord symbols -Chord symbols with fixed size fonts now have the correct metrics -Improved log message on font annotation file creation -Horizontal movements of multiple accidentals are not performed on transposed staves with simplified keys (and "Display in Concert Pitch" deactivated) anymore as JW Lua sometimes returns false flat/sharp values -In some cases of new multi-measure rest creation improved measure metrics -Improved horizontal collision detection between notes and accidentals on note entries with multiple accidentals -Windows: In rare cases Perfect Layout didn't recognize Node.js as the Node.js environment variable was not set correctly. The new installer now sets the environment variable and doesn't depend on the Node.js feature anymore. -Custom smart lines that are directly on the staff lines (and not above) don't get a barline offset anymore when colliding with the right bar line. -Updated font database (few additions to the new Finale SMuFl fonts) -Manually repositioned notes in two staff groups with lyrics are now correctly detected from both staves. If the manual repositioning is probably correct in one staff, it will be kept in the other staff too. -Support for more SMuFl fonts (Mezzo/Mezza/Golden Age) and other music fonts (NorKeys, LimonjianNotation, Stolp, Smolensky, Mezenets, Shaidur) -Improved placement of dynamics/hairpins centered between two piano staves in case of a technique text expression below the dynamics. -Improved placement of dynamics/hairpins centered between two piano staves very low placed beamed rests (with "Extend Beams over Rests" activated) -Improved detection of compound sub./poco/pił dynamic expression if the "sub." text expression is in the Dynamics expression category (instead of the Expressive Text or Technique Text category) -If measure number regions are "misused" for other symbols (e.g. system dividers), these measure number regions are not set to new positions anymore. -Exponential hairpin symbols are now also supported from the music fonts: Norfolk Special Std, Opus Special, Opus Special Std -Improved handling of piano fingering articulations (in more cases they are not moved at all) -Improved chord metrics when the last element is a seven (i.e. reduced bottom width) -Improved chord metrics on shifted notes and on chord clusters with seconds -Improved font detection on fonts using "-Roman" as name extension -Improved .otf font detection on macOS and Windows -If the only symbols of a measure are a hidden rest and a custom smart line, then the measure will not be consided for multi-measure rest creation anymore. -Running the plug-in on a non-selected region means that the plug-in will process the full document. In extremely rare cases (like errors in other Finale plug-ins directly before running Perfect Layout) Perfect Layout did nothing as it thought nothing at all should be processed. Fixed now. -Multi-measure rest numbers from SMuFl fonts now have the correct vertical metrics. -Vertical staff/system spacing now supports scores where each page has different page heights, bottom or top page margins. -Dynamics are not moved before a note anymore if they collide with a pedal articulation below the note -Improved detection of two staves at identical positions (on top of each other, e.g. in piano notation): in case of rounding problems these are now also detected if they have a +/-1 EVPU system distance. -Added a detailed list of Finale document options that change through Perfect Layout (https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/optimize.php#go-to-optimize8) -Pedal expressions that collide with dynamics are now shifted below them if there are no other pedal expressions/articulations in that measure -In one case improved rest splitting on tuplets -Vertical System optimization now supports totally collapsed staves with a negative "Space Between Systems" value -In some cases rehearsal marks at the beginning of a system which starts with an over slur from the previous system get an improved vertical position -Expressive text above the staff next to dynamics will vertically align better in some cases -Improved support for detecting collisions on slurs that start and end on cross-staff notes -If the first page with systems in a part has a different (usually larger) page bottom margin than the following pages and "Systems->Align Page Bottom Margin with..." is set to the default value (Auto-Detect: Fixed/Lowest), then the last system on the first page will be aligned better with the page bottom margin. -Improved (non-)detection of compound "f"+"p" ("fp") dynamics when the first dynamic is assigned to a grace note on the same beat. -If only a system is selected, then hairpins from the last (unselected) measure from the previous system are not changed anymore. -Cross staff notes are not retied over the middle of a bar if this will break a complex beam structure. -Improved warning message about a missing internet connection. The warning messages now mentions that sometimes the firewall prevents access to the internet. -In Finale 26+ articulations that use the wrong stacking order because their IDs are in the wrong order in the Articulation Definitions dialog are kept as they are as it might be intentionally. -Making Perfect Layout compatible with RGP Lua (Part 5): Improved compatibility with RGP Lua on grace notes with articulations New Feature: -New option "Shift Expressions on Right Barline Collisions to the Left (If Enough Space and Only Rests Before)" (in Silver on the Alignment tab, in Gold on the Expressions tab). Technique text and other (non-tempo/rehearsal mark) expressions that are taken into account for vertical correction (i.e. "Snap Expressions to Symbols" activated) are shifted to the left if they would otherwise collide with the right barline. This is only done when there is sufficient space to the left and when there are only rests before the note where the expression is attached. -The articulation property "Copy Main Symbol Horizontally" is now supported which leads to improved collision detection and staff alignment for example for trill extension articulations. However it's recommended to use custom smartlines for this purpose instead. They are more flexible. -"Empty" note shape modifications (i.e. where no features are activated) are deleted -New option in Perfect Layout Gold: "Shift Fermatas on Bottom Staves of Two-Staff Groups Below the Staff". In Silver this is activated by default. Fermatas are only shifted below the staff in very simple scenarios (i.e. single layer, single voice, no cross staff notes). -Hidden measure-attached texts are now supported in JW Lua and RGP Lua -Windows: New installer ;v3.0037 2022-03-17 Fixed: -Measure numbers over curved group bracket are now placed vertically correct, if in the score the group starts with a staff that is only visible in parts. (Bug introduced in v3.0027) Improved: -If tempo/rehearsal marks have very different horizontal offsets in score and parts, then in some cases they will now have improved placement in the parts. -Improved slur contour settings dialog (had a few issues in v3) -Improved support for hybrid SMuFl/non-SMuFl fonts (e.g. November2, Aruvarb) in Finale 27. -Invalid expressions with the ID "-1" in a corrupt Finale document don't throw an error message anymore, but are deleted. -Improved metrics of "dashed/solid line up/down" smartshapes that are set to "Make Horizontal" -System dividers (as page text elements) in the score are now handled correctly if they are not not hidden in parts, but appear on hidden pages from a part which turn to visible pages through the plug-in processing and system respacing. New Feature: - New option "Also Add Double Barline If More Than One Key Signature Changes are Found" added. In previous version Finale's "Double Barline Preceding Key Signature Changes" was automatically activated when exactly one key signature change was found. Now it's also possible to activate it automatically when multiple key signature changes were found (Deactivated by default). ;v3.0035 2022-03-16 Improved: -Improved vertical/horizontal placement of bracket-only expressions (expressions that only have bracket symbols with space in between) that include another expression in its middle. -Improved vertical placement of measure counting expressions of slash staff styles on 1-line staves. -When only single measures or tiny regions were selected and slash or repeat staff styles were applied to large regions, then the measure counting feature is turned off to avoid wrong counting. -Improved rest metrics in some multi-voice scenarios -Improved PDF manual -Improved hairpin metrics in case of staff styles that hide expressions -In some cases improved horizontal placement of technique text expressions on beat 1 -If a one-bar staff style follows directly after a slash staff style (not good practice), then only one measure counting expression will be added (not two). -Improved vertical alignment of dynamics in a rare combination of two voices plus articulations and dynamics. -In some cases improved vertical alignment of technique text expressions before dynamics ;v3.0033 2022-03-09 Improved: -The feature "Put Tuplet Numbers on Notes Far Above the Staff on Top (And Vice Versa) and Add Brackets" has been fine-tuned a little bit more. It now looks even more at the surrounding notes to decide whether tuplet brackets are to be added or not. -If "Optimize Tie Settings" is activated, the tie settings are now only updated if the plug-in is applied to the full document. -Translation improved in the registration dialog: in non-English languages some English words occured. New Feature: -If you add ABOVECHORD to the description text of an expression or an expression category, the expression will be placed above a chord. By default all expressions (except tempo and rehearsal expressions) are placed below chord symbols. -The ABOVECHORD feature can also be used for creating priorities when placing two expressions at the same measure position. The tempo/rehearsal mark expressions will be placed on top, followed by the ABOVECHORD expression, followed by all other expressions. ;v3.0031 2022-03-08 Fixed: -If the page with the first system only had invisible page texts, an error message could occur (introduced in v3.0027). Fixed now. Improved: -If a measure number region uses identical position values for measure numbers at system start and for multiples, then the measure numbers at system start won't be changed anymore. -Making Perfect Layout compatible with RGP Lua (Part 4): solving more issues with articulations in RGP Lua/Fin26+ -Warning message added when many staves from measure 1 to the last measure are selected, but not all: was this intended or should it have been the selection of the full document? As some features of Perfect Layout only work if the full document is selected and some users have accidentally selected the visible staves only, the warning message should help to avoid this problem. -Improved activation process -Improved detection of "full score selected" -RGP Lua only: if the document uses niente hairpin expressions, but has no expressions with enclosures, you won't see a warning message anymore as RGP Lua can create new enclosures. -Two staff choir groups with only one lyrics line in the middle are moved closer together with the lyrics being in the center (similar to piano two staff groups). It only works if most of the bottom staff has no own lyrics, but shares the lyric from the top staff. -New default setting for the "Put Tuplet Numbers on Notes Far Above the Staff on Top (And Vice Versa) and Add Brackets": it will add brackets if there are at least three ledger lines and the tuplet is not surrounded by small steps. ;v3.0029 2022-03-03 Fixed: -In rare cases a crash could occur (introduced in v3.0027) caused by page texts if the score and the parts have different numbers of empty pages before the first system. Fixed now. -When only few measures were selected, a crash could occur when trying to add a tie end and the starting measure was far away and not selected (introduced in v3.0021). Fixed now. Improved: -Improved detection of forte-piano dynamics built from two separate expressions -Improved collision detection on clefs that don't use the default clef font -Improved vertical placement of two tempo/rehearsal mark text expressions in some cases -Added better font file name support for some music fonts (i.e. detection of the font despite weird file names) -Making Perfect Layout compatible with RGP Lua (Part 3): a) tremolo articulations over whole notes now have the correct vertical offset in Finale 26+ b) tie settings are now as in JW Lua c) combinations of multiple articulations on a slur that use both inside and outside slur settings are now handled correctly d) in case of collisions improved distances between articulations and expressions New Features: -New option "MMRests->Show Measure Range at Start of System". If the measure range is set to be shown only on at least x bars wide multi-measure rests, then it will still always show up below multi-measure rests at the start of the systen. Activated by default. ;v3.0027 2022-02-25 Improved: -Improved vertical spacing in some case of staves that are hidden in some systems -Improved vertical spacing in some case of staves that are hidden in the score and used in parts only -In some cases improved placement of measure number expressions above large time signatures -Support for scores where the top staff is hidden and used in the parts only (in previous editions Perfect Layout issued a warning message and cancelled the processing) -In some cases improved detection of measure number collisions with curved group brackets -Better detection of page texts that are not assigned to a measure (but to a page) that are used as movement names -Improved additional "5 staff line"-expressions for clef changes on 1-line staves handling -Improved accidental/note collision handling on resized staves -In some cases improved horizontal placement of dynamic expressions on rests before very low notes -Improved placement of dynamic expressions on very low notes in two staff groups (e.g. piano notation), if the bottom staff is empty. -Improved placement of dynamic expressions on very low stemmed-down notes with tremolo articulations -The option "Ties->Re-tie Notes Only if First Tied Note Starts After Beat 1" is now deactivated by default -The lyrics baseline is improved on wide ties that could would collide with the word extension line. -If a hairpin continues on the next page, the staff on the second page has a different position, but still the hairpin has the identical vertical page position as on the first page, in some cases the vertical hairpin alignment on the second page has been improved. -Improved collision handling on technique text expressions that collide with multi-measure rest numbers New Features: -New suboptions (in Gold only) for "Re-tie Notes Which Cross the Middle of the Bar":
a) "Re-tie if it Yields More Dotted Notes" (activated by default)
b) "Re-tie if it Yields More Short Dotted Notes" (deactivated by default)
c) "Re-tie Simple Patterns (max. 3 Notes)" (deactivated by default)
The "Re-tie Simple Patterns" does not refer to patterns where the note durations are only exchanged. I.e. even if the option is deactivated a half note tied with a quarter note is automaticall changed to a quarter note with a half note if the half note crossed the middle of the bar. In Silver the default values always apply. ;v3.0025 2022-02-22 Improved: -Improved placement of text expressions above barlines in certain scenarios of multi-measure rests with measure ranges -Improved calculation of tuplet brackets below notes in some cases -Improved chord metrics calculation on chords not attached to note entries -In some cases improved visibility/invisibility of measure numbers -Improved detection of identical/similar measure number regions -In some cases improved vertical staff spacing with hidden staves in the score -Minor processing speed improval -On "extracted parts" files or scores with only one staff and no parts, the unused measure number regions that Perfect Layout generates for (linked) parts are automatically deleted. -Additional "5 staff line"-expressions for clef changes on 1-line staves at system end are not added anymore if the "Display Courtesy Clef at End of Staff System" option is deactivated. ;v3.0023 2022-02-19 Improved: -In very rare scenarios of multi-layer note entries improved placement of dynamics with attached hairpins -Improved vertical system spacing if a two-staff system has both staves superimposed. ;v3.0021 2022-02-16 Improved: -Improved adding of horizontal space in some note collisions, especially with accidentals -Improved PDF manual -In some cases improved horizontal placement of rehearsal/tempo expressions on beat 1 if the note has a slur from the previous measure -Improved horizontal placement of custom lines above the staff at the end of a measure -Improved accidental collision detection if straight flags are used -Improved collision detection of backwards tied notes in repeat endings. New Feature: -If the "Tie End" flag is not set on the first beat of a (second or higher) repeat ending, then it will be set automatically if the last note in the last measure before the first repeat ending is tied. ;v3.0019 2022-02-13 Fixed: -Windows: The deactivation sometimes didn't work when using the v3 beta in a v2 environment Improved: -Windows: Addition of the beta version to the download portal. -macOS: The quickstart tutorial in the browser only pops up at the end of the installation when the plug-in is installed for the first time. ;v3.0017 2022-01-31 Fixed: -Finale 27: When certain combinations of text inserts were used on the first page, an error could occur (Bug introduced in beta v3.x). -Correct vertical chord alignment on all measurement units (Bug introduced in beta v3.x). -Expression playback behaviour was partially changed to "Tempo: 0" (Bug introduced in beta v3.x). Improved: -RGP Lua only: automatic activation of "Document Options->Accidentals->Use cross-layer accidental positioning" if "Alignment of Multiple Horizontal Accidentals" is activated in Perfect Layout -Finale 26/27: in some cases of notes below the staff and two articulations above the staff improved vertical placement of articulations -Making Perfect Layout compatible with RGP Lua (Part 2): Fin25/Fin26 version number corrections, changing dialog styles, updating articulation functions -Improved placement of dynamics above the staff before the end of the bar or before very high notes -Duplicate tempo/rehearsal expressions are not only detected and removed on the top staff, but also on other staves. -Ottava smartshapes that start on a rest are not horizontally aligned anymore, but kept at their starting position -Improved note collision removal over multiple staves in measures with grace notes and accidentals -Custom smartshapes after the final barline that are used for visual effects are kept as they are. -Updated the Italian translation -Minor improvements in the user dialog -Improved algorithm for detecting empty pages at the end of the score (which will be deleted) -If the "Remove 'Opaque'" from expressions option is selected, opaque background are now only removed on expressions with no border. If the line width is above 0, they are kept as they are. -Improved metric calculation of whole note chords -Improved placement of dynamics on beat 2, if the hairpin starts at the end of the previous measure and (accidentally) ends on beat 1 instead of beat 2 -Improved handling of smartshapes that internally end beyond the last visible measure -Improved horizontal placement of instrument numbers (e.g. 1., 1.+2.) if a dynamic expression is on the same beat -Improved vertical placement of opaque Technique Text expressions -Improved placement of rehearsal marks over the barline that have a very low horizontal offset (below -200 EVPU) -Improved metrics on tuplets using the "Full Bracket Duration" option -Improved dynamics placement above the staff on lyrics staves New feature: -Messed up system staves in scroll view with staff distances beyond 1000000 EVPU which may lead to invisibility of all notation elements and other problems are reset -New option (Gold only): "Optimize Slur Settings" now has a suboption to "Optimize Slur System Break Settings". ;v3.0015 2022-01-26 Fixed: -When the LH staff of a two staff piano group is completely empty, then in rare cases an error message could occur (Bug introduced in beta v3.0011) -When deactivating the plug-in and clicking on "Cancel" in the main dialog, in some cases an error message occured (Bug introduced in beta v3.x) Improved: -Support for 0/4 as "Display Time Signature" -Making Perfect Layout compatible with RGP Lua (Part 1): changing dialog styles, making plugindef() compatible, changing load style -Improved detection of "two staff groups" (e.g. piano notation) -Improved vertical spacing if a part has many completely empty systems (hidden with a staff style). -Vertical staff/system optimization in parts now also works correctly if "Resize Vertical Space" was deactivated on the systems -Improved vertical system spacing on parts with only few systems (that don't span the full page) -In some cases slightly faster vertical system spacing in parts -In vertical staff/system spacing the last system on a page is not moved to the next page anymore (which could happen only in very rare cases, especially cases when the staff height in a system was not at 100% in parts). -Updated PDF manual -Improved lyrics alignment when a lyrics section only has a "blank" syllable -Improved support for preventing the "QXPScriptingAddition.osax" error on some older maOS installations. ;v3.0013 2022-01-23 Improved: -In some cases improved placement of hairpins before dynamics on very low notes -Improved detection of compound "fp" dynamics if these are created with two dynamics ("f"+"p"). -Less collisions with repeat brackets in parts -Improved note spacing on multiple note layers in percussion notation -In some cases improved measure number placement over curved group brackets in the score ;v3.0011 2022-01-12 Improved: -In rare cases improved vertical placement of above staff text expressions (especially over chords) -Improved vertical staff system spacing in some cases that use a very small page scaling (e.g. 10%) and a large staff system scaling (e.g. 170%). -Improved measure spacing in measure 1 if the staff default clef is different than the actual clef and measure 2 is empty. -Improved placement of dynamics before note clusters with many accidentals and very low notes -In some cases improved horizontal placement of compound dynamics ("sub.p") on scores that have differently resized staves. -Improved horizontal placement of expressive text connected with dynamics (e.g. "f" + "espr.") on resized staves in parts. -Improved metrics on manually adjusted accidentals that use a different font than the default accidental font -Corrupt accidental modifications are now detected and ignored -In dense piano parts improved placement of dynamics on beat 1 after hairpins in the previous measure -In some cases on piano notation there will now be larger vertical staff distances on very low hairpins between the staves. -Improved centering of dynamics between two staves on piano notation in parts -Separate (two) arpeggios on both staves of a two staff group (e.g. piano) don't affect the measure spacing on the second staff anymore. New Feature: -Horizontal collision removal of dotted stem-up notes colliding with stem-down notes one second below. ;v3.0009 2021-12-21 Fixed: -Fixed a v3.0007 bug: in some cases an error message could appear (staff and measure number mixed up). -The plug-in doesn't crash anymore on composite fractional time signatures including a "+" sign (e.g. (4+0.5)/4). -When running the system/staff optimization only one some pages (and not all pages), then in some cases the bottom staff wasn't accurately placed according to the selected "Align Page Bottom Margin with" setting. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved handling of invalid/corrupt text expressions -Improved placement of measure numbers at system start below 1-line staves with the "Drumset" clef -Improved vertical placement of multiple text expressions on the same measure position -Improved metric information or arpeggio articulations for staff collisions -Faster sorting of vertical text expression order -Glissando lines that were accidentally connected to two notes although they visually only refer to one note (i.e. a glissando from undetermined start note to the end note) are now better placed -When multiple glissando lines are attached to a chord and some of them are visually attached to the wrong note, these glissando lines are now ignored (as it is unclear what the composer wanted). -Glissando lines are better taken into account for staff collisions and text expression placement -More music fonts are recognized by Perfect Layout -Improved placement of two parallel glissando lines that start on the same pitch, but end on two different notes. -If the last system only has one measure, it's not shifted anymore to the previous system if it's a very dense notation. -Improved horizontal placement of text repeat symbols with inconsistent justification values -In some cases improved vertical placement of text repeat symbols from staff lists -In some cases improved horizontal placement of unison notes on two layers -Improved Italian translation -L.V. ties are not removed on resized notes any more as these could be cue notes from other instruments -L.V. ties are not removed on notes before slash or one-/two bar repeat notation staff styles -The option "Keep Current Position" for placement of measure numbers at system start is now more strict: extra offset for curved group brackets are not added anymore, the vertical/horizontal offsets can't be changed and "Clear Individual Measure Number Positions and Visibility" is also deactived. This ensures that measure numbers at system start should now stay at their position. The old functionality is now available under "Set to User-Defined Offsets". -Chord symbols are not placed above text repeats symbols anymore. -Small text elements attached to measures/staves, but vertically visible on other staves (because of high vertical offsets) are now better taken into account for vertical staff alignment -Prefix and Suffix symbols are supported in measure number collision removal New feature: -New option "Also Optimize Rests on Dashed Barlines, Ticks or No Barlines at All" (deactivated by default). If activated, then rest optimization is also performed on measures with dashed barlines, ticks or without barlines. -New option for placement of measure numbers at system start: "Set to User-Defined Offsets" -New option (in Gold): "Optimize->Add Double Barline Preceding Key Changes" which was activated by default in previous versions of Perfect Layout can now be deactivated (in the Silver version it's always activated). -New option: Arpeggio signs can now be automatically shifted before the accidental/note. In Gold only the distance is adjustable (in Silver and by default it is: 9 EVPU). The new option is "Reset->Shift Arpeggio Articulations Before Note. Horizontal Distance: 9 EVPU". If there is not sufficient space before the note, space will be added. In dense measures the results are slightly better when "Document Options->Music Spacing->Avoid Collisions of Articulations" had been activated before starting Perfect Layout. ;v3.0007 2021-11-16 Fixed: -When "Optimize Staff/System Distances" was deactivated and the average staff system bottom margin was above 220 EVPU, then in some cases the staff system layout was still affected by PL. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved placement of wide, enclosed measure numbers at the start of the system in case of clef collisions -Improved cue text expression placement on two staff piano notation if the top staff is empty. -Improved lyrics placement on tall uppercase lyrics letters like ÜÄÖÉČ etc. -"Invalid slur" message is not shown in the log anymore if only a partial region was selected and the slur was partially attached to a measure outside the selected region -Improved font metrics if a font has kerning tables with multiple sub tables -Improved placement of hairpins ending with dynamics on beat 1, if beat 1 is a long rest -Improved vertically centered placement of compound dynamics with expressive text in piano (two staff) notation (e.g. "piu" + "ff") -Improved log messages -Vertical spacing between systems now also works correctly if a staff system uses huge negative "Distance Between Systems" values -Improved placement of measure numbers at system start. -Improved automatic detection of measure number placement below the staff for automatically keeping the placement below staff if this is the default setting for the parts. -Improved placement of mf dynamics on (very) low notes below upstem notes (slightly further away). -The "Download Updates" page on the Elbsound.studio website now automatically detects the operating system -Tuplet brackets are not put on the other side on very high/low notes if these include ties or slurs (in previous versions it was only slurs) -In somes cases improved vertical dynamics/hairpins alignment -In somes cases improved horizontal dynamics/hairpins alignment -Detection of hidden notes when the staff settings (not the staff style settings) are set to use slash notation -Improved detection of "Alternate Notation" staves that don't use staff styles -Tuplet brackets on slash notation are automatically set unvisible when the tuplet notes are hidden behind the slashes -Automatic hiding of bow marks in the conductor score is now only activated by default if there are very many bow marks which probably are not required for the conductor. If there are only very few, but thus probably very important bow marks these are kept in the score. -Support for fractional time signatures: If irrational time signatures are used (e.g. 0.375/1), Perfect Layout doesn't crash anymore. Note: JW Lua can't read these time signatures, so please don't use them. For 0.375/1 write 3/8. -The warning message in the log file "Text repeat element in measure 54 is set to left justification, but currently (nearly) aligned with the right barline." (and vice versa with left) is not shown anymore on staves where the text repeat element is hidden because of a text repeat stafflist. -Automatic removal of hairpin on empty measures now also works on 2-staff piano groups -ca. 20-25% better processing speed on Windows, ca. 300% on macOS -Dynamics on beat 1 assigned to the bottom staff in two staff groups (piano notation) where the top staff only includes a whole rest are now assigned to a new layer in the top staff. Otherwise they would appear centered below the whole rest in the middle of the bar. -Tempo/rehearsal mark expressions on hidden staves that are visible in the score on the staff below (for whatever reason) are now taken correctly into account for staff spacing and alignment -Improved lyrics spacing in case of many font changes within a verse -If the current staff is the bottom staff of the staff system, large time signatures are now also taken into account for vertical spacing if they are attached to the previous or the penultimate staff, but have their bottom margin below the current staff -Improved measure spacing on wide text expressions when a multi-measure rest follows in the next measure and the expressions collides with text expression in the measure after the multi-measure. -Improved articulation placement in a certain two-layer/two-voice scenario -In some cases improved placement of tuplet brackets over tied notes -In some cases improved placement of tempo text expressions over hidden bow marks in the score. -Windows: The automatic update now makes sure that the downloaded user language files don't conflict with Windows' virtual store feature. -Improved text expression placement on piano (two staff) groups with a whole note in one hand and several notes in the other hand. New feature: -New option "Restart Measure Counting on Time Signature Changes" added to the measure counting options (activated by default). -New option "Place Harmonics Articulations (Circles) Outside Tuplet Brackets" (Gold: on the Articulation tab/Silver: on the Tuplets tab). Use this option to define inside/outside tuplet bracket placement of the circle articulation. ;v2.6100 2021-11-15 Fixed: -In very rare cases Finale could show an error message when calculating the volume of a dynamics. Fixed now. Improved: -A few minor processing speed improvements all over the plug-in ;v2.6000 2021-11-10 Fixed: -In rare cases an error message could occur on stem collisions in measures that also have hidden notes. Fixed now. -In rare cases when an expression used a non-installed font and Finale changed its font value to "Missing Font" instead of the real font name, Perfect Layout had problems in deciphering the expression text. Fixed now. -In rare cases Finale could hang when a certain combination of grace notes, freeze stems and hidden notes was in one measure. Fixed now. -If a score had multiple piano instruments and a hairpins between the two piano instruments (below the bottom staff of the top piano and above the top staff of the bottom piano), in some cases these hairpins were centered between the two instruments instead of aligned with the top instruments. Fixed now. -On the Chords tab a text was visible that had no function yet. The text has been removed. Improved: -Processing speed boost (especially on macOS) for the lyrics alignment if the file includes lots of syllables. -Faster calculation of expression and text metrics that are repeatedly used in the score -Many minor processing speed improvements all over the plug-in -More music font names added. -macOS installer now asks to close Finale 27 before installation. -Improved enigma tags optimization in the case of ^font(...)^size(...)^font(...)^size(...). -Horizontal lyrics metrics for vertical staff spacing are now calculated more precisely. -Improved placement of enclosed measure numbers at system start. -Horizontal collisions of expressions with lyrics are now partially taken into account. -Improved vertical staff/system spacing on parts with only one page and lots of free space. -Improved Spanish, French, Italian, German and Polish translation -Improved support for negative baseline, tracking and superscript values in texts -Moved "Clear Manual Vertical Lyrics Positioning" to the Alignment tab in the lyrics section. When everything the "Deactivate All" preset is loaded, it's now possible to activate vertical lyrics alignment with one click only. -In some cases improved measure number metrics at the start of the system (with enclosures and measure number regions that don't start at measure 1). -Articulation with tie/slur collision removal now also works with tremolo articulations on whole notes ;v2.5900 2021-10-27 Fixed: -When shape expressions are used as multi-measure rest breaking expressions at the end of a multi-measure rest, then in some cases an error message could occur. Improved: -The plug-in now also checks directly after the first installation if an update already exists. -Improved PDF manual -The registration data (Name, email address, license key) is shown on the General tab. ;v2.5800 2021-10-25 Improved: -Some tasks were split into smaller parts to have a more accurate progress bar. -Cleaned up the ES Perfect Layout.log file: "Elapsed Time: 0.00" is not shown anymore; all percentage values now have the format x.xx. -Increase in processing speed on large scores (especially on macOS the progress bar sometimes took very long at "General Preparations: 68%"). -The horizontal repeat bracket alignment now supports the "Thin Inner Barline" option from Finale's repeat ending preferences ;v2.5700 2021-10-22 Fixed: -The staff spacing sometimes didn't work if one staff had multiple lyrics verses and required a very wide distance to the staff below. Fixed now. -MacOS only: French and Spanish didn't appear in the language selection menu. Fixed now. Improved: -No more warning message if a font is missing on the computer, if the text expression is hidden. -Shape expressions now stay at their position if the expression baseline has changed and the expression placement is not baseline-dependent. -Improved PDF manual -Windows: Improved font detection for some fonts where the font name is very different to the font file name -Slightly improved processing speed on large scores -Improved staff spacing on staves that have lyrics only on some systems, but not on all. -Improved detection of fully hidden measures with only coda signs on them. -When you start the plug-in for the first time, you are now asked if you want to receive the Elbsound email newsletter with information about Perfect Layout updates or product releases. ;v2.5600 2021-10-06 Fixed: -When FORCEINCLUDE was added to a large text expression, in one case it was still not included in the vertical staff spacing. Fixed now. -The options "Alignment->Exclude Rehearsal and Tempo Marks in User-Defined Categories from Alignment" and ""Alignment->Shift Rehearsal Letters up on Tempo Expression Collisions from Previous Measure" were accidentally disabled when the "Align Rehearsal and Tempo Marks Vertical" algorithm changed. Fixed now. -"Fake" pickup measures were not detected correctly (i.e. measures that use a different time-signature for display instead of Finale's own pickup tool) if the time signature was hidden on the staff in measure 1. Fixed now. -Silver version only: The two values from "Tuplets->On 8th Notes..." were not correctly loaded when "clicking on Load: Last Saved Settings". Fixed now. Improved: -No more warning messages in the log file when loading a user-defined settings file -Hairpins ending at a right repeat bracket are not prolonged to a dynamics in the next measure -Niente hairpins (with a niente expression) at the same ending position as a hairpin without the niente symbol are now better aligned horizontally. -The language selection names are now always in the original language. -Improved handling of very low note dynamics on measure position 0 if previous measure also has a very low hairpin -Improved detection of "General pause" expressions -macOS: the Terminal.app restores its original position after the Perfect Layout progress bar has been closed. -Added two more scenarios for improved splitting of multi-measure rests on breaking (tempo) expressions assigned to the middle of a bar -Added one scenario of automatically moving a measure in parts to the next system on colliding wide tempo expressions between two measures -Added one scenario of moving a dynamic on a rest to the first note in that measure (if the previous measures are empty) ;v2.5500 2021-10-05 Fixed: -When the music font of the line character of a glissando smart shape was not installed and the font was not used anywhere else in the Finale document, an error message could appear. Fixed now. -Silver/Silver400 version: When loading the settings from a user-defined file, an error message could occur. Improved: -Improved detection of "large" time signatures -Improved placement of tempo expressions after large time signatures, when these expressions appear on multiple staves. -Improved vertical spacing calculation on chamber scores with a piano instrument. -Flipped stem flags on beamed groups are not removed anymore if a slur or tuplet starts from that group and ends on another beamed group with the same stem direction ;v2.5300 2021-09-28 Fixed: -In very rare cases an articulation with tie collision with a minor overlap of about 1-2 EVPU was not detected because of a rounding error. Fixed now. -If there was a MusicXML imported expression was in a Dynamics category and the expression only consisted of the Space symbol (so the expression actually looked empty), then in some cases (if certain placement options were set) an error message could occur. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved metrics of natural accidentals (for better collision detection and vertical staff spacing) -Improved handling of pickup measures with slash staff styles -Improved horizontal spacing of slash staff style measures in some cases -The "Invalid Accidental or Tie" message is now only shown once for each entry (and not for each note pitch) -When an accidental is revealed through corrected tie flags, the measure will now automatically be respaced -Improved glissandi placement when the end note has a shifted stem -Improved spacing if notes on multiple layers don't have noteheads, but only stems -Improved PDF manual -Improved detection of invisible noteheads -In some cases improved niente placement when the hairpin starts between two notes -Improved metrics of tuplets starting with beamed(!) rests when "Extend Beams Over Rests" is activated -In some cases improved placement of technique text expressions (if there is some free space to the right) -"Alignment->Shift Rehearsal Letters up on Tempo Expression Collisions from Previous Measure" now works both on tempo alteration AND tempo mark expressions -Slightly improved vertical dynamics placement centered between two (piano) staves in very narrow situations. New Features: -Gold: New option "Reset/Hide->Accidentals->Reveal Accidentals on Notes with False 'Tie End' Attribute". If the 'Tie End' attribute is set, then accidentals are hidden. Perfect Layout keeps the accidentals hidden unless this option is activated. In general it's not recommended to hide accidentals like this, but it may occur especially through MusicXML import. Deactivated by default. -Gold: New option "Reset/Hide->Accidentals->Keep Visible Accidentals on End Notes of Tie". Usually there are no accidentals visible before the end note of a tie. But if they were made visible on purpose (with the "Freeze Accidental" flag set), then Perfect Layout keeps them like this. If deactivated, they will be removed. Activated by default. ;v2.5200 2021-09-27 Improved: -In some cases improved horizontal accidental alignment on chords with two or three accidentals -Improved dynamic placement if placed on a rest in piano notation ;v2.5100 2021-09-24 Fixed: -If the time signature "Space After" or "Space Before" value is different for score and parts in Finale's document options, Perfect Layout will now use the "parts" value in parts (and not the score value anymore). -In some cases hidden playback-only staves that were neither used in the score nor in the parts influenced the layout. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved handling of fretboards in vertical staff spacing -A staff named Mallets or Chimes or using the mallets or chimes instrument type is now automatically recognized as a "laisser vibrer" instrument. -Rest entries with rest displacement offsets beyond 100 are converted to hidden rests which also improves the rest optimization function -Grace note slashes are not added to eighth grace notes anymore if these don't have stems -Improved slur metrics on slurs where the start and the end note are connected to different layers and where the slur measure includes multiple layers -In some cases improved glissando smartshapes if they end on notes with accidentals or if they span multiple systems -Slightly improved placement of technique text expressions that are close to articulations -In some cases improved placement of MusicXML-imported dynamics below lyrics staves -Improved note entry metrics on notes where the stem has been modified to be invisible by reducing its size to nearly zero. New Features: -Gold version: Vertical lyrics alignment can now be deactivated. ;v2.5000 2021-09-11 Fixed: -When cue lyrics were hidden through a staff style in the score, then in some cases they would still be included in the vertical staff layout optimization. Fixed now. -If a dynamic was attached twice to the identical position (once to "All Layers", once to a hidden layer), then in rare cases Perfect Layout would take these two dynamics as one dynamic and keep only the hidden dynamic. Fixed now. -In some cases enclosed measure numbers at system start where slightly moved to the right in the score. Fixed now. -On extracted parts in rare cases the last system was moved to an extra page (instead of staying on the last page), because of a rounding error. Fixed now. -The arpeggio symbol 0xf700 in the new Finale SMuFl fonts is now detected correctly -In rare cases an error message could occur on dynamics in measures without notes. Fixed now. -In very rare cases the dedicated cue lyrics layer was detected falsely. Fixed now. Improved: -If the new Finale 27 SMuFl fonts were accidentally added to MacSymbolFonts.txt, then an error message is issued. -Improved vertical staff spacing on "hidden" staves that only include smartshapes or texts, but no notes, stafflines and barlines. -Improved processing speed on huge scores (> 1500 measures) -Improved handling of falsy smartshapes on 1-line staves that are assigned to the identical measure position at the end of the previous measure, but visible in the next measure. -Improved articulation placement in some multi-voice/multi-layer scenarios where the "Freeze Stem" flag is activated -Detection of "Fake Multi-Voice Scenarios" where multiple note entry layers are used, but no overlapping notes occur, because of hidden entries. If detected, then the articulation placement will be corrected as though it were be no multi-voice/layer setup. -Improved PDF manual -Added new fonts to the list of known music fonts (GrooveMM,TheCopyistMM,RhapsodyMM) -Dynamics between connected hairpins on whole notes on beat 4 (from 4) are not shifted to the very end of the measure anymore -Expressions that are visible above "two staff groups" (e.g. piano), but are assigned to bottom staff, are now re-assigned to the top staff -Improved vertical staff spacing on staves with hidden (cue) notes with lyrics -Improved dynamics placement on very low notes if the previous note was a stem-down grace note below the staff. -Tempo/rehearsal expressions are not moved anymore above measure numbers that are far above the staff. -Measure numbers at start of system below staff on the top staff in a full orchestra score (not recommended) are not moved above staff anymore if "Extra Offset for Curved Group Brackets" is activated. -Improved vertical staff spacing if a staff in a system is nearly empty and has no elements below the bottom staff line -Improved hairpin/dynamics placement if the start-/endpoints of the hairpin are connected to the same measure position (one more scenario to the known scenarios added) -macOS: Node.js updated to v14.16.1 (same version as on Windows). -If the top staff of a system in multi-staff score is empty and the second one isn't, then it will get an improved vertical distance in some cases (slightly larger than before). -If the measure number at start of system distance is set to "Keep as it is", then the "Extra Offset For Curved Group Brackets" is now automatically calculated according to the actual measure number position (and not a fixed vertical offset anymore). -macOS: Installer issues a warning message for the Japanese version of Finale 26/27 if it uses the Katakana plug-in folder name which has to be renamed to the English "Plug-ins" for JW Lua. -Improved algorithm for detecting empty staves if not all staff attributes are set to "Hidden" -Improved French and Spanish translation and Spanish user dialog -More preview images New features: -Open glissandi (without end notes) on harp or other two staff groups are now incorporated in vertical staff spacing ;v2.4900 2021-08-24 Fixed: -When a measure number region was used with "Use Score Settings in Linked Parts" and an enclosure activated, then in some cases the enclosures disappeared in the parts or the enclosures in the parts changed their shape. Fixed now. -If a measure accidentally includes a tuplet with a duration wider than the measure duration, then rest optimization in the tuplet will not be performed anyore. Improved: -The algorithm for deciding the staff distance on "Always Hide Empty Staves in Parts" has been improved. -Improved metrics on chord symbols over one-bar or slash staff style measures with hidden notes. -Improved detection of custom lines connected with expressions. (Though not recommended: if possible use custom lines with text instead of connecting expressions with lines). -Improved measure counting algorithm when using one-bar repeats on chord changes directly after a double barline. -macOS: the internal update download uses a slightly different command which might increase the download speed on some macOS versions -Improved tuplet metrics mainly on tuplets with starting or ending with a rest -Improved PDF manual -Improved Spanish and Japanese translation -Improved metrics on enclosures with large negative height and width values. It's still not recommended to use large negative enclosure distance values as they do not always produce the correct metrics. Usually it's possible to get the same enclosure look with positive values. So please use these if possible. -Spanish is now automatically activated on Spanish operating systems. -macOS: Installer stability improved New Feature: -Gold: New option "Show Measure Counting Also on Staves with Chords" (deactivated by default and thus not available in Silver). If you want to have measure counting also on chord symbols (e.g. each chord symbol change starts a new repeat counter, if one-bar or slash staff style notation is applied), you now have to activate this option. In previous versions measure counting was always present on chord symbols. ;v2.4800 2021-08-20 Fixed: -When "Always Hide Empty Staves in Parts" was activated and a part included a piano two staff group plus other staves on top, then in some cases Perfect Layout would hide empty staves and change the staff distances although it was a piano group which should be left unchanged through the "Always Hide..." option. Fixed now. Improved: -The algorithm for deciding the staff distance on "Always Hide Empty Staves in Parts" has been improved. -The staff name "Hits" is now recognized as a percussion instrument. ;v2.4700 2021-08-11 Fixed: -In a rare case an expression on a hidden staff could cause an error message. Fixed now. -In rare cases hairpins on two staff groups (piano, harp) were moved above the staff. -If "Optimize Staff/System Distances" was deactivated, then in dynamics on piano staves were sometimes not correctly centered (when the score uses lots of hidden staves). -When using linked parts with "Specify Voicing" settings and grace notes, in some cases this could influence the spacing in the score and lead to note/accidental collisions in the score. Fixed now. -No more "Invalid slur found" warnings over slash or repeat staff style measures. Improved: -The warning message "Recommended font ... not installed" is not shown anymore in the log file as it is not relevant to Perfect Layout, but only to other Elbsound plug-ins. -The "single arpeggio symbol" from slot 0xe15b in the Elbsound "FIN"-fonts is now recognized as a standard arpeggio symbol. -Improved dynamic expression baseline settings on jazz fonts -If the chord font is not installed on the computer and a measure includes an invalid chord flag, then the plug-in won't cancel anymore. -Articulations on grace notes within tuplets don't influence the creation of a tuplet bracket anymore. -Added new warning message if you have purchased an upgrade or discount version and try to install before your license key has been manually unlocked. -Improved slur metrics on "Extra Long Span" slurs -Tuplet brackets are not added "to note side" on extreme notes anymore if an adjacent tuplet has slurs and thus wouldn't get tuplet brackets on the note side -Improved automatic vertical staff spacing settings for vocal+piano scores -Improved lyrics metrics on 1-line staves -Improved Spanish translation -Improved system/staff balancing if the page height is much larger than the system size ;v2.4600 2021-07-15 Fixed: -On scores with lots of hidden staves (probably more than 30) in rare cases the vertical score balancing lead to a vanishing of the "Distance Between Systems Space" above of the top system of a page. -If a multi-movement piano score includes an identical part with a different system layout, page texts with movement names assigned to pages could occur on the wrong place in the score. Fixed now. However it is very much recommended to not use page texts assigned to pages for movement names, but texts assigned to measures to avoid this confusion when parts are used. -On complex trills constructed through custom smart lines and many "baselines" changes in text area in some cases the trill line was still vertically placed with collisions. Fixed now. Improved: -Expressions colliding with measure-centered measure numbers below staff are not moved beyond the measure numbers anymore -Trill custom lines with long texts fields (up to 14 letters) are now correctly recognized. In previous version the limit was 9 letters. Usually 8 letter should be sufficient for long texts like "tr 1/2". Try to avoid to unnecessary spaces or a complex layout of these symbols. ;v2.4500 2021-07-14 Fixed: -In very rare cases an error message could occur when using expressions with non-existing symbols from a music font. -When a grace note was attached to voice 2 to instead of the voice 1 note directly (don't do that as there is absolutely no reason for it), in some cases the metrics from a tie above the staff were calculated wrong which could lead to tempo marks colliding with the tie. Improved: -More cases of horizontal accidental alignment on chords with seconds are supported -Improved PDF manual ;v2.4400 2021-07-12 Fixed: -macOS: the 5-staff line symbol didn't show up correctly, if the Kodaly font was added to MacSymbolFonts.txt. Fixed now. Improved: -The fonts Bach, Kodaly and Bach4JP are now set to be non-MacSymbolFonts.txt fonts. On Windows this didn't make a difference, but on macOS Finale seems to have weird problems with these fonts in MacSymbolFonts.txt mode. -The German version of Finale uses different default folders than all other international versions. Unfortunately JW Lua can't access the configuration files settings, so it's always a little guess if it's the correct folder. The detection algorithm has been made more stable now. As users have reports German Finale installations where both the original folder "Configuration Files" and the German Folder "Konfigurationsdateien" have been present, make sure to check this and delete unnecessary configuration files folders. Otherwise Perfect Layout's font engine might not work correctly as it depends on the MacSymbolFonts.txt file. ;v2.4300 2021-07-10 Fixed: -When using a translation of Perfect Layout (and not the English original) a certain "Font missing" error message would sometimes show weird symbols. Fixed now. Improved: -Windows: On slow internet connections better detection of available plug-in updates. ;v2.4200 2021-07-07 Fixed: -MacOS: Internal update made more stable. The error message 9 and 12 should usually not occur anymore. -When the accidental font was different than any other used music font in that document, an error message could occur. Fixed now. -On very badly formatted MusicXML documents an error message could occur (The document where this happened used multiple expressions (!) for each chord (each letter one expression) and some of them were also assigned to the wrong staff and different measure positions - probably the result from an OCR software). Fixed now. -In very rare cases an error message could occur on hidden hairpins below ties. Fixed now. -In very rare cases a staff overlap could occur on colliding note with accidentals. Fixed now. Improved: -Better detection of "Number" expressions and their usage (e.g. fingering, fret/string numbers, measure numbers, rehearsal numbers etc.). -Measure number placement below tablature staves with 6 lines -Added more music fonts to the list of known music fonts -Improved Spanish translation -Improved glissandi positioning when using the "Solid Line" tool instead of the Tab Slide or Glissando tool -Empty measures followed by invisible measures are not merged into one large multi-measure rest, but now only the empty measures are taken into account. -If a rehearsal letter plus two rehearsal/tempo texts were attached to the same measure position, in some cases the rehearsal texts now get an improved horizontal position. -Improved horizontal placement on multiple accidentals if the accidental font has a right margin (e.g. Opus Std) New features: -Gold: New option added to the Alignment tab: "Move Rehearsal and Tempo Expressions in Piano Staves from Between Staves to Above Group". If expressions in these categories were assigned below the top staff although the category default alignment is "Above Staff", then these expressions will be moved to above the staff. This feature had already been in before, but can now be deactivated in the Gold version. -Accidental placement on chords with seconds is horizontally improved - though not in all cases yet (see https://elbsound.studio/assets/img/ES/AccidentalPlacementOnSeconds.gif ) ;v2.4100 2021-06-30 Fixed: -The automatic plug-in updater on Windows sometimes left a new folder inside the Finale plug-in folder. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved spacing of lyrics on slash staff style measures with hidden notes -In some cases improved vertical placement of very wide rehearsal/tempo marks that span multiple measures -Improved vertical alignment between two piano staves if an expressive text is visually connected with a dynamic expression -Improved Spanish translation ;v2.4000 2021-06-25 Fixed: -In rare cases (if the measure in the staff below has word extension smart shapes) a hairpin with a tie/slur collision was not corrected. Fixed now -In rare cases there could be an error message on MusicXML imported documents using one of Finale's hide notes staff style when exporting the document to MusicXML -Correct measure number placement in first measure if "Measure Number at Start of Staff System" is set to alignment "Center" and "Every 1 measure measures beginning with measure 1" is activated too. Improved: -Scores with lots of pages (typically more than 50) are drastically improved in processing speed (up to 100%). -Improved Spanish translation -Better distance of lyrics under 1-line slash staff style notation -Improved placement of some hairpins before low notes with articulations below -Finale 27 support: time signature glyphs are now taken from the unicode block in SMuFl documents -Finale 27 support: the macOS progress bar now displays Fin27 instead of Fin26. -Improved spacing of lyrics on slash staff style measures with hidden notes New features: -New option on the "Reset/Hide" tab: "Make Nearly Horizontal Custom Lines Horizontal". This feature had been implemented and active before. Now it's also possible to deactivate it. -Finale 27 support: the new Finale SMuFl fonts are supported by Perfect Layout ;v2.2302 2021-06-04 Fixed: -macOS: The "PDF" button which opens the PDF manual didn't work on some OS versions. Fixed now. -Windows: The LastFANFileCheck.txt file wasn't saved if the Windows user folder included utf8 letters. Fixed now. Improvements: -On "jazz" style fonts the vertical minimum distance between two accidentals is automatically set to 7 (instead of 6), if it was less than 7. -macOS: If the "progress bar script" has been completely removed from the hard disk, you won't see a terminal warning message anymore. -A few updates to the user dialog for the translations -The f2n metrics file format has been slightly updated to be more stable and read faster. -Improved detection of rehearsal marks below the staff that should not be moved above the staff -In some cases improved repositioning of MusicXML imported expressions -Improved Spanish and Polish translation New features: -The EXCLUDE, FORCEINCLUDE, ADDEXTRASPACE or ALLOWSHIFTRIGHT feature for expressions now also works in expression category names. E.g. when you add EXCLUDE to the category names, all expressions from this category will be excluded from re-positioning. -"Self-update": The update feature now doesn't require external software anymore. It works directly within the plug-in. After the plug-in has updated itself, you just need to restart the plug-in. Finale doesn't need to be restarted. Note: this new update feature only updates the plug-in in the Finale version in which it was started. So if you have multiple Finale versions installed, you have to update it in each version separately or run the standard update tool as before (mainentenancetool.exe on Windows or the full installer on macOS). If the major plug-in version number changes (e.g. v2.x to v3.0) on Windows, you also still have to use the original update tool maintenancetool.exe and an do a full uninstall first, before installing the new version. ;v2.2200 2021-05-26 Fixed: -On grouped piano staves dynamic expressions with the "EXCLUDE" tag are not centered vertically anymore. Improvements: -Tempo/rehearsal marks with the "EXCLUDE" tag are not taken into account anymore for broadening measures if they are wider than the measure they are in -The "Grace Note Index" for dynamic expressions is reset to 0 on notes with few preceding grace notes to keep the dynamic correctly vertically placed below the main note. -Improved Spanish translation, adjustments for the Spanish user dialog -Improved PDF manual (3 pages overview with dynamics/hairpin features) ;v2.2100 2021-05-25 Fixed: -In some cases on piano/harp staff groups (2 or 3 staves) where only one staff is visible dynamics on very low notes were not placed before the note, but below. Fixed now. -If only a short measure region was selected, in rare cases fermata articulations in adjacent measures were also vertically corrected although they were not within in the selected region. Fixed now. -Fixed an error message that could appear in very rare cases on percussion parts where 5-line expressions where added on clef changes from 1-line notation to 5-line notation. -If the reflow settings "Only within measure"+"Reflow Across Systems" were selected and the plug-in was only run on one system, other system bottom margins could have been affected too. Fixed now. Improvements: -If a system includes a single staff only from a piano staff group, the staff on that system is now handled as a single staff and not as a group anymore. This influences a few features. -Improved horizontal placement of empty measures with slash staff style where the hairpin ends directly on the barline -The slur/tie/accidental to dynamic expression vertical distance offset values in the Tight Spacing preset were reduced a bit more -Measure position correction on dynamic expressions that were attached slighlty after a note that are also connected with a hairpin that starts on the same note -"molto", "poco" and other expressive texts below hairpins are now taken into account when centering dynamics/hairpins on group piano staves -Improved two scenarios of centering hairpins/dynamics between grouped piano staves -Improved metrics of beamed cross staff stem-up notes that start a beam group which don't have frozen stems -Improved Spanish translation -Improved PDF manual -Improved stability of Windows installer -Improved detection of old Finale documents from the 90s -Improved support for individually resized staves with expressions connected with hairpins -Improved conversion of some "Top note" dynamic expressions from old Finale documents ;v2.2010 2021-05-20 Fixed: -If a score has many different page percentages, then in very rare cases the last pages could need a manual "Redraw Update" after running the plug-in's system/staff vertical spacing function. Fixed now. Improvements: -New music fonts added to the list of known fonts -Added more words to the list of known "expressive text" and "percussion instrument" texts (for automatic detection) -32nd grace notes are not converted to 16th grace notes anymore if they precede a 16th note. -More preview images -Improved vertical placement in some cases of two rehearsal/tempo marks at the same measure position -Some improvements to the user dialog texts -Improved detection of tempo mark expressions -Finale 26: in some cases improved vertical placement of two outside staff articulations above the staff -Improved glissandi placement on some cases of entry-based glissandi from a cross staff note to a non-cross staff note New features: -Gold: The feature "Optimize grace notes" can now be deactivated (activated by default). The grace note optimization which had already been included in the previous versions is described here: https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/optimize.php#go-to-optimize7 ;v2.2000 2021-05-03 Fixed: -If there was a file access error during the processing of PL, an error message about the language not being available could occur. Fixed now. -In very rare cases system break offset of slurs with different start/end staves were reset. Fixed now. -If groups are different in parts and score (i.e. one staff in score, two staves in parts), then an error message could appear. Fixed now. -No more horizontal collision between a rehearsal letter and a very short tempo mark if they on a multi-measure rest. -When applying Perfect Layout to a full part only and PL has not been applied to the score before, then it in rare cases the expression assignment in other parts could be affected. Fixed now. -Extremely short multi-measure rests (just as wide as the MM rest number) in measures with clef changes at the end were sometimes shortened even more, so that the symbol became unreadble. Fixed now. -macOS: The "Staff lines" symbol from the Bach font did not work in Finale. Replaced with the same symbol from Kodaly font now. -On very small page scalings (less than 40%) in some cases accidentals were not detected correctly for collision removal. -Custom accidental collisions now also take into account the custom accidental vertical offset value Improved: -The "Put Tuplet Brackets on Extreme Notes on Note Side" feature was improved: the algorithm now intelligently searches the surrounding notes, if it is necessary to add tuplet brackets or if less extreme tuplets are close. This avoids quickly alternating visibility of tuplet brackets. -Improved Italian and Spanish translation -A few changes to the user dialog and log messages -Added a few music and text fonts to the list of known fonts -Improved snapping of dynamic expressions to beats in old Finale documents where "beat snapping" wasn't available yet -Manually adjusted slurs over several staves are not reset anymore -Hairpin collisions of l.v. ties at the end of a measure are now also detected if the following measure is empty -Improved horizontal placement of glissando lines behind dottes notes if the staff distance on a harp group was extremely wide (and later reduced by PL) -In some cases improved metrics on ties with system breaks -Finale 26 only: improved expression placement below articulations -Improved macOS installer -"5-staff lines"-expressions put on clef changes from 1-line staves to 5-line staves are now also recognized if they don't use the Perfect Layout format -macOS: Error message "Domain /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist does not exist" in the Terminal progress bar was eliminated which occured only on some systems. -Improved PDF manual -Fermata expressions on empty measures now also break multi-measure rests if they are non-"Break MM Rest" expressions. -Addition of 10 SMuFl fonts to the font symbol database (Leland, Leland Text, AloisenU, Aloisen GrooveU, LS Iris, MuseJazz, MuseJazz Text, Ekmelos, Sebastian, Sebastian Text) -Support for all 37 known SMuFl fonts from www.music-fonts.com#smufl -Accidental articulations before notes are not taken into account anymore on tuplet bracket collisions -Improved placement auto rehearsal marks in the middle of a system if the system starts with an overslur from the previous system -Improved break offset detection on slurs -Improved slur metrics after system breaks -In some cases improved placement of two tempo/rehearsal marks on top of each other -Improved metrics calculation of grace note accidentals -Improved handling of tempo expressions on multiple staves -In some cases improved slur/hairpin collision removal -Improved placement of rehearsal marks over (non-slur) smart shapes -Improved placement of rehearsal marks over (non-slur) dotted notes in the previous measure -Improved placement of rehearsal marks over multi-measure rest numbers which are placed on the staff lines (and not above)
-Improved placement of dynamics on very low notes with accidentals if followed directly by a hairpin -Improved MusicXML import/conversion of some expressions above the staff -Improved detection and metrics calculation of key signature changes -Improved version number detection of font files -Updated Node.js software for reading OTF fonts -Windows: new digital signature -Dynamics on rests in measure 1 are moved to the first note (if not more than two rests) -Improved snapping of dynamics that are not attached to entries to the next note entry -Slight processing speed improval on documents with lots (>500) of expression definitions -Manually repositioned whole rests in non-4/4 measures followed by invisible rests (to fill up the measure) are not reset to position 0 anymore -When run on a single part only, the global measure number placement is not changed anymore -Improved metrics calculation on some enclosed expressions -Finger indications as expressions over the two bottom lines of the staff are not moved anymore below the staff -When clicking the "Check for updates now!" button in the user dialog, you will be directed to the updater file (maintenancetool.exe) on Windows and to the download web page on macOS. -Improved metrics calculation for expressions and articulations with "underline" style -Articulations which use both shape and character types are now supported for collision detection -Improved vertical system spacing -Custom noteheads and custom accidentals are now taken into account on "dynamics with accidental" collisions New features: -New second factory preset: "Tight Spacing". While the original factory preset has a rather loose vertical spacing, the new factory preset offers a much tighter vertical spacing. Note: As Gold and Silver have different options for fine-tuning distances/spacing, the result is slightly different in Gold and Silver. -Collisions of two articulations (e.g. Accent+Tenuto, Accent+Staccato) under tuplet brackets can now be now handled -Gold: New option "Hairpins->Hairpin to Stem Distance" (default 16 EVPU). -If some (at least 18%) dynamic expressions are not set to use category position, but the others are, then a user dialog pops up which allows to harmonize all dynamics to use category positioning. In previous version this was only possible if ALL dynamics were not set to use category position. -New "PDF" button next to the help button: opens the PDF manual of Perfect Layout. -New expression skylines for better vertical spacing on expressions with single small height peaks, like a tempo equation with a stem being much higher than all other elements -"Tuplet with tie collisions" if tuplet is on note-side are now avoided ;v2.1100 2021-04-10 Fixed: -In some cases the 8va alignment algorithms "Move slightly to the Left" and "Center 8va Symbol over Notehead" didn't work on whole notes. Fixed now. Improved: -More preview images -If "Optimize Tuplet Settings" and "Shift Tuplet Numbers Onto Staff If No Brackets" are activated, then the default value for vertical tuplet distance is set to 24 EVPU (was: 28 EVPU in previous versions). -Added LS Iris to the list of known music fonts -A few user dialog and translation improvements -Improved Italian translation -Improved metrics calculation on small enclosures of fonts with huge ascenders/descenders (e.g. Maestro) -Improved metrics calculation on non-rectangle enclosures -Improved vertical placement of ottava and custom smart shapes -Improved metrics for custom smart lines where the initial left text has a horizontal offset -Improved detection of movement names as page texts on documents with many empty pages -Initialization time on Windows reduced by up to one second -Dynamics above the staff on resized lyrics staves are not repositioned anymore. ;v2.1000 2021-04-06 Fixed: -When loading the "Deactivate All" preset, the measure number placement was not set to "Keep current position". Fixed now. -If "Clear Individual Measure Number Positions" was manually deactivated in very rare cases of multi-measure ranges and hidden measure numbers within the same measure number region, the measure number was sometimes shown although it was manually hidden before. Fixed now. -If "Align Page Bottom Margin with: Bottom Staff Line" and "Optimize System Distances Only and Keep Staff Distances" were both selected (these are both not the default settings), then "Align Page Bottom Margin with: Lowest Element On Staff" was performed instead. Fixed now. -If "Optimize System Distances Only and Keep Staff Distances" was selected, then on extracted parts or single staff scores an error message could appear. Fixed now. -In rare cases on bars with slash staff styles and composite time signatures containing no notes an error message could occur. Fixed now. -macOS: in the installer umlauts and accents on lower case letters in the registration name do not lead to disappearing letters anymore Improved: -Slightly improved processing speed (on large documents only) -Rewritten compound dynamics handling (e.g. poco f, molto f, pp sub.): more options and better placement
-Improved and faster detection of compound dynamics (e.g. molto f or ppp il pił piano possible), any texts are now supported
-Improved vertical placement of "up bow" articulations at the end of a tie or a slur (slightly closer to the slur) -A few improvements to tie/articulation collision removal -A few improvements to slur/articulation collision removal -"Clear Manual Slur Adjustments" algorithm has been improved: adjusted slurs on grace notes (which occur often) are not reset anymore. -Improved placement of technique expressions over custom lines -A few user dialog and translation improvements -Improved Italian and Spanish translation -Improved installation dialogs -Dynamics on time signatures with more than 32768 EDUs (i.e. more than 32 quarter notes) are now better supported. -Dynamics on long grace note passages are now kept on the grace note and not moved to the first non-grace note anymore (see Gould, Behind Bars, page 131) -On invisible bars (no staff lines, no notes, no time signatures) repeat texts, expressions with coda symbols or rehearsal/tempo mark expressions below the top staff line are not moved anymore above the staff. -Improved algorithm for drum pattern recognition for starting slash measure counting ranges with 2 instead of 1, if the previous measure started with a pattern and a double bar. -Improved algorithm for vertical hairpin/dynamics (non-)alignment on systems -On two "connected" hairpins on a note the gap now uses a better centering algorithm, if the gap value is much higher than the notehead width. -Improved detection for the automatic activation of the "Always (Re-)Apply Music Spacing" option -More flexible horizontal positioning of measure counting expressions in case of collisions -Added more music fonts to the list of known music fonts and more text fonts to the list of known text fonts -Improved barline detection between staves on groups with partially hidden staves -Better support for a single tablature notation staff with 4, 5 or 6 staff lines (instead of multieple single line tablature staves) -Number+X expressions in the first measure of a system (e.g. "3x" for playing the repeated pattern three times) are not put at the beginning of a system anymore, but kept at their horizontal position. New features: -Articulations above the staff at the start or end of ties are now vertically corrected -New feature "Reset->Horizontal Alignment of 8va SmartShapes" with 6 selectable options added -New option "Left-Align Lines with Accidentals Instead of Notes" added -New option "Align Compound Dynamics (molto f, poco f, pił f)" with two selectable options "To the Center of Dynamics Symbol" or "Flexible: Left-justified or centered". In previous versions the "poco f" placement style was to always center the dynamics symbol below the note and to put the "poco" text before (regardless of collisions with barlines). However this placement style is not recommended by Gould in "Behind Bars" as it may lead to an ambiguous start of the expression. But as this was common in practice in previous centuries, we have now added this option. -Gold version only: new feature "Shift Tuplet Numbers Onto Staff If No Brackets (Deactivates 'Avoid Staff')" added. Deactivated by default (and so it's also deactived in the Silver version) -Gold version only: the functions "Shift Tuplets on 1-line Staves above Staff", "Shift Tuplets on Rhythmic Notation above Staff", "Shift Articulations on Rhythmic/Slash Notation Above Staff" and "Avoid Collisions Between Chords" that were already available and activated since version 1 can now also be deactivated (activated by default). -Gold version only: "Reset Manual Slur Adjustments" received a new sub-option: "Also Reset Manual Slur Adjustments on Grace Notes". This is deactivated by default (and also in the Silver version). As slur adjustments often occur on grace notes, these are not automatically reset. ;v2.0310 2021-03-04 Improved: -Updates to the German, English and French user dialogs -Support for exponential hairpins from November2 if the expression uses the Bold style (resulting in a hairpin thickness of 4.3 EVPU) -If a score has slash counting staff styles and PL adds measure counting expressions, these expressions will not be visible in parts, if the part doesn't have the slash staff style on that measure. -More collision removal of technique expressions colliding with measure number counting expressions. -For corrupt Finale documents where Finale accidentally shows one staff twice and hides another staff, a few fixes were added which otherwise resulted in error messages. -Improved "On Last Page Don't Spread to Page Bottom If Very Much Space" algorithm for piano scores where there is only one system less on the last page than other the other pages. -Horizontal hairpins above the staff which internally have wrong negative y endpoint values are now automatically repaired. -The dynamics/hairpins centering algorithm for piano 2-staff groups has been slightly improved. ;v2.0300 2021-03-01 Fixed: -In rare cases measure numbers under every xth measure were reset even if "Reset->Clear Individual Measure Number Positions" was deactivated. It's highly recommended though to always have this option activated as Finale's measure number regions sometimes have invalid IDs or inconsistencies and this can only be fixed automatically by the plug-in if the "Clear..." option is activated. Improved: -A few improvements to the German user dialog -Added more music fonts to the list of known music fonts -In very rare cases improved horizontal hairpin alignment with dynamic expressions when running the plug-in directly on a part, and the end of the hairpin and the dynamic expression are both on the last measure position and the (short) hairpin also starts slightly before the dynamic expression. -Improved hairpin width if November2 font is used and the exponentational cresc. symbol from November2 is used (2,5 EVPUs). -The hairpin width is now ALWAYS automatically updated if exponentational cresc./dim. symbols are used and "Optimize Hairpin Settings" is activated. ;v2.0290 2021-02-26 Fixed: -The German version wasn't accessible in the last update. Fixed now. -Tremolo articulations on whole notes were sometimes not vertically aligned correctly. Fixed now. Improved: -Some updates to the Japanese and Polish translation -On German OS the German language is now selected by default. -Improved "Open Tie" detection on cue notes -Improved clef hiding on cue notes -Rehearsal mark letters above the top staff AND below the bottom staff are now kept like this (and not forced above staff anymore) -Improved 2nd voice detection for articulation placement on the opposite side -Improved vertical placement of two technique text expression where there is a third technique expression on the same measure position with a "hidden only" text style -Improved hairpin start/ending if the hairpin starts/ends on a note that also has a duplicate hidden note on the same measure position (e.g. for playback reasons). -Improved vertical alignment of multiple rehearsal mark letters on one system if the whole system only has empty measures and multiple key signature changes -Improved placement of rehearsal marks on beat 1 if the previous measure ends with a very high note and the current measure only has notes slighty above the staff. -Slightly improved connection of exponential hairpin expressions with hairpins -Exponential hairpins expressions (symbols 254/255) are now also supported from the VintageGHMA and VintageECP1 font New feature: -On 1-line percussion staves cue key signatures from cue notes that are on a 5-line staff are also hidden in the score. ;v2.0280 2021-02-18 Fixed: -Niente expressions after hairpins above lycrics staves were not correctly attached to the hairpin end. Fixed now. -If an expressive text was accientallly placed above the staff (instead of below) and the same measure position had a niente expression and a hairpin start below the staff, then the niente expression wasn't vertically connected correctly to the hairpin. Fixed now. Improved: -Some updates to the Japanese translation ;v2.0270 2021-02-17 Fixed: -In extremely rare cases an error message could occur in MusicXML imported documents on two hairpins with contrary directions that are separated through a barline. Fixed now. -Japanese version only: The language selection dialog before the main user dialog now works correctly. Improved: -Time signatures above the staff (not large time signatures) are slightly better included in vertical staff spacing. -A few optimizations for the Polish and Japanese user dialogs ;v2.0260 2021-02-16 Fixed: -Some preview images only opened on Windows. JW Lua seems to have a different URL calling on Windows and macOS. Fixed now. -Polish version showed an error message Improved: -License key activation after eligibility checking automated. Users of discount editions and upgrades will receive their license key faster. ;v2.0250 2021-02-14 Improved: -"Three staff"-piano groups are now detected correctly as piano groups, if they share different different MIDI channels, but two staves were created as 2 staff piano group and the third one added later and all three staves are grouped with a piano bracket. -More preview images -Improved "On Last Page Don't Spread to Page Bottom If Very Much Space" algorithm -A few improvements to the user dialog -Improved detection of rehearsal mark expressions in wrong expression categories -Windows: Support for unicode texts in pop-up elements in the user dialog. Required for Japanese and Polish language support. On macOS this was already working. New features: -Overlapping technique texts on different measure positions are now taken into account for collision detection if one is much wider than the other one. The smaller expression is put closer to the staff. -Beta support for new user dialog languages: Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Polish -Detection of text expressions connected with smartshape lines with hooks. It's still recommended though to use custom smart lines with text (e.g. cresc.- - - - - or rit. - - - - - - - - -) which are more clear to understand for the plug-in than separate expression/smartshape combinations. ;v2.0240 2021-02-08 Fixed: -In very rare cases an error message could occur on hidden resized staves. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved error message for the -1756 error on Windows 7: please read our FAQ on solving this error message. -Some improved user dialog texts -Some updates to the online documentation -More preview images added ;v2.0230 2021-02-01 Fixed: -In rare cases (in huge documents) an empty line with only a number appeared somewhere in the middle of the log file. Fixed now. -If the augmentation dot font was not installed on the computer, then an error message would appear (Bug introduced in v2.020). Fixed now. Improved: -Improved metrics calculation of word extension endpoints -Improved handling/alignment of serpent segno expressions -Improved handling of dynamics with technique/expressive text expression collisions -Improved vertical alignment of multiple outlier rehearsal/tempo mark expressions with different negative values below the baseline -Improved duplet handling -Improved adding of secondary beam breaks beamed tuplet notes (more cases are now detected) -Improved detection of tuplets where tuplet brackets must be visible (for better readability) -macOS: Warning message added if the previous edition of Perfect Layout wasn't correctly deactivated before installing a new (upgrade) edition. -Added more fonts to the list of known music fonts -Improved collision handling on hairpins with horizontal tuplet brackets/tuplet number collisions (i.e. if the tuplet is at the very ending of the hairpin) -Added one case for improved priority detection for vertical placement of Tempo Alterations and combined Tempo Marks with rehearsal texts. -Some improved user dialog texts New features: -"Preview Images" are added to many dialog options. By clicking the little button left to the option the browser will show a preview image: usually with the left side of the image being the deactivated option, and the right activated. This update includes images for the "Tuplets" tab. -8 new options have been added to the Tuplets tab. Apart from the new preview images the default setting of Perfect Layaout on numerous tuplets is demonstrated in two images in the Tuplets section (https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/tuplets.php#go-to-tuplets1): https://elbsound.studio/assets/img/ES/ambiguousflags26.jpg https://elbsound.studio/assets/img/ES/ambiguousflagsafter26.jpg 6 new sub-options affect the "Put Tuplet Brackets on Ambiguous Tuplet" option: 1.) Also Add Brackets if Tuplet is Separated Through Secondary Beam Breaks or Different Number of Beams 2.) Also Add Brackets on Symmetric Tuplets with Sec. Beam Breaks Where the Number of Notes Equals the Tuplet Number 3.) Also if Multiple Simple Identical Tuplets are Beamed Together 4.) On 8th Notes Before/After Beamed Triplets only if Distance to First Tuplet Note is Less Than 5.) On 8th Notes Before/After Other Beamed Tuplets only if Distance to First Tuplet Note is Less Than 6.) Also Add Secondary Beam Breaks Before/After Beamed Tuplets (Gold version only, activated by default in the Silver version) ------ 7.) In the Gold version the tuplet option "End Stem-Side Tuplet Brackets on Downstemmed Beamed Notes on the Stem" controls the right horizontal end point of tuplet brackets on downstemmed beamed notes. Some users prefer it to align with the stem instead of the right edge of the notehead. 8.) In the Gold version the duplet option from the Tuplets tab was splitted into two options: "Remove Tuplet Symbols From Duplets" and "Simplify 'Half' Duplets" (see images on https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/tuplets.php#go-to-tuplets1 for details) -Serpent segnos don't collide with notes anymore (Measure: "Space Before" or "Space After" are increased on collisions) -New option: "Alignment->Shift Rehearsal Letters Up on Tempo Expression Collisions From Previous Measure" (deactivated by default). If a very wide tempo alterations starts on beat 3 and overlaps with the rehearsal letter in the next measure, there is no "best solution" that is always valid. In many cases it might look better to broaden the measure to avoid the overlap. In some cases it might look to better to move the rehearsal letter up. -Wide (technique) text expressions on the same measure position as dynamics will be shifted to the right of the dynamics, even if this might look a bit unclear with the following note, when the description text of the expression includes ALLOWSHIFTRIGHT (for details see example image and description here: https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/how-to-use-the-perfect-layout-plugin.php#go-to-quickstart21 ) -New option on the Systems tab: "On Last Page Don't Spread to Page Bottom If Very Much Space". This will deactivate the spreading of the systems to the page bottom, if there are only few very systems on the last page and there is still lots of free space. The plug-in then tries to get a similar vertical spacing as on the previous pages. ;v2.0220 2021-01-19 Fixes: -In very rare cases an error message could occur in the measure number vertical offset calculation. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved French translation -Improved handling of dynamic collisions with barlines -Improved horizontal placement of dynamics with the word "molto" (e.g. molto f). -Improved detection of movement name page texts -Correction of falsy hairpin endpoints that JetStream can create New feature: -New Option "On Hairpins Below Staff Over Lyrics ..." added. You can either keep the current placement of hairpins on lyrics staves, move them below the notes (slurs + ties) or move them below the lyrics. -Collision of dynamics with large time signatures from other staves are detected and corrected ;v2.0210 2021-01-16 Improved: -Many updates to the German, English and French user language -All log texts are now included in the German and French translation (except those that trigger the progress bar) -One more error message added to the Windows installer -Added more example images to the online documentation -The contents of the PDF manual now links to the correct page (and not one page before) -New PDF manual included (15 more pages) ;v2.0202 2021-01-08 Fixed: -Rehearsal letter expressions which don't have "Use category positioning" activated and have EXCLUDE added to their description are not set to "Use category positioning" anymore if "Harmonize Offsets and Placement of Rehearsal and Tempo Marks" is activated. -If a MusicXML imported document contained two text expressions with identical text, but different default placements, an error message could occur in rare cases. Improved: -A few changes to the user dialog texts and functionality -A few updates to the German and French user language -Improved two activation license installer for combined IPv4/IPv6 networks -Improved rest optimization for 6/4 and 9/4 time signatures that are internally written as 2 x 1536 EDU / 3 x 1536 EDU -Cue text expressions are not changed in expression position settings if EXCLUDE is added to the description -Added a few example images to the online documentation ;v2.0200 2020-12-29 Improved: -Windows installer: one error message added -A few changes to the user dialog texts -Although Perfect Layout warns that independent time signatures are not supported by the plug-in and can lead to several issues, a few issues have been solved now. But still it is not recommended to use Perfect Layout on scores with independent time signatures. New features: -New option "General->Select Language". -Added user-defined language support -Added German user interface (with manual translation), not all warning messages and log-texts are translated yet, but most of the common messages. -Added French user interface (with automated translation, not verified yet!), no translatation of the parameter-dependent warning messages yet. While the German language support is already hard-coded into the plug-in, there are two user-defined font files (UserLanguage1.txt and UserLanguage2.txt) which can be edited by the user. They are automatically installed in the Elbsound program folder (Windows typically: c:\program files (x86)\Elbsound.studio\Perfect Layout, macOS typically: /library/application support/Elbsound.studio/Perfect Layout). When editing these language files, make sure to not add additional line breaks into the file. Otherwise the lines may not be assigned correctly. ;v2.0100 2020-12-18 Improved: -A few user dialog improvements -Improved a very low note expression scenario where the previous measure ends with a hairpin ;v2.0094 2020-12-12 Fixed: -In rare cases tempo/rehearsal marks placed before a staff were moved even if they had the EXCLUDE mark. -In some cases dynamics on low notes with articulations above the staff on slash staff style measures were unnecessarily moved before the note. -If "Harmonize Offsets and Alignment of Rehearsal and Tempo Marks" was activated, in some cases EXCLUDE marks were also affected. Fixed now. -In rare cases an error message could occur on articulations on cross staff notes that appeared on the top staff in piano notation, but that were attached to the bottom staff. -The independent time signature detection didn't work in some cases, so the warning message didn't pop up. Fixed now. Improved: -The slur contour dialog now displays the slur inset values correctly in percent. -Improved vertical placement of multiple rehearsal/tempo marks over large time signatures -Improved horizontal/vertical placement of multiple rehearsal/tempo marks over rehearsal/tempo marks that use the EXCLUDE mark. -macOS: a few user dialog improvements -When clicking on "Load Factory Settings" in some cases the title message of the user dialog didn't show "Factory Settings Loaded" -The registration page on the webpage now cuts off blank spaces at the beginning and the end in the registration form. They sometimes appear through copy&paste. -The system spacing option "Optimize System Distances Only and Keep Staff Distances" now takes into account vertical collisions on staves. I.e. if a vertical collision is detected somewhere, then the distance staff at the collision is increased. -Corrected two typos in warning messages -The international PDF manuals (Spanish, Italian, German, Polish, French) have been updated (see https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/manual.php). Still it is an automated Google translation. Only the German version uses a semi-automatic translation. New features: -On measures with independent time signatures 'Open tie' removal is now supported. ;v2.0092 2020-12-11 Fixed: -In some cases the barline width was not calculated correctly (about 2 EVPU difference). This could effect the horizontal distance of dynamics from the barline. Improved: -One more case added for automatically flattening tuplet brackets on tuplets starting with rests added. -Short dynamics (f, p) on very low notes on beat 1 are moved before the note, even if they would appear partially under the barline, if there is still lots of space at the end of the previous measure. -Windows: Better installer warning messages for the v2.0 update. ;v2.0090 2020-12-10 Improved: -Added more music fonts to the list of known music and symbol fonts (Leland). -Improved rest optimization on pick up measures ;v2.0080 2020-12-09 Improved: -Improved placement of dynamics on very low notes in piano notation, if the bottom staff at the same has a high note and there is enough space before the note. -Improved finding of average center position for dynamics in piano notation, if one dynamic is a very low note expression -Fermata expressions in the dynamics category are now ignored and only taken into account for metric calculations for spacing. Semantically they should be in any other expression category like tempo alterations or technique text. ;v2.0070 2020-12-08 Improved: -In rare cases better horizontal alignment of two tempo/rehearsal expressions in one measure, if one expression is attached to the time signature and one to the start of the music and they don't overlap -Better vertical placement of rehearsal/tempo expressions in some cases of collisions with grace notes -Improved stacking of rehearsal/tempo texts ;v2.0060 2020-12-02 Fixed: -In some cases on percussion staves with multi-layer scenarios combined rests were moved down from center 2 or 3 steps. -When using Finale's pick-up measure value it was altered in rare cases, if the pick-up consisted of triplets only. This lead to slightly too wide pick-up measures. -When slash measure counting was activated, Perfect Layout also displayed a counting number on the last measure of the group, even if the slashes were only on the first half of the last measure. Fixed now. -macOS: some old music fonts (e.g. Vivace) were listed on macOS with a "Medium" extension (i.e. Vivace Medium) and thus not correctly recognised by the plug-in. Fixed now. Improved: -If a repeat pattern starts one bar before a double bar line, then repeat counting expressions will now start after the double bar line with (1) (and not before the double bar line). -A warning message in the .log file is issued when the pick-up measure duration doesn't match the actual note length and all warning dialogs are bypassed. -Improved detection of key signature naturals if "Cancel Outgoing Key Signatures" was deactivated in Finale's preferences and the key signature changed to C Major. -Mixed (ambiguous) articulations that include an accidental (e.g. for trills) are treated as an accidental articulation and not automatically reset in their positioning -Improved vertical placement of some accidental articulations (above grupettos) -Improved placement of dynamics placed at the end of the previous (empty) measure before a lyric note on beat 1 in the next measure -If the plug-in is NOT applied to the full document, then the measure number positions won't change automatically anymore. -macOS: Improved support for more .dfont type fonts. All .f2n files from .dfont fonts will be re-created with this update. If you still have problems with old dfonts, please let us know or convert these fonts to true type (.ttf) fonts which the plug-in can handle fine. New feature: -Similar to the "EXCLUDE" feature for excluding expressions in the vertical staff spacing and vertical alignment, you can now add "FORCEINCLUDE" to the description text of an expression and it will be included even if it is huge and far above/below a staff. By default these expressions are not taken into account for vertical alignment and/or spacing. More info: https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/how-to-use-the-perfect-layout-plugin.php#go-to-quickstart21 -macOS: Support for fonts from .dfont files that are not Windows-compatible (i.e. without an OS/2 table). ;v2.0056 2020-11-29 Improved: -macOS: User dialog improved on the 'Systems' tab ;v2.0052 2020-11-25 Fixed: -The Reset->Move Note/Stem Side Articulations to Opposite Side on Multi-Layer Entries option wasn't saved correctly to the settings file. Improved: -In rare cases improved vertical staff spacing on some cross-staff scenarios that were entered in the top staff with the beam visible upon the bottom staff (and vice versa) -Technique expressions over shape articulations are not placed vertically close to the note anymore (and possibly overlapping with the shape articulation), but kept on their vertical position. -The slur contour values on the "Do First" tab are now shown in the selected unit (not always EVPUs as before) -Improved detection of clef changes in measure 1 -Improved handling of text repeat staff lists in case of top staves that hide text repeats -One more case added for moving articulations in multi-layer scenarios one the other side of the note. -Improved two layer note collision handling on wide noteheads as in EngraverFontSet -Improved horizontal placement of some compound dynamics like "mf cresc." -Improved vertical placement of mf, sf, pf and rf expressions on multi-layer scenarios under stem down notes (closer to the note) -"Systems" tab: improved user dialog -The default value in "Optimize->Optimize Tie Settings" for "Ties->Avoid staff lines by" was changed to 11 EVPUs. -Improved: Added a warning message when using the "Deactivate All" preset. ;v2.0050 2020-11-19 Fixed: -In some cases systems of 3-staff groups (e.g. organ notation) were not aligned at the bottom page margin. -In very rare cases wrong accidentals were detected on instrument staff styles with transpositions because of a rounding error which might be Finale or JW Lua related. Improved: -Detection of 3-staff organ groups where only the first two staves are connected with a piano bracket -Improved vertical staff spacing for 3-staff organ groups where only the first two staves are connected with a piano bracket ;v2.0048 2020-11-15 Fixed: -Measure counting expressions were sometimes added twice if the plug-in was applied multiple times. This bug has been introduced some versions ago. Fixed now. -In rare cases of two nearly congruent groups (a 2-staff group with brackets + a 3 staff-group without brackets) additional group brackets were added. Fixed now. Improved: -Better detection of existing counting range expressions, e.g. (1-5) -Grammar improvement to the user dialog -macOS: Improved installer dialog on high resolution screens New Feature: -New option "MMRests->Maintain System Locks on Empty Measure for MM Rest Creation": the automatic multi-measure rest creation stops and breaks a new multi-measure rest if the locked system ends with several empty measures, even if these empty measure continue on the next system. This feature is helpful, if you haven't generated multi-measure rests in parts yet, but already have layouted measures per system in the parts (e.g. in musical theatre scores with often 4-bars per line or 4-bar multi-measure rests). Note: this option is not active when "MM Rests->Automatic Measure Reflow If the Number of MM Rests Has Significantly Changed" is activated. -New option "MMRests->Maintain System Breaks on Empty Measure for MM Rest Creation" (Gold version only, deactivated by default). Same as before, but this time MM Rests will also end on system breaks that are not locked. -New option "Counting->Set Repeat Staff Style Measure Width to ..." (Gold version only, deactivated by default). It forces the width of one/two bar repeat staff style measures to a fixed measure width value. In the deactivated default state, the more flexible and powerful function that was already available in previous versions of Perfect Layout works: it only reduces the width of repeat style measures on very dense systems that require more space for the notes. ;v2.0046 2020-11-15 New Feature: -"Counting->Include Brackets". By default this was activated in the last versions. Now you can deactivate and get a simple 4 expression instead of a (4) when counting repeat/slash measures. ;v2.0044 2020-11-12 Fixed: -In rare cases an error message could occur on right barline aligned custom smart lines on hidden measures. Fixed now. -macOS: The automatic update detection didn't open the URL to download the update when clicking on 'Yes'. Fixed now. -In rare cases an error message could occur if the plug-in was first applied to the score, then a second time to a part which has a very dense vertical spacing. Improved: -Improved metrics for some custom smart lines after a system break -Improved multi-measure rests on measures with hidden notes only -Updates in the slur/ties documentation and dialog. ;v2.0042 2020-11-11 Improved: -In some cases custom smart lines after a system break were not correctly included in vertical staff/system spacing. -Windows 7 (only): If the PowerShell default security protocol was set to Tls10 instead of the modern Tls12, the plug-in and/or the installer could have problems connecting to the internet for the registration. Fixed now. Make sure to have the Microsoft update KB3191566 "Windows Management Framework 5.1" installed as described in the FAQ: https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/faq.php#go-to-installation25 ;v2.0040 2020-11-07 Fixed: -Windows: the Windows progress bar now display UTF8 encoded staff names correctly. -If a staff was completely hidden (collapsed) both in the score and in the parts (and the part was thus completely empty without any staff system), this could lead to too big vertical distances between other staves in the score. Fixed now. -If a modified notehead used a missing font, then in some cases JW Lua would return wrong note metrics. Fixed now. Improved: -In some cases dynamics with hairpins followed by a rest were vertically aligned with following dynamics although "Alignment->Align Dynamic Expressions Only If Connected By Hairpins" was activated. -Improved metrics for some notes within groups (especially cross staff) New Feature: -"Systems->Change System Distance Only": Keep the vertical staff distances and only changes the vertical distance between the systems to align with page margins. -Silver: The option "Tuplets->Put Tuplet Brackets On Notes Far Above the Staff on Top (And Vice Versa)" can now be deactivated in Silver. In Gold this was already possible in previous versions. ;v2.0030 2020-11-05 Fixed: -macOS: In rare cases a font error message could occur when using mixed music/text fonts (like Broadway Copyist Text) with a "Bold Italic" style in expressions. -Windows: in rare cases (sometimes in batch processing or when working with multiple Finale versions at the same time) the progress bar file didn't close properly. Improved: -Improved placement of reh./tempo texts on measures with rehearsal letters, if "Alignment->Per System (On the Best Fitting Line / Skip Rehearsal Marks)" was selected -Added two more demo files for testing the tuplet settings to the Docs and Test Files folder ;v2.0020 2020-11-03 Fixed: -macOS: in certain two screen setups on macOS it was possible that the first user dialog was invisible. This is fixed now. As this seems to be a JW Lua bug, it is recommended in the Gold version to not disable the warning dialogs in General->Bypass All Warning Dialogs if you have this invisible dialog issue. As the Silver version doesn't have that option it is not affected. -If the plug-in was performed on a selection of measures only, in some cases the lyrics optimization was partially performed on the previous staff system. -In rare cases custom smart lines on hidden measures could lead to an error message. Improved: -Gold version: The "Set 'Start Numbering At' to 2 Measures" for multi-measure rests can now be deactivated. -macOS: Improved Installer -Lyrics baseline optimization is also performed if the individual vertical offset of a note entry is above 120, but the lyrics baseline is still below the staff. New Features: -Support for "Start Numbering At" values in multi-measures rests above 2. ;v2.0009 2020-11-02 Improved: -Improved detection of staves on which "Laisser Vibrer" ties are not allowed -If a repeat text is assigned to "Top Staff" only and the staff attributes are set to hide text repeats, it is now included in horizontal alignment. New Feature: -A new preset "Deactivate All" which can be loaded by clicking "Load" was added. Note: This doesn't deactivate all features of Perfect Layout, but only those features that can be deactivated through the user dialog. Especially in the Silver version not everything can be controlled through this. Even in the Gold version some "main" functionality (dynamics/hairpin placement and multi-articulation collisions) can currently not be switched of as it is not part of the user dialog functionality. Still this gives a much faster way to apply the plug-in more selectively. ;v2.0007 2020-11-01 Improved: -Improved user dialogs for expression category changes ;v2.0005 2020-10-31 Fixed: -macOS: The .log file didn't show up automatically at the end of the processing. Improved: -Faster and better detection of slurs on extreme note tuplets -Improved horizontal spacing possibilites on very wide tempo/reh. expressions over multi-measure if the system has several multi-measure rests -If the last cue note has an open tie, the tie is not removed any more ;v2.0003 2020-10-26 Fixed: -A deactivation problem could occur on two activation licenses. -In some cases above staff dynamics on lyrics staves were moved below the staff -In some cases improved metrics calculation if instrument changes occur that use different key signatures -In some cases measure numbers were hidden when measure number ranges on multi-measure rests were added. -'Open ties' (l.v.) were falsely detected if the last tied note of a measure was followed by a hidden note. -The newsletter subscribe function in the Windows installer now works again. -No more measure counting expressions "(1)" on one-bar repeats with chord changes on every bar -If page texts were used as movement names, but assigned to a page (and not a measure) and the placement was visible above different measures in score and parts, then in rare cases an error could occur. Fixed now. Improved: -Independent alerts for new update availability for the macOS and the Windows version. -Improved collision detection on slurs with line breaks that end far above or below the staff if the slur "Lift" setting is activated. -Improved macOS installer stability (better file mode handling, simplified user dialog). -macOS: Some user dialog corrections -Improved note spacing on multi-layer collisions with accidentals -Improved note spacing on multi-layer collisions with second intervals -Improved metrics of note flags -Slightly improved overall processing speed on large scores -Improved collision detection with chords -Improved collision removal on staccato and staccatissimo articulations with tuplet brackets -Improved vertical spacing on systems with very short hairpins -Improved vertical spacing on empty staves with measure numbers -Improved vertical spacing in some cases if the Scale System" value is above 100%. -Improved collision detection on slurs with very short hairpins on the same system -Improved collision detection in one case of rehearsal mark at system start on top of measure numbers -If a measure startet with 1-line notation and ended with 5-line notation (and vice versa), it was possible that dynamics were not correctly aligned vertically in some cases. -macOS: Progress bar now displays correctly on multi-monitor setups with negative window coordinates -Less class constructions and thus better memory performance on batch processing -Chords are now only set to "Left Alignment" if the full document is selected (not on partial selections anymore) -Improved vertical lyrics spacing when there are (at least) three different types of lyrics on one staff system and some measures consists of one lyrics type and the other measures consist of (at least) two other lyrics types. -Improved vertical spacing for staves with individual line spacing different from the 24 EVPU default. -Support for the measure setting: Time Signature Always Hide -Improved "wrong expression category" detection on reh./tempo marks and alterations if these expressions occur on multiple staves and not only the top staff -Improved placement of measure numbers with enclosures at system start -No more vertical (re-)placement of repeat texts if there are multiple repeat elements in the same measure -Improved connection of hairpins that end in the previous measure with dynamics on beat 1 -Two branches of Perfect Layout do now exist for Windows users: v1.x and v2.x. All Mac beta users have been transfered to v2.x. -No more horizontal reset of left-/right-aligned coda symbols if they have a huge offset -Improved detection of rehearsal mark collision with curved group brackets if there are multiple brackets that start on that staff -The "brackets of tuplets with extreme high/low notes are not put on note side if the start tuplet note has a slur" check is now also performed on the other notes of the tuplet. -No more duplicate warnings on repeat texts set to right/left alignment, but placed at the opposite barline. -Improved detection of page texts as movement titles New Feature: -macOS only: New option "General->Show progress bar on screen number X" to change the screen on which the progress bar will appear in multi-screen setups. ;v2.00-1.8602 2020-09-23 Fixed: -In some cases dynamics moved before very low notes could collide with accidentals on upper notes. Fixed now. ;v2.00-1.8600 2020-09-17 Fixed: -Lyrics baselines were sometimes not correct if the system started with a slur from the previous system. -"Under" slurs on slurs with system breaks were sometimes not detected correctly after the system break which could lead for example to wrong lyrics baselines. -Tuplet numbers are now taken into account for custom line collisions above the staff -Custom smart line texts with fixed sizes are now detected correctly -Custom smart lines that are nearly congruent (everything identical except a tiny horizontal or vertical differences of less than 20 EVPU) are not removed as duplicates anymore to allow for example parallel lines close together. -If "Display in Concert Pitch" and "Keep Octave Transposition in Concert Pitch was activated, then vertical collisions with notehead-attached smart lines were sometime not detected correctly. -The update download on Safari/macOS (on https://elbsound.studio/getdownload.php) is not be blocked anymore by the window pop-up blocker. Improved: -The vertical distance between Rehearsal Marks and measure numbers is now also controlled via Express.->Min.Vertical Distances Between Rehearsal/Tempo Marks and ... -> Other Symbols -The default values of multi-measure rests are not copied over manually adjusted multi-measure rests in parts anymore if "MMRests->Create MM Rests in Parts" is deactivated. -Improved vertical alignment if there are multiple reh./tempo mark expressions on top of each other and more reh./tempo mark expressions on that system that need to be aligned and the multiple expression block has a huge distance to the top of the system. -If only a few measures were selected, then in some case lyrics baseline optimization was not performed if a staff system only included word extensions, but no lyrics. -Custom smart lines that end at the at end of measure and collide with their right text with a system barline are slightly shortened, so that they end right before the barline. -Notes with a beat position behind the next barline are not taken into account anymore for automatic clearing of the manual note position. -Custom smart lines that are set to "Make Horizontal", but also to "Maintain Angle" and have different start and endpoint vertical offsets are now made horizontal over the system break. -Installer includes updated PDF manual New Feature: -The window title now displays the last loaded file name, the loading of the factory settings and the unsaved state. -Improved and simplified macOS registration/activation dialog -macOS installer now allows to change the Finale plug-in menu name -macOS installer is now compatible with multi-user accounts on that computer, but for security reasons the plug-in needs to be added to Finale's plug-in menu manually on other user accounts. See https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/faq.php#go-to-installation23 -Non-standard user-defined custom smart lines (e.g. for contemporary notation) can be included in "above the staff collision detection with notes" by adding a hidden text into one of the 5 text fields in the custom smart line definition. Just add "putontop" with the hidden text style. More info see: https://elbsound.studio/perfect-layout/slurs-ties.php#go-to-slurties4 ;v2.00-1.8510 2020-09-08 Fixed: -Hairpins below grace notes only could lead to wrong spacing. -If the document use straight flags, then no error message is shown if the non-straight flag symbol is not set Improved: -Improved vertical spacing in some cases of cross staff tuplets starting or ending with rests -Improved vertical spacing on cross-staff glissandi with cross-staff notes -Very, very low rests on two-staff groups (piano notation) that are visible on the bottom staff, but are placed in the top staff without being cross staff are not taken into account for vertical staff spacing anymore -On macOS the progress bar is now also visible on the very first run of the plug-in (on Windows it isn't) -Installer includes updated PDF manual ;v2.00-1.8500 2020-09-03 Fixed: -The download link for the PDF manual was broken. Fixed now. Improved: -Minor horizontal collisions of articulations with tuplet numbers will now be solved with a little shift left/right of the tuplet number instead of adding a bracket and moving the tuplet awway from the articulation. -Improved placement of rehearsal/tempo marks in some cases of two collisions (one at the end of the previous measure, one at the start of the next measure). -Improved placement rehearsal/tempo marks if slurs were in previous measures -Improved placement rehearsal/tempo marks over cancel key signatures -Finale 26/macOS improved performance of the progress bar on multi-screen setups. -Installer includes updated PDF manual ;v2.00-1.8400 2020-09-02 Fixed: -Finale 26/macOS sometimes had problems showing the progress bar. Fixed now. -Finale 26/macOS: The time out error message in the progress bar is now hidden Improved: -Improved guessing of metrics on symbols of non-installed fonts. -Improved vertical centering of hairpins in piano notation -Improved collision removal of arpeggio articulations with other articulations -macOS: The test and demo files in the folder /library/application support/Elbsound.studio/Perfect Layout/Docs and Test Files/ are now writeable. ;v2.00-1.8300 2020-09-01 Fixed: -In rare cases of a certain type of invalid font files and error could occur. Fixed now. -In some cases PL would unnecessarily change the rests in tuplets. -The download button on the update download web page was not enabled in some cases. Fixed now. Improved: -Improved installer stability (macOS) -Glissandi lines that are misused as trills are now better detected. ;v2.00-1.8200 2020-08-19 Fixed: -When the non-Maestro compatible key signature font is not installed on the computer, the plug-in will now cancel and not crash anymore with an error message. -In very rare cases an error message could occur on dynamic expressions below notes colliding with accidentals. Improved: -Better rounding in the user dialog if switching the measurement units back and forth to EVPUs (macOS and Windows use different rounding functions in Finale) -Gaps between two connected hairpins are added even if an expressive text expression connects the two hairpins -Better detection of non-Finale text font styles (i.e. semibold, condensed, etc.) -Improved installer (macOS) -Improved reading of .ttc font collections ;v2.00-1.8100 2020-08-17 Fixed: -Dynamics attached to rests before notes with lyrics are not moved to the notes with lyrics, but remain on the rests -In some cases first page text elements above the top staff were moved onto the staff. Fixed now. -In some cases underline or strikeout fonts could lead to an error message. Fixed now. -Rehearsal marks break multi-measure rests even if the "Hide Tempo Alterations If No Notes Follow" option is activated -Lyrics part staff groups with two staves only and piano playback are not detected as "piano notation" any more -The "Hide shape list" is partially generated automatically (e.g. detection of bow shapes). From this version on it is only automatically stored in the .ini settings if the shapes are changed manually. Otherwise automatically detected articulation shapes which are not present in the next score might lead to unexpected articulation placement. -If notes from layers above layer 1 (=x) are moved to layer 1, then expressions explicitely assigned to layer x are now re-assigned to layer 1 -Enclosed technique expressions get the correct vertical distance to the nearest element (was 3 EVPU too close) -In documents where no music spacing has been applied to the parts, in some cases note positions were reset to 0 even if music spacing in the document options was set to "incorporate Manual Positioning". Fixed now. Improved: -Improved expression conversion from old documents ("Top Note" aligned dynamic expressions are not moved below the staff anymore) -A piano group consisting of four staves is also allowed for detecting a "part" instead of a "score" -Improved chord spacing in two staff groups (piano notation) -Improved tie and slur metrics on jazz fonts -Rehearsal/tempo mark expressions marked with EXCLUDE are not taken into account for aligning rehearsal/tempo mark expressions any more -Less warning messages on missing recommend fonts -Single note measures get an adaptive music spacing below the minimum measure width. -Improved placement of dynamics before notes on very low tied notes -Improved placement of reh./tempo marks on multi-measure rest measures: if there is only a small overlap with the multi-measure rest number, then the expression will be shifted slightly to the left -Old Finale documents can have invalid font tags (e.g. nfx(9999), size(0)). These are handled better now. -Better detection of duplicate shape definitions -Better detection of tempo expressions with unknown text symbols -Measure counting over double barlines with the option "Restart Repeat Bar Measure Counting On Double Barlines" activated now yields the correct partial counting until the first double barline in the very first measure (and not the full measure range) -Measure counting over double barlines with the option "Restart Repeat Bar Measure Counting On Double Barlines" activated now counts until the last repeat bar if only 2 or 3 repeat bars follow the last double barline. -"Right Barline" aligned expressions which are usually assigned to measure position 0 are internally reassigned to measure position "end of last beat". -Improved collision detection on reh./tempo mark collisions with right barline aligned expressions from the previous measure -Improved vertical placement of reh./tempo marks if they collide with non-reh./tempo mark expressions in the after next measure -Slurs that are horizontally moved far away from the original point (>250 EVPUs) are not reset anymore when Remove Manual Slur Adjustments is activated -Rehearsal/tempo mark collisions with other expressions are now better detected (if they were not colliding, but only had a very small distance) -Improved metrics on f dynamics with jazz style fonts -Improved rest optimization -Staff positions are calculated faster -Tempo expressions are detected faster -Tempo/rehearsal marks slighty next to beat 1 (<96 EDUs) are moved onto beat 1 unless the work includes very short notes. This often occured in older Finale files from the 90s. -Added more music fonts to the list of known music and symbol fonts -Added more text fonts to the list of known text fonts -More consistent capitalization of words in the user dialog -Corrected typos in dialog -Solid/dashed lines are not detected as note glissandi if placed outside the system -Improved detection of outliers if rehearsal/tempo marks are to be aligned vertically -Improved collision removal on tempo/rehearsal marks over tied notes -Improved collision removal on tempo/rehearsal marks over whole notes with accidentals -Improved collision distances on backward tied notes at the beginning of a system -Improved categorization of text expressions with mixed music symbol and text fonts -Improved vertical distance of multiple rehearsal mark/tempo expressions -Warning message on old Finale documents to activate "Document Options->Accidentals->Use cross-layer accidental positioning". Otherwise accidentals may overlap after the plug-in. New Features: -The measurement unit can be changed in the user dialog. -New option in Gold edition: "Hide Counting in First Measure" (deactivated by default and in Silver). If activated it will skip the (1) on the first repeat symbol measure and will start to display repeat counting on repeat measure 2. - New option "Delete Reh./Tempo Expressions in Misc. Category From Staves Not Included On Staff List" (activated by default). In previous versions this feature used to be included too, but it could not be deactivated. Now it can be switched off. This feature is mainly important for old or imported Finale files where tempo marks often appear in the Miscellaneous category instead of the Tempo/Rehearsal categories. These expressions should usually be only visible on the staves from the tempo marks staff list and not on every staff. - New Option "Exclude Ambiguous Time Signatures From Rest Optimization" (deactivated by default). In time signatures like 5/4, 7/4 it is sometimes difficult to predict the correct sub beats. To keep the rests in these measure as they are, but still to have rest optimization in the standard signatures (4/4, 3/4, etc.), activate this option. - New Option "Vertical Threshold for Outlier Expressions not to be Placed on the Best Line". This value is now adjustable. The default value (which was also a fixed value in previous versions) is 66 EVPU. The larger the value the further the tempo/rehearsal mark expressions will align vertically above the staff if the expressions are far apart. If the expressions are vertically further apart than the threshold value, they will not align vertically. -If ADDEXTRASPACE is added to the description field of a non-tempo/non-rehearsal expression or to the category name of an expression, then extra space is added to the measure that holds this expression (on beat 1 only!) if it has a horizontal collision (as in tempo/rehearsal marks). Note: If reflow is set to "Only within systems", this feature will probably not work as there is usually not enough space on a system for widening the measures so much. As with tempo/rehearsal marks this feature works best if the reflow settings are set to "Reflow measure across systems" and "Reflow systems across pages". If the expression is not on beat 1, no extra space will be added. ;v2.00-1.8050 2020-07-08 Improved: -macOS: Improved installer -macOS: Improved progress bar placement ;v2.00-1.8047 2020-07-06 Fixed: -In some cases (e.g. MusicXML imported documents) pedal and fermata expressions were not taken into account in collision removal -Collisions of custom smart lines over tied whole notes were sometimes noted detected. Fixed now. -If notes at the end of a measure are tied to a target measure (which is not the next measure) and an ending repeat bracket starts in the next measure, then in some cases the ties were removed as "invalid laissez vibrer ties". Fixed now. Improved: -Improved vertical system/staff balancing on scores where the system top margins alter and don't match the global page format system top margin settings at all. -Tuplet brackets over extreme high/low notes are note added anymore if these note -Added more text and music fonts to the list of known fonts -Pedal expressions are taken into account for collision removal if they collide, but they are not moved closer to the lowest entry if they are far away (in order to not loose connection with another pedal marking) -Improved placement of a "sempre" expression in connection with dynamics -Better real whole rest removal in MusicXML imported documents on measures that includes tempo or rehearsal marks -Improved collision detection of tuplet numbers on multi-voice/multi-layer scenarios, if the tuplet numbers have a global offset. -Faster calculation of clef change detection -The download webpage now ignores blank spaces at the end of the form entries. -Added more warning messages in the log file for invalid smartshapes -Faulty multi-measure rests that cover notes in parts are removed -Correct vertical of three articulations on a note if one articulation is a laissez vibrer or arpeggio symbol. -Improved warning message on invalid slurs (not "Measure 0" anymore) -Horizontally flat glissando/shake/trill lines are now also aligned vertically if they start on a note with an invalid articulation flag -Horizontally flat glissando/shake/trill lines are now also aligned vertically if they start on a note with a "standard" accent articulation that usually is placed directly on top of the note (staccato dot, marcato, tenuto, etc.) -Improved rests minimization when rests are connected to expressions -Custom smart lines that span multiple systems are not adjusted in non-selected measures if only some (other) measures of the smart line are selected before running the plug-in. -macOS: Node.js updated to v12.18.2. Otherwise macOS doesn't allow the digital signature of the software. -macOS: No more problems with the plug-in progress bar if Finale is started on a second monitor -macOS: The tabs on the main user dialog also used to react sometimes when clicking far below the tab name New Feature: -New option added: "Keep 'Always Flat' Tuplet Brackets Flat". Even if "Optimize Tuplet Settings" is activated and the default tuplet settings are copied to each tuplet the "Always Flat" value will not be overwritten, if it was set to 'Always Flat' for an individual tuplet bracket. (Activated by default) -Basic collision removal on text expressions with key signatures (no cancel outgoing signatures supported yet) ;v2.00-1.8045 2020-06-21 Fixed: -macOS: Installer error fixed ("Missing files") -In rare cases a slur that started and ended on cross staff notes, could lead to an error message. Fixed now. -Niente expressions on a hidden staff could lead to an error message. Fixed now. ;v2.00-1.8043 2020-06-17 Fixed: -Measure numbers at the beginning of a staff system don't change the font any more (this only occured in rare cases) -"Use Specific Voicing With Selected Notes" wasn't load from the factory settings -In very rare cases an invalid composite time signature could lead to an error message. Fixed now. -Dashed slurs will not be replaced with ties anymore if they connect the same note pitch. -Niente circles above the staff are not shifted horizontally or below the staff anymore if there is a multi-layer scenario with both hairpin below and above the staff. -macOS: Font suitcases without a .suit file extension (i.e. with no extension) are now supported (e.g. Finale Percussion and Finale Mallets in Catalina) -In rare cases measure numbers at the bottom of a system were not taken into account for vertical system balancing. Fixed now. -Correct vertical lyrics distance if three or more verses are used on top of each other. -Empty tab staves next to occupied tab staves are now used correctly in vertical system spacing (this already worked fine until v1.7104). -Above staff lyrics don't influence the below staff lyrics placement anymore -If lyrics were used both above and below a staff, then the vertical system/staff balancing was not correct. Fixed now. -Lyrics placement was not correct if a lyrics note included two slurs: above and below. -Improved detection of a few collision cases if a note includes both an over and an under slur. -In rare cases multiple chord collisions on a slash style measure (without notes) with many other chord collisions on the same system staff could lead to even worse chord collisions. Fixed now. -Sometimes end measure clef collisions with notes in linked parts were not detected correctly. Fixed now. -Rest optimization of resized rests (less than 100%) could lead to new non-resized rests. Fixed now. -"Glasses" symbols as articulations are not removed anymore if assigned to rests Improved: -Centered measure numbers below mm rests are now hidden, if the document also displays measure ranges below mm rests. -Improved rest optimization measures using hidden composite time signatures: 2+2+2+2/8 or 1+1+1+1/4 becomes 4/4; 2+2/8 or 1+1/4 becomes 2/4; and 2+2+2/8 or 1+1+1/4 becomes 3/4. -Improved vertical placement of smart shapes over cross staff notes. -Improved rest handling in 6/16, 12/16 and 3/8 measures. -Improved vertical system balancing on scores with system scaling below 100%. -In some cases improved vertical/horizontal alignment of several tempo/rehearsal marks at the same measure position -Improved vertical system/staff spacing for some cases that include both mixed staff resizing and system resizing. -Improved vertical placement of custom smart shapes and ottava/trill lines on some collisions both with slur and ties. -Two new example files are included as download links in the Docs and Test Files folder. -Improved placement of very low dynamics on multi-slur scenarios -More music and text fonts are now known to the plug-in -Glissando lines are now included in vertical system/staff spacing. -Improved slur collision removal at the beginning of a system -Improved vertical spacing on slurs across staves that were not detected as grouped staves -Improved detection of piano groups, even if the group name and staff names are inconsistent and no playback instrument is used -Faster calculation of clef changes on multi-measure rests -Improved clef/note collision removal on scores/parts that require re-spacing -Clef changes in the middle of a multi-measure rest (and not only at the ending) are now taken into account for collsions of clefs with multi-measure rest symbols -Improved measure number detection in (jazz) scores that only have a clef in the first measure of the very first system -Glissando lines are now taken into account for vertical placement of tempo/rehearsal marks. -Improved collision detection of tempo/rehearsal mark expressions and slurs above the staff -Improved collision detection of tempo/rehearsal mark expressions when the last measure ends with a trill or custom shape above the staff -Improved precision on lyrics with slur/tie collisions -macOS: Progress bar now also starts immediately at the very first run of the plug-in (that is different on the Windows version where it only starts immediately on the second run) -macOS: the "How to use Perfect Layout" online document is opened at the end of the installation. -macOS: in Fin25/Fin26 the font annotation and plug-in folders are now correctly read -macOS: Improved installer New Feature: -The Gold edition has a new option "General->Bypass All Missing Font Warning Dialogs" (deactivated by default and in Silver edition). -The Gold edition has a new option "Also Update Bracket Appearance If 'Always Use Specified Shape' Is Selected" (activated by default and in Silver edition). This was the default behaviour in previous version. If this option is deactivated now, the original bracket style will be maintained on tuplets with the "Always Use Specified Shape" option. -Four new options (Silver: three new options) added for advanced rest splitting/merging in compound time "Allow Dotted Rests On Beats In Compound Meters" "Allow Combined Rests At Beginning Of Beat In Compound Meters If Preceded By Rests" "Allow Combined Rests At Beginning Of Beat In Compound Meters If NOT Preceded By Rests" "Keep Combined Rests At Offbeat In Compound Meters Unless Followed by Rests" -New option: "Restart Repeat Staff Style Measure Counting On Double Barlines". Activated by default. -Collisions of end of measure clef changes with cross staff notes are now also detected -Comma/Breath Mark/Caesura articulations that collide with barlines between grouped staves are detected and the comma is moved slightly before the barline ;v2.00-1.8039 2020-05-19 Fixed: -Correct detection of dynamics with hairpin and "poco" text below (compared to poco dynamics followed by hairpin). -Inclusion of Finale Mallets, Finale Percussion, Finale Alpha Notes and FinalFiguredBass in MacSymbolFonts.txt (if missing) -If all user dialogs were deactivated (Gold version) and only one or two staves were selected, an error message would appear sometimes. Fixed now. -Corrected font metrics creation for GoldenAgeText font which internally uses the name GoldenAge. But it's highly recommended not to use the font name GoldenAge as it is ambiguous: the font GoldenAgeTitle has the same family font name GoldenAge, so it's not sure if the correct font metrics file is read. Improved: -"Remove manual slur adjustments" is not performed anymore on slurs that were (probably accidentally) assigned over two staves, but which appear to be connected only to one staff -Improved placement of custom smart line symbols over slurs -The SMuFl U-e541 symbol is now recognized for niente hairpins -Improved detection of bold, italic and bold italic fonts with international (translated) names -Beamed notes 32th notes (and smaller) are not split with secondary beam breaks if the first note has a beam modification -Improved rest splitting in compound meters (e.g. in 6/8 a quarter rest is split into two 8th rests if it starts after the beat) New Feature: -In the Gold edition it's now possible to have "Optimize Tuplet Settings" activated, but to change the default setting "Don't Avoid Staff". By default (and in the Silver edition) it always changes to "Avoid Staff" if "Optimize Tuplet Settings" is activated. ;v2.00-1.8035 2020-05-14 Fixed: -'zsh' problem on macOS/Catalina solved -Only the progress bar 'Terminal' window is brought to the foreground (not other Terminal windows) Improved: -Added more fonts to the list of known music fonts -Better hairpin connection on stem down notes in multi-layer scenarios where a hairpin starts and ends on that note -Better vertical dynamics positioning on piano group staves if a dynamic is assigned to the empty top staff while the bottom staff has a note with an articulation. -Improved placement of rectangle-enclosed rehearsal mark expression with enclosure options set to none. -Improved vertical placement of dynamics on low voice2 notes that don't have a voice1 note at the same beat -Improved horizontal placement of dynamics and expressive text at the end of a measure if the expression text ends far beyond the next barline -Much faster processing speed for system distance optimization in scenarios with lots of space between the staves ;v2.00-1.8031 2020-05-12 Fixed: -No more crashes when invalid .suit font file format was detected (macOS) -No more zsh warning on macOS/Catalina -Corrected folder detection on macOS -macOS/Silver400: "Standard Output File Is Closed" error fixed. -No crash anymore when text expressions have combinations of Japanese and European fonts with the forbidden U-3000 unicode symbol (this seems to be a JW Lua bug). Improved: -Less tuplet brackets are added on cross staff scenarios. -Improved dialog for plug-in activation on macOS -The macOS installer can now automatically close open Finale Windows before the installation. -Improved handling of UTF8 characters in some disk read/write scenarios -dynamics on a cross staff notation that are assigned to a whole rest (i.e. with a negative horizontal offset) are re-assigned to another layer to keep on position 0 New features: -On cross staff tuplets without brackets, the Gold version now has an option to add extra brackets (deactivated by default). -"Chinese Unicode Safety Mode" added (in the General tab). If the plug-in crashes, because it detects the forbidden U-3000 unicode symbol (this seems to be a JW Lua bug), then you should activate this mode. The side effect is that all text elements from the "File Info" in the "Score manager" are not expanded anymore in text blocks. Usually this should be no problem. ;v2.00-1.8027 2020-05-04 Fixed: -Corrected detection of key signature changes on staves with independent key signatures. -Corrected detection of time signature changes on staves with independent time signatures. -Corrected calculation of clef symbols with "Transpose Keys" in scores that are set to display in concert pitch. -An error message could appear in linked parts with "Specify Voicing" and "Seleted Notes" when the notes had prolonged stems. Fixed now. -In some case mid-clef changes lead to extra space added at the end of the previous measure. Fixed now. -If reflow measures was activated in a rare case the last page(s) of the score could have the wrong page size. -In rare cases (time signature change followed by an empty measure with a hidden rest and a dynamic on that hidden rest and a preceding hairpin) the dynamic expression was correctly aligned horizontally. Fixed now. -If the only visible staff on a system changes from 5- to 1-line through measure reflow and system restructuring, the measure range under a multi-measure rest might have received the wrong vertical offset. Fixed now. -Automatic "Double Barline Preceding Key Signature" feature now works correctly if only new transposing instruments lead to a changed key signature change -On macOS the MacSymbolFonts.txt wasn't read correctly. Fixed now. -On macOS expressions with text over multiple lines are now corrctly placed. -In rare cases the key change detection didn't work in large orchestra scores. Fixed now. Improved: -Massive boost of processing speed on the metrics calculation in huge scores: ca. 1,5-2x faster on Windows, ca. 3-6x faster on macOS (but still macOS is slower than Windows). -Improved processing speed in the "General Preparations" functions -Reduction of unnecessary layers now also works on laisser vibrer notes that are followed or preceded by an empty measure. -Improved "Two-Staff-Group" detection. On strings groups violin groups that use a piano-like sample name are not separated any more from other string instruments in the vertical staff spacing. -Improved chord collision detection -Updated necessary MacSymbolFonts.txt assignments. Some fonts for macOS require to be added to MacSymbolFonts.txt. -Tested on macOS Mojave (Finale 26) -Tested on macOS Catalina (Finale 26) -The macOS installer is now digitally signed. -Left-justified coda symbols that were aligned close to the right barline are now also kept at the right barline if they are slightly further away from the barline, but still far away from the left barline (and vice versa). -Much faster clef change calculation -Improved vertical staff/system spreading when "Max. Distance Between Staves" is set to less than 470 EVPU. -Improved a few text layout problems in the user dialogs -Improved metrics in key signatures on instruments that use "Simplify key" transposition settings -The macOS installer was changed from "bundle" to a "flat" type installer. -Improved vertical staff distance on curved group brackets if a staff is part of several groups with different brackets New features: - Added new options "Re-Tie Notes Over Center Of Bar" and "Re-Tie Notes Only If First Note Starts After Beat 1" (in the Ties tab, both activated by default). These features makes sure that a tie over the center of a bar should indicate the beats. Thus a dotted half-note plus an eighth note in a 4/4 signature would become a half note plus a dotted quarter note by default. The "Re-Tie Notes Over Center Of Bar" feature was already included in previous versions, but is now available as a selectable option in the user dialog. ;v2.00-1.7106 2020-03-31 Improved: - "New Update Available" message now includes the version number of the new update. - macOS: The "New update available" dialog now automatically opens the update download page from elbsound.studio. --------- End of Version 1.x ;v1.7104 2020-03-30 Fixes: - In rare cases a hidden hairpin could cause an error message. Fixed now. - In some cases lyrics were moved to far below the staff if the staff ended with a slur and a hyphen. Fixed now. - Updated necessary MacSymbolFonts.txt assignments. Some fonts for macOS require to be added to MacSymbolFonts.txt. Improved: -macOS: A few improvements to the progress bar -macOS: Improvements to the installer -macOS: Improved font detection and metrics creation ;v1.7000 2020-03-27 Fixes: -Tied note clusters over the middle of a measure are not corrected anymore if not all notes are tied. -Silver version: in some cases hidden staves were counted as visible staves and the Silver limit of 36 staves was detected although the staves were hidden. Improved: -macOS: Improved installer -macOS: Improved progress bar functionality ;v1.6900 2020-03-26 Fixes: - Improved lyrics placement when one staff system includes a measure with multiple verses and another measure with a single verse with a different verse number ;v1.6800 2020-03-25 Improved: - Rehearsal letters in old Finale documents from the early 90s are now better converted to Finale's standard rehearsal mark text definitions ;v1.6700 2020-03-22 Fixes: - macOS: Correct elapsed time calculation - macOS: Progress bar now included ;v1.6600 2020-03-21 Fixes: - Fix in the font engine - Correct font size in JW Lua on macOS (Verdana, 12) ;v1.6500 2020-03-20 Fixes: - In some cases two rehearsal marks that were aligned horizontally, but attached to the same measure position, were drawn slightly apart through the plug-in. Fixed now. - In rare cases on expression with slur collisions an error message could appear. Fixed now. ;v1.6400 2020-03-19 Fixes: - In rare cases of cue note notation in drumset parts moved rests on higher layers over a slash notation style were centered vertically on the staff instead of being kept above as cue notes. Fixed now. Improved: - Time processing estimations that are probably invalid (e.g. above 24 hours) have been eliminated and are now listed as "unknown" time. - Multi-measure rests are now created if only invisible staves include notes. - macOS version now supports the .dfont font file format. - More automatically detected text fonts added - "Empty" staff styles that use the normal notation style, but with all notation elements (and staff lines) hidden and no note entries are not included anymore in vertical staff system balancing. - macOS version now also supports OS 10.12 Sierra. ;v1.6200 2020-03-08 Fixed: - If a measure has a negative width (this should only occur on corrupt documents or, in rare cases, if music spacing has not been applied yet to a part), the width will now be fixed when music spacing is performed. - No more "Invalid slur" warnings on linked parts that use specific voicing. New Features: - Support for multi-measure rests in linked parts that have the "Specify Voicing" and "Selected Notes Only" feature activated. This requires a slow detection algorithm and is a rarely used feature. Unfortunately JW Lua doesn't recognize the "Selected Notes Only" features, so this is disabled by default and must be enabled in the Layers/Cues tab. ;v1.6100 2020-03-06 Fixes: - If the top staff of all systems is completely empty (which should not be the case unless it's an incomplete score), has a curved group bracket and a measure number at system start, the measure number wasn't taken into account for collision detection with the group bracket. This is fixed now. - Improved tuplet optimization on duplets in 3/4 that start with a quarter note and in 9/8 measures that start with a dotted quarter note. - Rehearsal/tempo marks/alterations are not scaled on cue notes anymore if the measure also contains a whole measure rest in another layer and the expression is assigned to "all layers". - If a document didn't have any measure number regions, then loading the factory settings in the dialog could produce an error message. This is fixed now. - In rare cases the lyrics font sizes were not detected correctly which resulted in a unoptimized vertical alignment. Fixed now. - If a modified accidental used a completely unknown music font, it was possibe in rare cases that the plug-in would issue an error message. This is fixed now. - In some cases hairpin/tie collisions were not handled correctly if the hairpin was spread over several systems/pages. Fixed now. - Rehearsal/tempo marks/alterations that included the text "rehearsal" were sometimes not correctly vertically aligned. Fixed now. - In rare cases with colliding chords over slash notation and lots of hidden note entries it was possible that the measure spacing was incorrect after removing the chord collision. Fixed now. - When two ending repeat brackets that span multiple measures are used with no forward or backward repeat in between, they were reduced to 1-measure length as ending repeats are Finale-internally assigned only to one measure. In the new implementation they are kept as they are if it's unclear (e.g. no ending hooks) or the first ending bracket is prolongated to the start of the second ending brackets, if it has hooks and visually already spans more than one measure. - The plug-in doesn't crash anymore if a corrupt Finale document has invalid articulation definitions assigned to notes. Improved: - The "Horizontal Distance of Non-Colliding or Parenthesized Accidentals" field on the Alignment tab is now correctly enabled/disabled when the "Alignment of Multiple Horizontal Accidentals" is activated/deactivated. - Improved hairpin/slur collision removal at the last measure of a system when both the slur and the hairpin have a system break and more than one hairpin exists in the last measure of that system. - Improved hairpin start position on two layer measures with both a whole note and a whole rest when the hairpin starts in the middle of the measure. - For security reasons we have updated the included Node.js version (needed for otf font support) to the latest v12.16.1 release. - If rehearsal letters or measure number expressions were not only placed on top of the system, but also on other staves, then it was possible that they could collide with the left barline at system start. Now they are moved slightly to the right. - Improved detection of multi-movement parts that will keep their extra distance when movement names were included as page texts betweeen the systems - When manual system breaks are found and are set to be removed, they are not removed if the previous measure ends with a "final barline". This improves handling of multi-movement documents. - In corrupted Finale documents where the expression definition doesn't match the category definition, the detection of rehearsal/tempo marks/alterations in used-defined expression categories now works correctly. - Word extensions are now vertically aligned slightly closer to notes which leads to an overall better lyrics alignment. - Invalid articulation data assigned to note entries (i.e. articulation definitions that don't exist anymore) are automatically deleted and thus the corrupt Finale document is repaired. - Repeat brackets are now horizontally connected correctly if the end measure has a hidden repeat bar line staff style. - Staccato accents over top slurs are moved slightly closer to the slur. - Added a few fonts to the list of known music fonts. - Improved cross-platform implementation (macOS/Windows). - Improved music spacing for (some) collisions (especially at the end of the measure and on very low/high accidentals). - Improved collision detection on nested tuplets in Finale 25 and 26 (already worked correctly in 2014/2014.5). - Improved detection of "below tuplets" in lyrics. - Much improved automatic system layout with large text block expressions (e.g. musical theatre cues). - Improved font name/font file name detection - Word extensions that spread over several systems on single verse lyrics are now also vertically aligned systems where there are no other lyric entries. - No more multiple warnings when font metrics files need to be created: only one warning message is issued. New Features: - If a user setting file is loaded, then the file name will be displayed in the plug-in's Windows title. - Collisions with hairpins and lyrics/word extension are now removed, if the hairpins are below the staff. ;v1.5200 2020-01-14 Fixes: - On corrupted documents (problems with expressions) in rare cases it was possible that temporary expressions that were used for Perfect Layout calculations only were not correctly removed at the end of the plug-in processing. This is fixed now. Improved: - Text expressions with hidden text only are not moved to other categories even if it looks like they are in the wrong category. - Improved (extracted) part detection for non-percussion parts with multiple staves (e.g. divisi violin staves) ;v1.5006 2019-12-26 Fixed: - An error message could occur if a part of a two-staff group (e.g. piano or harp) included two staves, but not only one staff of the original two-staff group (e.g. the left hand piano staff plus a percussion staff). - The top and bottom metrics of a measure in a multi-measure rest at the end of a system were sometimes calculated wrong for vertical staff/system spacing. This could lead to expressions colliding with the measure (e.g. a V.S. expression under a multi-measure rest at the end of a page could collide). - On percussion staves (notation style: percussion) consolidated rests were sometimes moved three staff positions too low (bug introduced in v1.1). - "Three Staff"-piano groups where the middle staff has 0 staff lines are now detected correctly. - When the original score had some "ghost" systems (i.e. systems that appear on multiple pages) and Finale's automatic reflow was deactivated, then in some rare cases the note, articulation and expression metrics were calculated wrong. - Rehearsal mark expressions that were neither in the original "Rehearsal Marks" nor in "Miscellaneous" category were sometimes not taken into account for rehearsal mark collision detection and automatic placement - No rest optimization in a piano two-staff group where one staff only holds a non-whole rest plus cross-staff notes from the other staff. - A rehearsal/tempo mark expression that was placed so far on the right of the page that the majority of its width was outside the margins of the page were sometimes vertically placed wrong. Improved: - Installer stability - Better collision detection of wide tempo/rehearsal marks with multi-measure rest numbers if the multi-measure rest starts in a measure after the expression. - Better support for 2,3 and 4-line staves (improved placement of multi-measure rest numbers, improved placement of tempo/rehearsal marks, correct metrics calculations for the multi-measure rest number and the measure number) - Improved starting and ending position of hairpins on whole note clusters in relation to other notes - Less connections of hairpins over rests if the following note has a dynamic - Improved detection of dynamic/expressive text expressions to be placed above the staff - Improved metrics for vertical spacing of chord symbols with accidentals and bass alterations with accidentals - Very short instrument indications in the score (e.g. 1. or 2.) are taken into account for vertical collision removal - The "Resize Vertical Space" option in systems is now always activated when "Optimize Staff Systems" was activated to improve the vertical distances between the systems. - Improved of metrics of multi-measure rests below "Start Numbering At" value - If there are two chord symbols on the same measure position (which is not recommended), they are not reset to the same default position anymore, if "Set to default position" is activated. - Improved detection of Voice2 sections if they include some hidden notes - Improved adding of extra horizontal space on collisions of note accidentals with note clusters on non-beamed notes with flags - Improved metrics and handling of invisible "middle-staves" in a 3-staff piano group setting. - Improved handling of parts with "specifiv voicing" that only show selected layers - Improved measure number metrics on the rare case where Show on System Start, Show Multiples and Show Measure Range is deactivated and only Show On Multi-Measure Rests is activated. - No more forced respacing when real whole measure rests were default measure rests - Slightly more horizontal space added if otheriwse glissando smartshapes would appear too steep - Improved articulation and dynamics placement if both two layers and cross-staff notes are used. - Warning message to use TG Tools->Adjust baselines for lyrics has been removed. As this process is automated since v1.2. - All Elbsound music fonts were newly rendered for an improved boundary box (i.e. better metrics) in Finale. - Improved horizontal distance between an "f"-dynamic expression and an expressive text expression, if the expressive text expression starts with a smaller letter, so that it doesn't collide with the open "f" if moved slightly to the left (e.g. "mf"+"sub." get closer together while "mf"+"tutti" doesn't). New features: - Adds a 32nd secondary beam break in time signatures with a beat duration of 512, 1024, 1536, 2048, 3072 or 4096, if at least two notes smaller or equal than a 32nd note are before the eighth note beat and at least two notes are after the beat (on "Optimize" tab, activated by default). - New option in the Systems tab: you can now set the "Min. Bottom Margin of Staff System" which is (and was in previous versions) by default 80 EVPU. For very narrow spaced scores (e.g. hymns), it might be necessary to reduce this value for example to 0 EVPU. This will generate an even tighter vertical staff system spacing. Note: this is only the minimum system distance, i.e. if any notation element is below that margin, the bottom margin will automatically be increased to avoid collisions. - On note clusters or multi-voice/multi-layer notes with two accidentals closer together than a sixth the accidentals are shifted closer together while colliding accidentals a sixth apart are torn apart (on "Alignment" tab, activated by default). - New tie handling for note clusters: if respacing is performed, then tied note clusters will use a slighlty increased minimum distance value of 48 EVPUs instead of the standard 36 EVPU. This will usually eliminate the tiny ties that sometimes occur in Finale. ;v1.2000 2019-11-22 Fixed: - The automatic lyrics alignment is now fully functional! TG TOOLS is not required anymore. - Glissando/smartshape lines between a note and a grace note on the same staff position are now made/kept horizontal. - When only a partial measure was selected, the plug-in could cancel with an error message in certain scenarios. - If only (!) the top or bottom margin in the global page format preferences for the score didn't match the actual used values in the score, the automatic staff/system balancing could cause problems. This is fixed now. - No more warnings in the log file about missing fonts with bold or italic styles that were actually not missing - Text expressions that use the superscript command with a negative value could cause error messages in some cases. - If a dynamic expression was assigned to a higher layer (>1) and the corresponding note on that layer was invisible behind a rhythmic staff style and there was no other note on that measure position, then the dynamic placement was not optimized horizontally. - Articulations on rhythmic staff styles were placed too high if two (!) rhythmic staff styles were placed on top of each other (usually this should not occur as one only applies on rhythmic staff style to a measure). - The font database didn't recognize clef symbols in the Aruvarb font when these were taken from the upper unicode area instead of the 0-255 standard area. - In rare cases word extensions on cue notes with lyrics were not hidden in the score. - If a part was accidentally transformed into a single multi-measure rest instead of the actual note content (before running the plug-in), the plug-in would sometimes show an error message dependent on the real positions of the multi-measure rests. This is fixed now and the single multi-measure rest is now always automatically split into the actual content. - Manually inverted tuplet hooks are now kept in this inverted position. - In some cases not all temporary created expression definitions were removed from the expression dialog. This is fixed now. As they weren't attached to the score, it wasn't visible either. - Noteheads with fonts set to hidden don't cause Finale to hang anymore if the measures also contains entry-based smartshapes. - Perfect Layout v1.0 and v1.1 didn't work in the new Finale 26.2 release, because of an unexpected change in Finale's internal font handling. - The "two staff group" detection (i.e. piano, celesta, marimba) wasn't correct in one rare case and could lead to piano staves being torn apart when there was a lot of verical space for the score. - if a staff in the score was set to "collapse in score only" and at the same used a staff style that was only applied to the score with "collape (score+parts)", then also the staff in the part would be hidden. This is fixed now. - if Finale's reflow settings were set to "Across Systems/Across Pages", in very rare cases (i.e. if the previous spacing was very loose and included many hidden staves) it was possible that the automatic vertical staff spacing could lead to slightly overlapping staves. - No shifting of dynamics on very low notes before the note if the note has an articulation before which would collide with the dynamic (e.g. an arpeggio or a bracket) Improved: - Improved tuplet metrics, tuplet brackets placement, dynamics placement and staff spacing on some cross staff tuplet scenarios - Improved staff spacing on piano notation (groups) with three staves - The installer now checks for updates if it has not checked for at least two days (and not randomly anymore). - Improved dynamics/hairpin vertical centering on piano notation (groups) with three staves - Improved placement of dynamics before very low notes on standard and cross staff notation, on parenthesized accidentals, if repeat brackets in the same measure and on very long notes (> whole notes). - Improved horizontal placement of dynamics on slash staff style measures without notes - Fix of the Finale bug that respacing may change the position of a mid-measure clefs: the position is now stored before respacing and restored afterwards. - An enclosed rehearsal mark letter plus another enclosed rehearsal mark at the beginning of a system don't collide anymore. - The "Show measure number range on multi-measure rests" feature is only activated for the "Digits" numbering style (not for time). - Faster "update available" check - Improved staff system distances on intersecting systems - Incomplete tuplets that only consist of very short notes (128th to 32nd notes) AND that also use the beam extension flag (i.e. tuplet tremolos with no other notes) were sometimes given a higher tuplet number which might have looked a bit irritating. - Installer stability - When run in Fin25 or Fin26 (i.e. 64bit) and several installations and uninstallation of the plug-in were performed into different directories, then in rare cases OTF font metrics were not correctly built in Fin25 or Fin26. - Improved placement of articulations above rhythmic notation for articulations without the "Outside Staff" attribute, but with "Avoid Staff Lines". - Improved horizontal placement of composite dynamic expressions that start or end with a molto cresc./dim. symbol from the support fonts (e.g. "f>" or "