Shift Lyrics dialog box

How to get there

Choose the Lyrics tool . The Lyrics menu appears.
Choose Lyrics > Shift Lyrics.

What it does

When you’re working with lyrics, you may occasionally need to push all the syllables in the music to the right or left by one note. For example, suppose you enter the lyrics in the Lyrics window but forget to anticipate a melismatic passage (where one syllable is sustained over several melody notes) in the melody. When you use the Click Assignment feature to place the lyrics into the score, Finale assigns a syllable to each note of the melisma, and no subsequent syllables align with their correct notes for the rest of the melody. You can use the Shift Lyrics feature to shift all the syllables simultaneously so that they’re aligned with the correct melody notes.

In this dialog box, you have several options for shifting the lyric syllables. You can specify that you want them shifted forward, backward, all the way to the beginning (or ending) of the score, or only as far as the next melody note without a syllable.

Shift Lyrics to the Left • Right. From the drop-down menu, choose the direction in which you want Finale to slide the lyric syllables, relative to the notes.
If you choose Left, then when you return to the score, click within the staff lines at the position of the note just to the left of the first syllable you want moved; Finale moves that syllable (and subsequent syllables) to the left by one melody note, automatically skipping over rests and tied notes. Click again (in the staff lines at the position of the note just before the first syllable) for each additional one-note shift.
If you choose Right, click within the staff lines at the position of first syllable you want moved; Finale pushes that syllable (and subsequent syllables) to the right by one melody note, automatically skipping over rests and tied notes. Click again (in the staff lines above the first syllable) or each additional one-note shift.
Shift Syllables by One Note, to the End of the Lyric • Shift Syllables by One Note, to the Next Open Note. Finale needs to know what range of syllables you want it to shift. If you click the first option, Finale slides every syllable (from the one you click) all the way to the end of the lyric. (See Specify Current Lyric dialog box for a full description of Finale’s three lyric types.) If you click the second option, Finale only shifts syllables from the one you click through the next note that has no syllable attached to it.
Rotate Syllables. This option is only useful if you’ve created a set of lyrics with more syllables than there are notes to attach them to. Select this option on those rare occasions when you want to replace the syllable on each note with the syllable to its right or left—but without changing which notes have lyrics.
OK • Cancel. Click OK to return to the score. If you selected To The Right, click in the staff above the first syllable you want to shift to the right. If you selected To The Left, click in the staff at the position of the note just before the first syllable you want shifted to the left. Click Cancel to return to the score. Finale won’t shift any lyrics if you click the staff.