Hiding staves

In published full scores, it’s customary to omit from a system any staves consisting entirely of rests, which results in a more compact and readable score. This is sometimes called "French scoring." In Finale, this process of suppressing the printing of empty staves within each system is done with the Staff tool (Staff menu > Hide Empty Staves).

After hiding empty staves, and then subsequently moving measures or adding notes to the hidden staves, the appropriate notes and staves automatically reappear. This is worth mentioning because all staves, including hidden staves, are visible in Scroll View, which means that even though a staff is hidden in Page View, notes can still be added to that staff in Scroll View. Automatic Music Spacing can also move measures with notes across systems, possibly to a system in which that staff is hidden. In both of these cases, Finale automatically shows all staves that include notes, so you cannot unintentionally lose music. In order for a staff with music to be hidden, it must be intentionally forced to hide using the Staff Attributes dialog box. See To hide staves for ossia measures or special playback.

If you would like to hide staves that include music, use the Force Hide Staves check box in the Staff Attributes dialog box. A staff can be removed from a system entirely (collapse), or, using a Staff Style, measures can be hidden leaving blank space instead of staff lines (cutaway) (see To hide measures).

To play back only selected staves

See To play back selected staves

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