WEDEL Exporter Finale plug-in.
version 1.4

PURPOSE AND DESCRIPTION

Its purpose is to save in XML WEDELMUSIC format any score file loaded into Finale.
This will allow to share music at a wider audience by using the emerging standard of XML.
Music Files saved in WEDELXML format can be loaded, printed and edited by the WEDELMUSIC editor and browser.

www.wedelmusic.org
wedelmusic@dsi.unifi.it

When a file is saved in WEDEL XML format a directory is produced with a name:

<namefile>.wdf

inside the directory you can find the XML files that have the extensions:

WDF: main file of the total WEDEL format object
<nomefile>.SWF: XML main score details
#.<nomefile>.SWF: XML description of the part

In addition, you may find LOG files, one for each part, named in the same manner.
In the log files you can find useful information to understand if your conversion has gone in the right manner or something can be improved.
This is very important since working a bit on a conversion table you can strongly improved the conversion percentage of your plug in. the 100% of conversion can be easily obtained.

The converter uses a table of conversion which is stored into the file named:

exportwedelxml.tab

that file has to be located in the directory in which you saved your WDF directories. That path and file names is requested to you at each execution of the Plug-In. The path is stored for you convenience. Please pai attention since it is also stored the  namefile.

EXPORT TABLE

The table contains 4 areas/sections: articulation, single char expression, shape expressions and chords.
For each of them you can write a list of conversion from the number used in Finale to the XML code of WEDELMUSIC.
For esach section several items can be defined to associate numbers used in Finale with symbols used in WEDEL. They are numbered.
Over the 400 you can find several examples. In that way you can make your table selecting what is needed for you, what is needed to convert your Finale Files.  The conversion table depend on the style that you have used in Finale, so a prepared table will work for several Finale files, for those
produced with the same conventions, finale version, etc.

For each section you can have up to 600 entries. The example reported is only a small part, read also the text before the table.

--------------------------
articulations
1 <marker TYPE="STACCATO" UPDOWN="%s"/>
2 <marker TYPE="ACCENTO" UPDOWN="UP"/>
3 <marker TYPE="STACCATO" UPDOWN="UP"/><marker TYPE="ACCENTO" UPDOWN="UP"/>
14 <marker TYPE="BOWDOWN" UPDOWN="UP"/>
15 <ornament TYPE="TURNBACK" UPDOWN="UP"/>
16 <piano TYPE="PEDALDOWN" UPDOWN="DOWN"/>
17 <piano TYPE="PEDALUP" UPDOWN="DOWN"/>
180 <arpeggio DIRECTION="NONE"/>
19 <text UPDOWN="DOWN">ERROR</text>
22 <harmonic UPDOWN="UP" TYPE="STRINGS"/>
23 <mute UPDOWN="DOWN" TYPE="PLUS"/>
24 <text UPDOWN="DOWN">ERROR</text>
27 <ornament TYPE="TREMOLO" NUMBER="3" UPDOWN="UP"/>
28 <text UPDOWN="DOWN">ERROR</text>
29 <text UPDOWN="DOWN">ERROR</text>
30 <marker TYPE="SFORZATO" UPDOWN="UP"/>
31 <marker TYPE="SFORZATO" UPDOWN="UP"/><marker TYPE="STACCATO" UPDOWN="%s"/>
32 <marker TYPE="TENUTO" UPDOWN="UP"/><marker TYPE="ACCENTO" UPDOWN="UP"/>
33 <marker TYPE="STACCATO" UPDOWN="UP"/><marker TYPE="ACCENTO" UPDOWN="UP"/>
48 <text UPDOWN="DOWN">ERROR</text>
49 <ornament TYPE="TREMOLO" NUMBER="3" UPDOWN="UP"/>
50 <text UPDOWN="DOWN">ERROR</text>
51 <marker TYPE="ACCENTO" UPDOWN="UP"/>
52 <text UPDOWN="DOWN">ERROR</text>

single-char-expressions
1 <dynamictext DYNAMIC="F" UPDOWN="DOWN"/>
2 <dynamictext DYNAMIC="MF" UPDOWN="DOWN"/>
3 <dynamictext DYNAMIC="FF" UPDOWN="DOWN"/>
11 <dynamictext DYNAMIC="SFZ" UPDOWN="DOWN"/>
12 <dynamictext DYNAMIC="SFFZ" UPDOWN="DOWN"/>
17 <text UPDOWN="UP">8va</text>
18 <text UPDOWN="DOWN">8ba</text>
153  <dynamictext DYNAMIC="SFZ" UPDOWN="DOWN"/>

shape-expressions
1 <text UPDOWN="DOWN">ERROR</text>
2 <marker TYPE="GENERIC" UPDOWN="DOWN" NAME="smear"/>

chords
A <fretboard UPDOWN="UP" NUMBER="6" NAME="A" FRETS="xo222o" FINGERS="771237" BARRE="00" HEAD="0"/>
B <fretboard UPDOWN="UP" NUMBER="6" NAME="B" FRETS="x2444x" FINGERS="713337" BARRE="35" HEAD="0"/>
C <fretboard UPDOWN="UP" NUMBER="6" NAME="C" FRETS="x32o1o" FINGERS="732717" BARRE="00" HEAD="0"/>
D <fretboard UPDOWN="UP" NUMBER="6" NAME="D" FRETS="xxx331" FINGERS="777341" BARRE="00" HEAD="5"/>

-----------------

Each of these areas may contain at most 600 entries which is a huge number with respect to what is  typically needed, with respect to the number of different shapes, chords, articulations, etc which are used in a Finale file.

In the general cases, the prepared table is generally strong enough to work with your files. If you what to have a good conversion it is better to verify in finale is the table corresponds to the correct set of Articulations, single char expressions, and  shape expressions. To do that you have to go in Finale and open the Articulation, expression and shape expression table from which in finale it is possible to select and insert that symbols. They are in the same order of the above tables. The number reported in the table above and in the tabvle inside finale has to correspond to the right XML code for WEDEL in this table.

Please note that you can associate with notes also GENERIC markers. They can be single fonts characters generated with Fontographer and thus you can convert from Finale to WEDELMUSIC any shape expression.

To get the generic markers please use:

<marker TYPE="GENERIC" UPDOWN="DOWN" NAME="smear"/>

They are included into the WEDEL Editor by using MILLA file in the  MDS directory.

You can associate to a unique symbol of FINALE even more that one WEDEL symbols. For example, the case of STACCATO TENUTO:

3 <marker TYPE="STACCATO" UPDOWN="UP"/><marker TYPE="TENUTO" UPDOWN="UP"/>

The Plugin will inform you about the presence of possible missing items in the table. To solve that problems goes into the LOG file and look for the
WARNINGs.

I suggest to assign at missing elements, or elements that you have decided to manage in a different manner in WEDELMUSIC editor the following line. In that way you can see in your score inside the WEDELMUSIC editor where the symbols has been lost.

50 <text UPDOWN="DOWN">ERROR</text>

In the writing of the XML statements above for the table you can write them in parametric manner. This allows you to get from finale the position UP/DOWN of the symbols. To do that please leave the UPDOWN code open with %s:

1 <marker TYPE="STACCATO" UPDOWN="%s"/>

Please remember that UPDOWN of WEDELXML may accept UP | DOWN | AUTO. AUTO means that the direction is estimated every time the symbol is loaded on the basis of the  context by using MILLA inferential engine.

In the WEDELEDITOR several utilities for make the music in the good format are present:

-- automatic justification
-- automatic beaming
-- automatic definition of stem direction,
-- automatic positioning of symbols (up/down) and along the score
-- etc.

For these reasons, don't worry about the music formatting, it is WEDELMUSIC Editor's job !!

In WEDELMUSIC editor you can also verify the time consistency of the imported music with respect to the time duration of the measure. It is quite frequent that the composer in finale leave some measure inconsistent when the part presents more voices.  In WEDELMUSIC you can change the color of a layer and work on it to compensate the time duration. You can insert rests, they can be sed visible and invisible according to your needs. See the WEDELMUSIC Help for details about this.

STATISTICS

The converter presents at the end of the conversion also a statistic report. It allows you to understand what has not been converter in the proper manner and to assess the time needed to adjust the MUSIC Score in WEDELMUSIC editor.

From our analysis, When the score does not presents too much smart shapes such  in classical or didaptical music the conversion is typically close to 100%. In modern music, it can be at least greater than 70% without working on shape expressions. If you work on that, preparing symbols and using the GENERIC markers of WEDELMUSIC you can strongly increase the conversion rate/percentage.

INSTALLATION

A) put the file named WEDEL-v1-4.fxt which is the plug in, in the Plug in directory  of Finale 2001. It is subdirectory of the Finale directory in your disk.
B) put the file exportwedelxml.tab in the right directory as described.
The converter uses a table of conversion which is stored into the file named:

exportwedelxml.tab

that file has to be located in the directory in which you saved your WDF directories. That path and file names is requested to you at each execution of the Plug-In. The path is stored for your convenience. Please pay attention since it is also stored the  namefile.

IMPROVEMENTS AND CORRECTIONS HISTORY

With respect to verions 1.2
-- augmentation dots for notes
-- TREMOLO stem, /// on the stem, managed with the table

With respect to verions 1.3
-- management of chords with the conversion table
-- counting of measures
-- improvement of export table
-- no /// on the stem

HINTS AND PROBLEMS

-- DIRECTION of tie is imposed by WEDEL since this information is not recoverable from Finale interface
-- slur and smart shape of finale are not fully recognized for the lack of information inside the plugin
-- position of expressions and articulation is imposed by the statement written into the above table
-- staff with a different number of lines are not well recognized: tablature or percussions
-- text associated with single measures are not well associated
-- brackets grouping staffs are not recognized in this version
-- title, composer, etc imposed from the dialog is not available. In several cases this text can be get in the LOG file
-- lyric text can be recovered from log files, temporary
-- several other textual annotations that are not transcribed into WEDEL file can be recovered in the log file
-- the log file report also WARNING.
-- expressions and articulation are recognized and mapped to the symbols of WEDEL according to the table ................
-- A single symbol of Finale can be traduced in one or more WEDEL symbols
-- no recognition of repeat symbols: ./., .//., frequently they are only a representation the real music is save in WEDEL XML
-- some confusion in getting SLURS
-- no detection on Octave and 15me
-- no detection of changes of clef and key signature in the middle of the measure
-- the start of the refrain barline is got in the wrong place |:
-- crescendo and decrescendo are converted if they are fonts, not if they are implemented as smart shapes
-- no arpeggio on chords, it has to be detected as symbol, see the above table

Some solutions for improving the detection/conversion of smart shape will be possible with Finale 2002.

NEW DETECTED PROBLEMS, YOUR PROBLEMS

For any problem, send to WEDELMUSIC@dsi.unifi.it, the original Finale File and  the obtained WDF files together with a description of the detected problems. We will do the possible to solve it in short time.

If you have some examples with symbols that are not recognised please send the example to us and the description of the missing symbol recognition.

It is very important for us to receive from you the FINALE FILES THAT GET VERY LOW conversion rates,
especially when important symbols are not recognised.