Printing/Publishing

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Category: Printing/Publishing

Published: 26 December 2009

Here are some tips for Finale users working with PDF files in Adobe Acrobat:

• If you want to publish a sample of your music, you may want to make it non-printable (using the security options in Acrobat). You may also want to prevent the user from making changes to the document (also using the security options).
• If you use security options when sending work to a client, there is often little need remembering the security passwords yourself (so use different security passwords for all your files). Unless you make a lot of changes after the PDF was created, it's probably more convenient just to create a new PDF file from the original than to remember/find the passwords.
• Don't send the password for a PDF file in the same e-mail as the actual PDF attachment.
• Create thumbnails! This is a convenient navigation method for most users, so support it in your own documents. (If the music consists of smaller pieces, you may want to make the thumbnail view the default opening view for the PDF document.)
• Create bookmarks! (If your music is a long piece, you can use the different sections of the music as bookmarks.) When you've created your bookmarks, the bookmark view is great as the default opening view.
• If you want the client to get additional instructions, a good way is to put Text Notes (with the Text Note tool in Acrobat Exchange) in your score. The text notes will not print.