ChoralWiki:FinaleViewer

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FinaleViewer.gif

Installing FinaleViewer

Windows: 4.6 MB file (zipped)

N.B. these notes are adapted from the instructions at the web site of Fr. Abel Di Marco.

FinaleViewer does not run on Windows 95; the web browser recommended is Internet Explorer 5.5 (5.50.4522.1800 SP1) or above, though Netscape 4.78 or above should also work.

If upon installing FinaleViewer you are unable to install the NPFinale.dll plug-in file, you should cancel the installation, and reinstall Internet Explorer 5.5.

If FinaleViewer does not run after installation, a newer version of the Java Virtual Machine may be required: the minimum version needed is either Microsoft JVM 5.0.3167 or Sun VM 1.2.

Macintosh: 8.1 MB file

N.B. Compatible with Mac OS 8.6 – 9.2.2 only; therefore to be able to run under Mac OS X, the plug-in must be installed and used with a browser compatible with both the Classic environment and Apple's MacOS Runtime for Java (MRJ) software; for example, Internet Explorer 5.0 is compatible with both. The Java applet requires MRJ version 2.2.5, which may require updating under older versions of Mac OS 8 and 9.

Caveat: this Mac version (downloaded from a Japanese web-site) is the Japanese release! (Well, beggars can't be choosers.)

Issues with FinaleViewer

This was originally designed by Coda Music to make Finale scores viewable within a web browser, and was previously called "Smart Music Viewer"; however development on the web browser plug-in has been abandoned by Finale. The free version of Finale Notepad (available from MakeMusic) is sufficient to open Finale scores and play them back, however some web sites affiliated with CPDL do not offer the Finale files directly, requiring the FinaleViewer plug-in.

Note: that there are two bits of software which have been named as "Finale Viewer". The earlier one was a browser plug-in with this name in 2003, which replaced a previous similar plug-in called "SmartMusic Viewer", both of which were deprecated in 2004 in favor of Finale Notepad. More recently, beginning in late 2006 or early 2007, the name "Finale Viewer" was given to a user side component to a suite of server software developed by MakeMusic! for use in selling sheet music through e-commerce. The current version probably will not work as a substitute for the earlier one.