IWBNI Finale were enhanced in some way to address the needs of users who wish to publish music on the web. The goal is to get from a Finale file to a file that can be viewed by someone who does not own the full-blown Finale.

There are many possibilities:

1. Create a free browser plug-in that views Finale files (or ETF files) (or files of some new compact format that is suitable for the web).

and/or

2. Create a File menu item to save a Finale file in a format that is commonly used for publishing graphical information on the web. For example, the menu item might be called File>Save As GIF. Perhaps one GIF file could be created for each page of the Finale document (i.e. a print to GIF file(s) option).

and/or

3. Create a File menu item to save a Finale file in a format that is used for publishing complete documents on the web such as PDF. For example, such a menu item might generate a single multi-page PDF file for an entire Finale document in one step.

and/or

4. Provide some information/suggestions (through an appendix in the Finale on-line documentation) to help the user publish Finale files on the web.

and/or

5. Support SVG. There is an emerging standard called Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) that is being developed by the W3C that may be of importance to those who wish to publish scores on the web. While PDF is perhaps the best way to publish scores today, there is a chance that SVG may be the way scores will be published in the future (since Adobe, Netscape, Microsoft, Macromedia, IBM and SUN appear to be supporting the new standard). With SVG (in the future), one would be able to publish a score as an XML text file and any browser would be able to view and print it. Perhaps Finale might be able to save a score in SVG format someday.

Created: March 14, 1999
Last Updated: November 26, 1999
Version: Finale 2000b