IWBNI there were an option to specify that the distance between any two accidentals of a chord should depend on the type of the accidentals and the size of the interval between the associated notes. As it is now, the control Space Between Accidentals on Notes on the Music Options dialog box may be used to globally adjust the space between all accidental pairs. Also, the accidental mover tool may be used to adjust the horizontal position of any accidental.

For example, consider the case where a sharp is to be positioned to the left of a natural. If Space Between Accidentals on Notes is set to 8 EVPUs and no manual adjustments are made with the accidental mover tool, the accidentals would be positioned in the following way:

Some engravers would prefer to have accidentals such as these gradually overlap as the interval becomes larger as shown in the following figure:

In this figure, the sharp on the fourth and fifth chord has been moved to the right. Also, the sharp on the first chord has been moved left by a small amount.

This feature could be implemented by replacing the edit control Space Between Accidentals on Notes on the Music Options dialog box with a button called Space Between Accidentals of Chords. This button would display a new dialog box called Space Between Accidentals of Chords that could contain the following controls:

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Space Between Accidentals of Chords Dialog Box

Space Between Accidentals of a Chord (EVPUs)
Case 1: Left Accidental Below or Even With Right Accidental
 

Left Accidental	Right Accidental	Interval
		Unison	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
sharp	sharp	8	8	6	4	1	-4	V
flat	flat	7	7	6	-2	-5	-7	V
natural	natural	7	7	6	3	-3	V
natural	sharp	6	6	6	4	-1	-8	V
sharp	natural	9	9	9	7	2	-6	V
natural	flat	8	8	8	5	-4	V
flat	natural	8	8	6	0	-4	-7	V

Space Between Accidentals of a Chord (EVPUs)
Case 2: Left Accidental Above Right Accidental
 

Left Accidental	Right Accidental	Interval
		2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
sharp	sharp	9	8	5	1	-2	V
flat	flat	9	9	9	8	3	V
natural	natural	9	9	9	9	V
natural	sharp	8	8	8	7	3	V
sharp	natural	10	10	10	10	5	V
natural	flat	10	10	10	10	10	V
flat	natural	9	9	8	3	V

Default Space Between Accidentals of Chords: 8 EVPUs

When Positioning Accidentals of Chords:
( ) Use Slots and Default Space Between Accidentals
( ) Minimize Distance Between Accidentals and Notes Using Default Space Between Accidentals and Tables

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The option Use Slots and Default Space Between Accidentals could be selected to have accidentals positioned on chords as in the current version of Finale.

Alternatively, the option Minimize Distance Between Accidentals and Notes Using Default Space Between Accidentals and Tables could be selected. This would cause each accidental to be placed as near as possible to the notehead with which it is associated. The algorithm to accomplish this would initialize all accidentals at their default positions within slots using the setting for Default Space Between Accidentals of Chords. These initial positions would be identical to the position of accidentals as in the current version of Finale. Then, each slot would be processed starting with the rightmost slot and progressing to the left. Within each slot each accidental would be processed starting with the topmost accidental and progressing down. For each given accidental, neighboring accidentals would be identified that are to the right of the accidental. The given accidental would then be moved to the right using the appropriate value in the tables on the Space Between Accidentals of Chords Dialog Box. In the case when there are neighbors above and below the given accidental, the distance that would cause the accidental to be farthest to the left would be used.

One could append rows to the distance tables to specify any combination of accidentals. For example, a row could be appended to specify the required distances when the left accidental is a double sharp and the right accidental is a parenthesized flat. Also, one could add columns to specify distances for larger intervals.

A V which stands for "Vertical" would be entered into a table cell to indicate that a given pair of accidentals may be vertically stacked for all intervals equal to or larger than a given interval. In this case, the accidentals would be positioned as if the notes were isolated rather than part of a chord. For example, the V in the 6th Interval column of the natural/natural row of the Case 1 table indicates that two naturals should be vertically stacked whenever the interval is greater than or equal to a 6th. This V mechanism would replace the existing control called Vertical Spacing Between Accidentals on the Notation Options dialog box.

Created: March 11, 2000 (based on a submission from Andrew Stiller)
Last Updated: March 11, 2000
Version: Finale 2000b