In Finale 3D, report and label templates are saved as “Blueprints“. In the Hobbyist and Pro versions, blueprints also store the built-in and custom table layouts that are represented as puzzle piece icons in the Effects and Script windows. In the Pro version, blueprints are further used to store rack layout diagrams, site layouts, and addressing blueprints. Future versions of the software will support saving blueprints to the user’s account in the cloud, or to a company account, but as of January 2025, all blueprints are saved as part of a show. Thus, if you add or customize a report, label template, or anything that is stored as a blueprint, you will only have access to that blueprint when you open that specific show. However, this does not mean that each time you start a new show you need to recreate your custom reports, labels, or any other blueprints. Instead, you can easily copy blueprints from one show to another by following the instructions in this article.
Steps to copy specific blueprint(s) from one show to another show
- Go to “File > Open” and open the show that includes the blueprint(s) you would like to re-use.
- Go to “Window > Blueprints window” to open the Blueprints window.
- In the Blueprints window, press Ctrl, then left-click on the row numbers for the blueprint(s) you would like to copy.
- Press Ctrl+C to copy the blueprints to your clipboard.
- Close the Blueprints window.
- With the blueprints copied, open the show in which you’d like to use the blueprints, or open a new blank show. If the show you want to use the blueprints in was already open before you did step 1, you can switch back to that show from the bottom of the Window menu.
- Open the Blueprints window again, which now shows the blueprints in the new show, then press Ctrl+V to paste the blueprints from your clipboard.
- Save the show.
Note: If the show that you paste the blueprints into already contains blueprints with the same name, then you may end up with duplicate blueprints. Pasting a blueprint with the same name will result in a new blueprint with (01) at the end of its name, it will not overwrite or update the existing blueprint of the same name. For example, if you copy a blueprint that has the name my_custom_lables into another show that has a blueprint with the exact same name, the name of the pasted blueprint will become my_custom_lables(01). If you end up with obsolete or duplicate blueprints, you can delete rows in the Blueprints window to delete the unneeded blueprints.
Steps to copy all blueprints from one show to another show
- Go to “File > Open” and open the show that includes the blueprint(s) you would like to re-use.
- Go to “Window > Blueprints window” to open the Blueprints window.
- In the Blueprints window, press Ctrl+A to select all, and Ctrl+C to copy all the blueprints to your clipboard.
- Close the Blueprints window.
- With the blueprints copied, open the show in which you’d like to use the blueprints, or open a new blank show. If the show you want to use the blueprints in was already open before you did step 1, you can switch back to that show from the bottom of the Window menu.
- Open the Blueprints window again, which now shows the blueprints in the new show, press Ctrl+A to select all, then press Delete on your keyboard to delete all the blueprints, then press Ctrl+V to paste the blueprints from your clipboard.
- Save your new show with the customized templates.
If you find that you need to copy and paste the same blueprints each time you create a new show, a better solution is to create a Start-up template. This will replace the default blank show that you see each time you launch Finale 3D with a show that contains your blueprints and settings. To create a start-up template, configure a show with your blueprints and preferred show settings, then go to “File > User settings > Save show as start-up template”.