Merging staves

My assumption would be that if something like this were done via plug-in, that plug-in would be always included with the product; I wasn't thinking in term of optional downloadable add-ons that you had to go out of way to search out.

The split staff function isn't really the opposite of a staff combining function. Or at least, it's only a small subset of what I'd envision a true implode/explode facility doing. The main purpose of Finale's implode/explode actually has nothing to do with the two piano staves; it has to do with writing for multiple instruments. In "explode", you initially put all notes on one staff for convenience in note entry. This assumes they all share the same rhythm, so they can be stacked as chords. "explode" then takes these notes - however many there are per chord - and distributes them among a similar number of staves. So you might write for the whole trumpet section one one staff, then "explode" it oneto the four individual staves. The "implode" function does the reverse, and thus also only works well if the parts all have the same rhythms, which they often do.

Another mode of operation for implode would be to take notes entered on different staves and combined them into different voices in one staff (obviously, up to a maximum of four). This could be used in taking music written as four separate S, A, T, and B staves and cnverting it standard two-staff form. This would allow for combining parts that use different rhythms. And this mode of explode could similarly take something notated with multiple voices on one staff and split it into multiple staves. In Finale, you don't actually need to use implode or explode for the multiple voice case, because Finale more directly supports the sort of copy & paste operations that are required to make this work well.

I'm not actually sure how the current function to split a staff works in the presence of multiple voices, but it's basic function isn't to split by voice or by position within a chord, but by a simple "split point:". That is *not* the same as what the explode functions I am describing does, so it is not really the opposite of the implode function. But if you think about it, the idea of combing two staves by a "split point: makes no sense. You have to choose: either the multiple parts are going to be combined as chords to the extent they share rhythms, or else they are going to have separate voices. The "split point" doesn't enter it, and indeed, any implementation that couldn't handle cases where some notes in the top staff happened to cross below some notes in the bottom staff would be next to useless.

So what I'm saying is, there really isn't an "opposite" toth current split function that I can see - there are just two different modes of "implode", each of which is the exact opposite of a corresponding "explode". None of these functions are currently present, but I think all four should be. It's a great set of arranging tools, and I use both explode and implode quite often in Finale, as well as the copy & paste with voice controls. I definitely think something like this belongs in MuseScore, whether done within the application or via a plug-in. But if it doesn't happen any time soon within the application, I'd be perfectly happy to see it added as a plug-in - or to do so myself when I have time.