I’ve created a new document and I want it to start with 4 bars per line, not 3 as is now the case. How do I control the number of bars per line?
Jesele’s answer is (of course) the correct answer to your question, but if you only set a fixed casting off without changing anything else, your notes will get crowded and what you end up with might not be as good looking as it could be. (The main reason there are only three bars in your first line is that four doesn’t fit with the options you have set.)
So I suggest that you also investigate the other options that control spacing. In particular Space Size (under layout options → Page Setup) and Note Spacing (also in layout options).
And one more note. Your screenshot shows a single player, but in a score layout. I hope you’re aware that if you’re only writing for a single saxophone, it’s better to use a part layout. (Please don’t be offended if this is obvious to you. I realize that your screenshot is far from a finished thing and only meant to illustrate your question, but many people apparently aren’t bugged by it. I’ve seen way too much music shared looking like this and it makes me sad considering how easy it is to fix.)
Edit: One more thing - it’s generally a good idea to not worry too much about the layout until you’ve finished with the music. It’s difficult to tell which layout options are best until all the music is there so you can see how it looks.
One other thing: I’d wait until you’ve got all the notes in before worrying about the bars per line. You may find that Dorico changes things as you add more notes onto the 2nd line.
Once you done that, then you can look at the percentage fullness of each system in Engrave mode, and see if you need to adjust the Note Spacing to get more or less on each line; and you can always just “Make Into System” with a pair of System Breaks.
Thanks for this. Not offended at all. How would I change a score layout into a part layout (single sax)?
