My frustration level continues to grow with Dorico. I can’t believe there isn’t a simpler way to adjust measure size. Note spacing is a pain and confusing.
Can you be more specific? Maybe a picture or a cut-down file? I find the Note Spacing tools to be perfectly functional — I don’t use the Engrave Note Spacing sub-mode, only the Layout options>Note spacing and Engrave mode>Engrave menu>Insert Note Spacing Change.
Those two tools are all I need, they’re very powerful and efficient.
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Can you show us what you have, and describe what you want?
Here the page I want to fix. As you can see the last measure is cramped. would like to at least even out the measures.
It looks quite indented at the right of the page, leaving scarce space for the music. And the lyrics take horizontal space — the space used by the half note “ty” for the bass is really not large enough. What I do not understand is why the space seems to be tighter and tighter, but the horizontal fullness percentage here is clearly above 100%, which makes the automatic result irrelevant. You shall never exceed 100% or you’ll be disappointed. Your lyrics font does not seem to take too much space horizontally, so that is not a solution: sometimes you can use the same font but changing the stretch to 98% in the Paragraph styles (I have a lyrics stretched Paragraph Styles for those occasions). I’d say you would get better results inserting a system break after “thy”, or try using a tighter Note Spacing value in Layout options (my default is 3.5 for full scores, try that if you’re using the default which is 4 and I find too wide, I’d go down to 3 1/4)
Of course, if you’ve been using the Engrave mode Note Spacing sub mode (manual tweaking), I’d recommend selecting all those squares and delete…
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I’m sorry but that made absolutely no sense to me.. Moreover, I haven’t been using Engrave mode Note Spacing because I don’t know how to get it to manual tweaking — as it were. Why won’t Dorico simply allow me to adjust bar lines either by size or dragging? I am so pissed at Finale. at least it was less user unfriendly.
Have you locked the systems with System Breaks? I’d agree that the system is just far too full. I suspect that something else in staves we can’t see is also affecting the uneven spacing.
I dare say you could select the squares in Note Spacing for the final bar, and press Alt-right to give them more space, at the expense of the other bars; but the simplest solution is just to move that last bar to a new system.
The paper size does look very narrow. What’s the page size and Staff Size? I wouldn’t bother with full (or any) staff labels on every system. Singers tend to stick to their guns, unless it’s changing all the time.
Finale was many things, but user friendly was never one of them… 
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Hi @Ralph_Fisher, please not be frustrated. There is for sure a very simple solution (one of the suggested ones or something else): if you are willing to upload your Dorico file here, I am sure someone will give you step by step instructions on how to optimise you spacings and layout in that particular context (so that from these advices you can better learn how generally Dorico spacing and lay-outing works).
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I have not experienced a few issues minor issues with bar width - though occasionally I ‘fix’ a problem by creating a system break which would otherwise be completely unnecessary.
I agree that it should be possible to grab a bar line and pull it left or right.
Dear Ralph, if you could post that part of your project, we will find the culprit very soon. What paper size do you use for this layout? Which rastral size, which note spacing?
I took the liberty to copy your three bars to see how Dorico works it out by itself, even when the system is slightly overfilled:
… and using Dorito’s default “Choir SATB with organ” template (Paper size: Letter, Rastral size: 3, Note spacing: 3), I will get this:
Screenshot [Ralph Fisher] 2025-04-07 at 9-56-31 AM.dorico (704.0 KB)
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It has to be said that Rastral Size 3 is very large for a choral score. 5 or 6 is much more standard.
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Hi kb<
For some magical reason it did correct itself! I am using the SATB and organ template. I Guess I jumped the gun since I had just begun tweaking the format. I’m still trying to figure out how to add a token to the first page (dedication)
Thanks for you help
Ralph
In Engrave mode, double-click the First Page Template.
Then, if you don’t need the Lyricist, you can delete it and
right-click inside the green frame to select Dedication instead.
You will need to input the Dedication under File->Project info.
Or even simpler, add the dedication under Lyricist in Project info instead.
You can create a new text frame if you need it at a different place.
Also, remember to Copy Page Layout from left to right. Finally click Apply.
Jesper
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Hi Ralph,
can you remember, where you changed a setting? Or could it be that you had chosen a different layout than the Full score??
Which settings are you using in this layout:
for Rastral size
for Page size
for Note spacing?
..just to give us an idea..