Hi, in the attached project I am unable to create a barline to join bass &
InASentimentalMood-2026.dorico (2.0 MB)
treble staves for measure 17 (the final measure before the repeat). I am missing something but cannot figure out what. Any help would be appreciated 
Cannot create barlines to connect treble and bass staves
As best I understand, barlines join based on bracketing. So if your treble and bass staves are bracketed together (e.g., for piano or all players of a particular instrument like horns), the barline will join the staves based on the selection for barline join under Brackets and Braces in the Layout Options. I’m not aware of any other barline settings but, perhaps, someone more seasoned with Dorico might have additional info.
Is this for a piano part? (it looks like it, otherwise ignore this)
If so, in Setup, click the > next to your 1 player (you have two separate players).
Click the dots and Change instrument to piano.
This will give you a piano stave. You can copy/paste in Write mode from instrument 2 to bass clef piano staff.
Check everything has transferred, then in Setup you can delete the 2 player.
Try:
In Engrave mode, select the barline.
Then, in Properties > Time Signatures, enable Barline joins all staves.
Yep! Thank you so much. Modifying the Player settings was the culprit. All is good now! Kind regards,
-peter-
Hi Steve, I could not locate the exact settings you mentioned.
Hi Peter.
It only shows when in Engrave mode.
Make sure the barline is selected, and then scroll to the right in Properties. It is towards the end of the Time Signatures section.
PS
Just in case you’re not sure how to access Properties - it is the Lower Zone, which can be opened via the Window menu - Show Lower Zone, or by using the keyboard shortcut (ctrl/cmd+8).
Yes! That worked also worked. Thank you. I think it is good to know that there are a couple methods that can be used to solve the problem of joining staffs.
Dorico (nearly always) provides two methods. Either you change a global option, or you override a local instance of that global option.
