Finale migrator here.
I have tried adjusting vertical spacing in Engraving Options.
As per my screenshot, the vertical spacing on System 2 is much higher than on System 1, 3, 4, & 5.
Whenever I make adjustments to the Vertical Spacing for Lyrics, I rarely see any movement on my page when I hit “Apply”.
It seems there’s a ton of adjustments one can make in many different areas of the program and I’m a little lost cause I’ll change one aspect and then have to go and change another setting.
It’s because in system 1, the lyrics would collide with the bar numbers. That problem is not there in system 2.
You should increase the minimum space between lyrics and staff (can’t remember what it’s called) so that system 2 has the same amount of distance as 1.
I don’t understand. There are bar numbers in each system.
I also tried changing the Minimum Distance Between Staves for LYRICS in the Engraving Options. Just to see what would happen, I increased it to 4 spaces and hit “Apply.” Nothing changed at all with the lyrics.
But in the second system, they don’t collide with the lyrics. In the first system, the 3 collides with ‘b’; in the third system, 10 collides with ‘y’; etc.
I think this is the setting that @dan_kreider is suggesting you increase:
I must be tripping or going blind. I don’t see any collisions in my screenshot at all with any lyrics/bar numbers. 
If the lyrics on these lines were moved as close to the staff as the ones on the second system, they would collide with the measure numbers. It’s this potential collision which forces the lyrics lower.
Oh, you’re saying there “would be” collisions. Got it.
Yes, sorry if I wasn’t clear.
If I may, I’d suggest that your staves are too close together, so that it’s difficult to tell whether things are below one system or above another.
I’d question whether bar numbers below every bar is ideal - for me, they distract when trying to following the lyrics. Could they go above instead? (Or just at the start of the system?) Is there really a need for bar numbers in a lead sheet?
Thanks for your input.
99% of my charts I do aren’t lead sheets. All the musicians I work with prefer bar numbers below the measure, go figure.
Re: bar numbers in a lead sheet … I’ve had the practice of always including bar numbers and it’s seemed to work for me.
Re: staves too close together … while I agree in this instance, there always seems to be the issue of charts have that one lone stave that is pushed to the second page and that irks me to no end. Nobody wants to waste an entire page for 1 stave so for the sake of the extra page, sometimes I’ll push the staves closer just a bit to save from a multi-paged chart. Of course there’s always a fine line between “too close” and “this will be fine.”
This was why I was attempting to bring the lyrics a bit closer to the above staff so visually the separate between staves is clearer.
At any rate, I’m still fussing with my Dorico template(s). As a 20+ yr Finale user, I’m still learning the ins/outs of Dorico.
