Trying to restrict the number of bars per system but not having much luck. See screen Shot. There are 8 measures per system as you can see which is a little too crowded for what I need. Here is what I tried:
Went to Library>Layout Options>Casting Off> Fixed number of Bars per System. then typed in “6” but there are still 8 bars per system. I am missing a step somewhere.
Thanks for any advice you can give.
Do you have system or frame break signposts that are locking the bars in place?
The first answer would be: if you don’t have a really compelling reason to force a number of measures into a system, you are trying to do much more work than you need, by telling Dorico how many bars to put in a system - it has very sophisticated algorithms to find the best solution in distributing the measures throughout the piece itself.
I would - just as a try - reset the layout first:
… then go into Library > Layout Options and begin to change horizontal spacing in small steps and watch what happens.
Also here is one of the best hours spent for Dorico life:
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I’d absolutely agree: let Dorico do the work. If you don’t like the result, there are a myriad of easy ways to get the whole layout changed without locking the whole thing into a fixed number.
Of course, there may be a reason why you want 8 bars to a line – if “time per page” is important for a film score, for instance – but otherwise, it’s entirely normal for a score to vary, according to the music.
If you think the layout is too cramped , you can adjust the Note Spacing value. Or the Staff Size.
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Both of the last two suggestions worked fine. I just don’t remeber changing anything in the score layout that would have caused so many bars to appear on each page. I did the reset as suggested and now there are generally about 6 bars per page, whixch is what I wanted.
Thank s so much.
You might have used the feature to force a bar to the previous system, which actually creates the breaks and the appropriate properties so that that bar sticks to the previous system…
A good habit when using Dorico is to leave signposts visible and voice colours on. It helps a lot to understand some situations and make things clear. Shortcuts can be created to toggle those on and off if you want 
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Thank you, Marc.
Great suggrestion.