Dorico page formatting

Dorico
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Why doesn’t Dorico create a somewhat reasonably formatted score by default. I’ve spent hours trying to get a score to look good in Dorico until in frustration I exported the xml loaded it in MuseScore and got something acceptable with two clicks. I also loaded it into Finale and also got a decent score without too much trouble. Print-out from Dorico looks wonderful once you get the page right but it isn’t worth the agro.

Some things in Dorico are wonderful - note entry and editing - and others are needlessly arcane. I know I’m probably just not understanding something but the default out of the box for a simple score (SAB with flute) should yield an adequate result without too much manipulation.

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I think you’d have to give us an example.

Personally, I get decent results most of the time (and I still use most of Dorico’s default settings - though I do play around with note spacing and vertical spacing)

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You should be able to get a four-staff score looking perfect with only a few changes to Layout Options, and maybe a couple of Breaks.

As said: let’s see what you’ve got, and we should be able to point in the right direction.

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Layout in Dorico is not arcane, just the thinking is different. If you post your file, the forum will get you up to speed fast.

In the meantime: one well spent hour to get the gist of it:

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