I have spaces in measures where I don’t them, but attempting to remoe the space, or put in a new bar line, or move the end bar line to the left are not working. I’m a brand-new Dorico Pro 6 user and never used Finale, so I am totally unused to the commands and rationale of the program. Could someone give me simple 1-2-3 instructions how to remove that extra space? I need to squeeze that long measure together, make the extra space go away at the end of the measure, then make the next measure move up in the score. HELP!!
Welcome to the forum @zinkkez
Go to Engrave Mode (CTRL/CMD 3), select something in the lower system and press , (comma).
But I doubt that there’s enough space to avoid collisions in particular the lyrics.
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Hello and welcome to the forum.
If I understood you correctly, you want to put those 3 bars into one system.
Have a look at the percentage numbers at the right side (61.1% and 51.5%). If you add them up you will get 112.6% - which is way over a 100%.
100% is what Dorico will put into one system without squeezing your music and lyrics, based on the layout settings.
You will have to change the Space Size and the Note Spacing to let Dorico layout these three bars onto one system. You will find those options in the Layout Options.
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I like Note Spacing settings of quarter note=3.5 spaces and using a 1:1.5 ratio between note values. The 3.5-space quarter note will allow Dorico’s algorithm to squeeze more music into one system, and a lot of times the default ratio of 1:1.41 spaces out shorter notes a little too much for my liking.
@zinkkez it may also help to use a text font like Nepomuk, Splentino (both included with Dorico), or even Times New Roman (I hear the booing already) for the lyrics: I think Academico is a great-looking font, but its letterforms are a bit wide, which makes it less-than-ideal for lyrics since the width of individual syllables will change the note spacing. Of the three fonts I mentioned, Nepomuk is probably the one that’s best-suited for lyrics since its letterforms are fairly narrow.
Thanks, ya’ll! I’ll try your suggestions and get back with more questions if I don’t figure it out well. I really appreciate you who took time to respond!