Ending Measures Turn Small and Smushed? Newbie to Dorico

Dorico
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Hello, new and very happy user to Dorico :slight_smile: I was wondering when I finish project in Dorico, let’s say a 2 handed piano piece. Why do the last 4 measures not stay the same size as the rest of the measures throughout? I ended up deleting a lot of extra measures I did not need and the last 4 do not span the line they are in from left to right. Please let me know if I am not being clear here. Thanks so much! DD

Screenshot 2023-04-17 at 12.30.56 PM
Screenshot 2023-04-17 at 12.30.56 PM872×393 17.7 KB

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There is a threshold for system justification:
Layout Options > Note Spacing > Only justify final system in flow when more than n% full

By default it’s 50%, and as you can see, your bars 37–40 are smaller than that. You can set the percentage lower to catch this case (a particularly egregious mismatch), or you can alter system breaks manually, or – and I recommend this method – Adjust the first note spacing value very slightly until this problem disappears. Perhaps 3.75 instead of 4.

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Hi Mark, thanks so much. This seems like a weird thing that you have to do, I have no previous experience with other programs so not sure, maybe it’s not so out there. I went ahead and changed the % to 36 and the last measures look much better.

and I recommend this method – Adjust the first note spacing value very slightly until this problem disappears. Perhaps 3.75 instead of 4.- I am a tad confused as to how to do this? Is there a place to do this in the layout preferences or do you mean choose the 1st note of the piece and adjust the spacing of it? Sorry if I am over looking something easy here. Thanks again, DD

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That first field in Layout Options > Note Spacing is the basic unit. Changing that one number affects everything. (Use with care.)

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Ok got it! Thanks again Mark, so happy to have you guys on this forum,

Best, DD!

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You can also just turn off the “Only justify system” line entirely by unchecking it, but you would want to keep an eye out that you do not end up with one measure stretched all the way across the page. Then you would want to adjust System Breaks or Note Spacing until you like what you see.

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Thanks Derrek!!