Please, can someone tell me how to even out the measures efficiently? Dragging individual handles takes a very long time and produces inconsistent results, with the gaps between notes and barlines becoming very awkward. Changing the spacing defaults only makes it worse. I really just want the measures to be more evenly distributed—not all EXACTLY the same width, but spaced within about 10-20% of that. Thank you!
Blue Curtains - revised.dorico (704.8 KB)
If possible, try to avoid adding breaks at every system. If you prefer, say, four bars per system, try using the options in Layout Options to create fixed casting-off of four bars per system as a starting point; you can always add additional formatting as needed.
You might try setting a custom note spacing ratio, since I think you probably want shorter note values to be wider by default, i.e. less difference between your whole notes and your quarters. Perhaps a custom ratio of 1.3 looks better to your eyes than the default 1.41(ish)?
I tried both of those. Setting the fixed casting results in the same spacing—at least as far as I can tell. Changing the note spacing does nothing. I can make it wider by increasing the ration, but decreasing the ration has no effect. What I want is for measure 16 to be much more compact, and measures 13-15 to be wider—and similar things on other systems. Is there any way to do that? Thanks, as always.
A Custom Spacing Ratio of 2.00 will give a half note 2x the space of a quarter note; thus every bar will have the same duration, regardless of the notes contained in it.
If you want +/-20% of that, then try 1.85.
Blue Curtains - revised.dorico (718.7 KB)
Traditionally, spacing values between 1.3 and 1.6(18) are used, to make the difference between durations more obvious to the reader, and to be more economical.
Ah, OK! I’m so sorry, I think I might have been adjusting the wrong parameter—the minimum spacing for long notes instead of the ratio. This works great, thanks.