So I’m working on a piece that involves a lot of repeated passages, and Dorico was doing a great job formatting the measures neatly and legibly even when I copy/pasted passages.
Until I pasted it again and it put all 14 measures on the same system. Completely illegible.
Like I said, and I’ve been formatting perfectly up to that point, even when I pasted the same passage earlier.
I am very new to using Dorico. How am I supposed to format these measures?
I tried to set up settings to only allow 5 measures per system but that literally has zero effect, so I don’t know if I’m just ignorant and doing things wrong or if it’s actually a bug.
I’m using the free trial so I’m pretty sure it has full functionality. So far it’s been a breeze to use, but these are the types of issues I’m really trying to avoid. Like I said, I’ve tried to look up how to format the measures but the solutions I’ve come across just didn’t do anything.
It sounds like you have some manual system breaks that you’ve added in Engrave mode. In Dorico, it’s generally better not to adjust layout until after you’ve input all of the music.
Can you upload a cut-down version of your project that demonstrates the issue? That way we can see exactly what is going on.
Yeah, I sort of assumed those system breaks were automatic but I’m sure I just hit a button I didn’t mean to.
Any way of removing them?
Is that what’s causing this issue?
Hi @slapsyjaxy, if you use some of the commands in Engrave mode, Dorico fixes the casting-off for the desired system, activating the Wait for next system (or frame) break.
Check if this is the case, and deactivate that property for the affected system break/s:
Oh I did go thru the score deleting them.
But after that the formatting was even worse, so I undid everything and left them in.
There’s one on every page so I doubt I did all that by accident.
Thanks for the reply
I selected the system break that occurs right before the copy/pasted system which is illegible.
I went into engrave mode and clicked “move to next system” and literally nothing happened.
Am I misunderstanding you or doing something wrong??
You probably still had one or two left, and they had “Wait for next” enabled, which was causing measures to pile up.
You could try doing “Reset layout” in Engrave mode, which will undo any manual things you’ve moved around. Or you could select one of the system breaks and press Ctrl+Shift+A to “select more” of them, and then delete them all at once.
Or you could upload your project file so we can take a look, and then we might have more appropriate suggestions!
Take a look at my reply, and @Christian_R 's. What you want to do is turn off the “Wait for next system break” property in the bottom panel, not click “Move to next system” in the left panel.
That’s what I tried first.
I’m obviously missing something because I can’t find that option anywhere in the expandable panel at the bottom of the screen.
There’s an option for “Hide systemic barline” in terms of format for breaks but that’s all I’m seeing.
Not seeing it in the piano roll or any of the other tabs for the bottom panel
Oh thanks!
I actually came across that earlier and did it locally and it messed up the score, but I just did it globally and it’s working now! Thank you so much!
Seems really simple now, but I was genuinely pulling my hair out.
Thanks for your patience and expertise!
Look at @Christian_R 's screenshot. You have to have the system break selected in order for that property to show in the panel.
It’s on the left, under “Lock Layout”. You need to scroll that panel down (which isn’t clear, since there’s no scroll bar – but you can do it with the mouse scroll wheel, or click on the arrow next to one of the expanded sections to collapse it).
Thanks!! I got it figured out at last.
I think I’m starting to understand the logic of this program.
Seems simple to me now, but I was genuinely stumped about what to do, even after a couple hours spent solidly on Google.
I really appreciate your expertise, patience, and willingness to share!!
You are welcome @slapsyjaxy. Instead of googling (because there is not a consistency of the Dorico version for which you receive results), I would suggest, to go thought some videos, on the Dorico YT channel, that treat layout.
Besides the First Steps Guides (there are two parts, available also as PDF for example from the Dorico Resources page):
Here two about layout:
and, most recently:
And of course use the great search integrated into the Online Manual!
@slapsyjaxy
and here a very old video, but still very useful (even with the different UI of that early Dorico version):
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