Sometimes, when there is much going on above the music, I would like to have the ability to have a text (be it a tempo indication, a playing technique or some custom text) define the minimum width of a bar.
For example: There is some playing technique in one bar and some “a tempo” in the next. If there is not much music in the first bar and the bar is shorter than the playing technique text, the “a tempo” of the second bar will get stacked over the playing technique, and I would like to help Dorico prevent that.
There’s even a stronger use case when the two texts involved are of the same type, like tempo indications. A “piu mosso q=82” could easily reach into the next bar, and if there’s an “accel.” there, being pushed upwards, it looks quite weird. It could get even messier if there is a rehearsal mark between the two indications.
My request would be to have something as simple* as checking a checkbox “Text defines minimum bar width” in the properties panel, and Dorico would 1) make the bar the width of the text, and 2) space the music within this bar nicely.
My current workarounds involve either applying note spacing changes or finding some combinations of system breaks that will result in enough space for those texts. But both of those solutions have ther cons, as finding the correct setting might be somewhat of a pain, and their overall necessity might change completely if I add or remove music before earlier in the piece which might cause Dorico to rearrange the bars on the page.
Thanks for listening 
*) “simple” as in “not much changing for the user except having a new checkbox”.