Hi. I’m having trouble figuring a frame break issue page 6 and 7 of the piano vocal layout. I can’t see how to move the systems when there is space on those pages. Can someone look at this file and let me know what I’m missing? Thank you!
14. Dreamcatcher.dorico (1.4 MB)
You moved staves and systems around, you enabled Casting Off with 6 bars per system, but you inserted system breaks at every system.
Please first let Dorico do the hard work then make some fine tuning if needed.
My suggestion: I removed all manual changes and all system breaks and changed the global note spacing to a suitable value.
14. Dreamcatcher_edit.dorico (1.4 MB)
Thank you. I will take a look. I definitely don’t have a good handle on layouts, templates etc. But I also think the reason I do a lot of manual stuff is because I start with the Piano Vocal, and get it to look the way I want it. And though this song doesn’t have a lot of dialogue - most of them do. So I’m continually moving bars around and making room for the dialogue to fit over certain measures. And then I change the full score layout to landscape and change the casting off to 6 - but something has been happening when I use the Library Manager and bring in all the changes from (what I THINK) is a layout the way I want it…but maybe I’m mostly brining in changes that are not helping. I have learned a lot but every day there is still something I chase an answer for for at least an hour. Probably chasing my own tail much of the time. Anyway - thank you I will look at your help and see if I can learn from it!
Thanks - that does look better. I definitely need to wrap my head around all the spacing/layout/template side of Dorico. I basically feel like I’m faking it. I took a screenshot of pages 7-8 because they still look odd to me. And the vertical spacing thing is something that still confuses me - and how to apply things to just those two pages or why they look different to begin with. I assume it has something to do with the percentage thing when a page is empty…but again, a thing I don’t really grasp.
Yes, honestly I don’t like it either. 
How about this, I reduced the gap between the systems slightly.
14. Dreamcatcher_edit2.dorico (1.4 MB)
Yes! Thank you again. How do you make those adjustments on just certain pages? Do you do it in Layout Options or is that in Engrave Mode on those specific systems? When music starts feeling like math to me, that’s when my brain rebels!
No, I start always in Layout Mode (globally for all pages) without any manual breaks.
This is a cooperation of Rastral Size, Note Spacing constant, and the minimum gaps in Vertical Spacing.
If the result is not satisfying you can start adding system breaks or even Note Spacing Changes for specific pages.
No, I think what you did looks great. I was just trying to understand how to do it. I definitely still have some of that “move stuff around manually” from doing it that way in Finale.
When you got used to the Dorico layout philosophy you will love it, believe me.
I’ve come from Finale as well two years ago.
Thanks again.
