I am trying to fit more measures per system, so that the each page in Dorico matches the number of measures per page as I see in the PDF I’m working from. That will make it easier to proofread my score. I’m familiar with Create System Break, but that only solves part of the problem regarding creation of a good correspondence between Dorico and the original score.
In Engrave mode, Note spacing, I can see ‘handles’ on my measures, as well as the notes that comprise those measures.
How do I actually move those handles, so I can fit more measures per system, as needed?
First of all, Note Spacing adjustments should be for fine-tuning. A fraction to the right; a little bit to the left.
Second, you move them the way that you move anything in Dorico – holding ALT (Option) and using the left and right arrows.
If you want fit a certain number of measures to a system, then you use “Make Into System”, and Dorico will make whatever is selected into one system. (This is done by adding two System Breaks, and setting the Property of the first one to “Wait for Next System Break”.
If you find that your source PDF is consistently putting more bars onto each system, then you may want to reduce the Note Spacing value (in Layout Options) for the whole layout.
Locking the systems to match the source is a great way to proofread; but when you’ve finished, I’d suggest removing all the System Breaks, and seeing if Dorico does a better job of layout (unless you still want to match the original).
In addition to what Ben’s said, the obvious things at your disposal are page size and staff size (or space size, which is exactly a quarter of the staff size). Both of these things can be found in Library > Layout Options.
You’ll want to roughly match both the page size and the staff size to what’s in your source PDF.
If you’ve already done that and you’re finding that Dorico’s automatically spacing things more widely than in your PDF, the other global thing to change is Note Spacing, also within Layout Options. Change this value to something smaller, and Dorico will horizontally space the music more tightly:
Using Make Into System is the brute force method for when nothing else works, or the method when you’ve got virtually the whole layout sorted apart from one orphaned bar on a system/page by itself (at which point changing the global Note Spacing would probably necessitate adding System Breaks in throughout the whole layout).
The other alternative is to use Note Spacing Changes, which can be added anywhere by selecting something on the page in Engrave mode and going Engrave > Note Spacing Change. This acts as an override to the global Note Spacing setting, and will continue until either the end of the Flow or the next Note Spacing Change that resets the relevant field; whichever comes first.
