You see in the attachment that the first line starts with bar number 24 and the next line starts with 12. Huh? I think this may have happened when I copied music using the system track from earlier in the piece and pasted it into where you see that first double bar line. But I do this sort of copy and paste frequently and never noticed this issue before. This project has only one Flow. Dorico 6.2.30.6245 (May 29 2026), macOS 27.
(In this screenshot, I’ve deleted the notes and lyrics that were there.)
Have you made any manual adjustments in Engrave mode > Staff Spacing sub-mode? I have seen instances where a lower system has had a negative value for the staff spacing and consequently appeared above the preceding one. This is usually caused by manual spacing adjustments being made in individual part layouts. In Engrave > Staff Spacing, check to see if any of the square edit handles at the top left corner of each system are red. If they are, select them and press delete - that should return them to their original position on the page.
EDIT:
After some more thought, I think that the cause might be because the System Track was used to select and copy. Apparently the System Track selects everything, including objects which are normally not selected when, for example, you simply click within a bar to select all the notation within that bar. It looks like the selection using the System Track might have also copied the bar number which is pasted at the new location along with everything else. Try making the selection by using either a marquee selection (click and drag) or click and shift-click (at the start of the selection and the end, respectively).
EDIT 2
I think I have found the actions which need to take place to cause this to occur.
- Click within a bar to highlight a note or rest in that bar
- Right-click and choose Bar Numbers > Add Bar Number Change…
- Enter a value for the bar number, even if it is the same number as it is currently - if the bar is not the first bar in a system then the bar number will now appear for that bar (if the bar is at the start of a system then there will appear to be no change if the bar number is already showing and has been “changed” to be the same as it already was)
- Using the System Track, make a selection which starts with the bar which has had its bar number “changed” as described in step 3 (the selection can also start before that bar as long as the selection includes that bar)
- Copy
- Click where you want the selection to be pasted
- Paste
- The “changed” bar number will now appear at the start of the pasted passage
I was almost there with what I said in my first Edit. The difference is that the copying using the System Track appears to copy a bar number change.
Thenk you, Steven. I don’t think I ever copied a bar number change because I never knew there was such a thing until reading your reply. But, anyhow, it appears that using Bar Number Change is the fix. In the destination, I click Bar Number Change on each bar until I found where the offset began. Then I entered the correct, next bar number and voila all subsequent bars now have the correct number.
The only problem is that sometimes it displays the “changed” bar number even if it that change is not really a change, in other words, even if the subsequent bar numbers are the same with or without the “change”. Luckily, after 3 undo and retry I was able to get the correct bar numbers without the “change” being displayed. It is very strange, but I am moving on and hope this does not happen again.
I think it is possible to remove a “changed” bar number by selecting it and pressing Delete or, if Delete doesn’t work, try Cut instead.
