Lock Systems?

Again, I’ve looked for it. Found what it does but not how to do it.

I have had problems with formatting not holding, especially in long, large ensemble works.

I’ve tried to Lock Systems, but they won’t always lock. I apply it in Engrave Mode, because it appears no to be available in Write Mode, which of course one wouldn’t expect it to.

I usually drag-select a whole page at a time. Sometimes the systems will lock, but usually some lock but not all, and fairly often none of them lock.

Is there a specific way I have to go about it?

Thanks.

If you lock frames, this will automatically lock each system as well as the contents on each page in 1 click.

(You’ll notice, with flags turned on, that it inserts system breaks wherever they exist currently and places a frame break at the top of the next page.)

Can you give an example of this?
I’ve found Dorico to be much more ‘page stable’ than other apps I’ve used – particularly Finale, where the music will move about if you haven’t nailed it down. In Dorico, things (for me) stay where they are, and I usually only have to add one or two System Breaks per flow, or I use Note Spacing to better fit the music across all the pages of the flow.

Like Benwiggy, I’ve never had issues with things moving on me. The only thing that can cause movement (in my experience) is inserting system breaks or adding music (or musical elements) that force Dorico to move systems to the next page due to spacing constraints. In the case of the latter, I’ve never had it move things if I had inserted “wait till next frame break” markers. The worst it would do is create a new page in-between with one system on it, and even then it can be overridden with a few clicks.