Try as I will, I cannot get measure 6 to stretch out. For now, I’ll create another measure and just rewrite it. I’ve taken a screenshot of the instructions on Dorico. When I enter into the lower properties, my “Common” has no information regarding lyrics if I’m in Engrave Mode. If I’m in Write Mode, it’s different, but it doesn’t address lyrics collisions that I can see. Here is a screenshot of that as well. Any suggestions? Thanks, Connie
P.S. I went into Write mode Gallery view and there was no collision. It collides in Write mode and Print mode.
What you don’t show is the end of the system in Engrave mode. The fullness percentage is clearly above 100%. Dorico cannot work reliably if you go over 100%. Decrease the note spacing (you can insert a note spacing change, in Engrave menu), decrease the letters spacing (I don’t remember exactly how it’s called, in the paragraph styles… Try duplicating your lyrics paragraph style to stretched lyrics and set the stretch to 98 or 97%. It should help to get the fullness percentage down)
It is clear that measure 6 does not have enough space (probably due to the system break, which causes another one). This problem must be resolved in order to restore harmonious lyrics.
A few ideas: Get rid of the system breaks, turn off casting off and get rid of any tweaks you’ve done in Engrave mode. Then see how things look. If those don’t help, consider reducing the size of the page.
At the end of each system in Engrave mode, you’ll see a box indicating the system fullness.
If the percentage is greater than 100%, the box will be red.
You can’t change this value directly, but anything over 100% is generally an indication that you have tried to squeeze more bars into a system than Dorico think will fit, based on your other settings, and the results you get can be unpredictable, as @MarcLarcher notes. (Occasionally, Dorico itself will slightly overfill a system.)
If the percentage for this system is greater than 100%, and if you also have a system break on the next system, then one thing you can try is changing the note spacing for that system, to put things closer together. You might also try deleting both system breaks and letting Dorico handle things for you.
If you’d like to share your project file here, someone can provide more specific suggestions.
I started this project by importing an XML file created by Finale. This is what I was left with. I’m blown away at how easy it is until I have a problem like this one. I can see the overload on the right side. Usually, I set up to have 4 measures per system. I took off any restriction on number of measures. It changed nothing. I’m open for any help you’re willing to give. Thanks, Connie
I would start by doing Engrave > Format Music Frames > Reset Layout (or clicking the Reset Layout button in the left panel in Engrave mode). This will remove all of the manual system breaks, and things will already look better in terms of horizontal spacing.
Your left page margin is very wide and could be reduced to 1/2” or so. You could probably also get rid of staff labels after the first system (in Layout Options > Staves and Systems > Staff Labels).
Now you probably want to try to get three systems on each page, instead of just two. If you change Layout Options > Page Setup > Space Size to Rastral 4 and Layout Options > Page Setup > Flows > Show flow headings to Never, that’s what you’ll get.
It will be very difficult to get 4 bars per system with all of those lyrics; I think you’d have to make your lyrics smaller and also tighten up note spacing and/or use a smaller space size.
Here’s my take on this file. I did change the margins, picked up a smaller rastral size, and it fits on two pages. No tweaking whatsoever on the lyrics (except I deleted the verse numbers and selected the property to show verse numbers).
If you uncheck all the options in Preferences>MusicXML>Import, you will likely get good results. (This allows Dorico to use whatever options you have set for it and ignore constraints in the original xml file)
