I’m including my project to save you and me time. I’ve read “similar” topics and tried them. Initially, Page 1 was beautiful and 2-end were all over the place. To my recollection, the only difference was I had added some dynamics. I don’t get crazy with them, but sometimes you want to include a rit. and a tempo.
Also, originally I had a copyright frame that was a little larger. I adjusted the music frame and copyright. Of course, I had the red triangle. I was okay with that until . . . . I returned to the Dorico settings.
In my defense, I have read suggestions from the manual and this forum and played with the Layout>Staves and Systems. I even tried to “reset”. That option appears not to do anything - good or bad.
I’m not asking that anybody “fix” it. I just need to be pointed to the place with instruction on how to do it myself. Also, I’m fine with a 5-page document.
The lyrics on p1, 3, and 4 are not consistent. I the white space between voice and piano is too large or small depending on the page.
It would seem to be 4 pages should be enough if the spacing would cooperate. Five pages would be fine if there is consistency.
Isn’t there a global setting where all systems look uniform? Yes, he gave me the solution. It doesn’t work for this. In fact, every adjusting (even ridiculously small or large) doesn’t work.
In Layout Options > Vertical Spacing > Minimum Gaps, try setting “Staff to staff group” to 9 spaces. Then, in Layout Options > Vertical Spacing > Vertical Justification, set both of the first two values to 60.
Do I manually adjust the space between systems then? I need the space on the first page. Not the 3rd. Short of going to a 5th page, is there a solution? If I increase the rastral (?) size? I can’t seem to find that right now, but I’ve read about using it to make the music fit.
BTW, the Vertical Justification did make a difference.
Making room for a bigger text frame gives me the dreaded “red triangle”. I don’t write long songs, so it’s not horrible. I was trying to avoid it with this song though.
Dorico is struggling to fit the fourth system onto p3. So you would need to play around with the other vertical spacing settings if you want it to succeed. (Others are more expert in this area than me)
The ‘red triangle’ is only a problem if you later decide to change the underlying page templates. (don’t fixate on it!)
@Connie_Stauffer - along with everyone’s useful suggestions above, you can modify page templates (and save them as the default), or create additional ones that you might frequently use (which is what I’ve done). It is worth the time to learn how to edit the templates! When you have what works for you, make sure you include them in your PROJECT template to use again on later projects.
You’ve used the default Staff Size of 3, which I’d suggest is too large for a piece of this kind. Using a Staff Size of 4 would give you a bit more room to manoeuvre, allowing for a bit more balance without getting cramped.
You could also reduce the height of the margin to the header, which would also give you more vertical room.
