I am working on a string quartet using Dorico’s template. I have changed the page size to A3 and the staff size smaller as it needs a lot of space. I have adjusted the vertical spacing, both between systems and between staves so that 3 systems fill the first page. System 5 appears on page 2. However, System 4 is off the bottom of page 1. If I close the spacing on page 1, the 4th system begins to appear at the bottom. How can I make system 4 appear correctly on page 2? I have tried “Reset Layout”.
I have just taken another file - only one page - and opened the spacing. It too does not automatically create a 2nd page and flow onto it.
I must have changed a setting somewhere by accident, or missed a feature that I didn’t understand. All help gratefully received!
I have indeed, the auto spacing was not what I wanted. I want it to look how the publisher wants it, not how Dorico wants it. Having been used to the freedom of the Finale system, I’m probably trying to control too much. Anyway, I’ll post the file here. Many thanks for your response. I’m not familiar with Forums, so hopefully this has posted OK.
Here’s your file with no overrides, no manual tweaks… I’ve changed some values in Vertical spacing, the leading in Default text paragraph style, but of course, this could be quite different from what you’re trying to achieve. Nevertheless, the means you were using are against the way Dorico works, so I understand it can take a moment to click. The important stuff to know is that if you don’t want to fight Dorico, you should:
• avoid manual tweaking as much as possible
• avoid overrides
• use options from the broadest action to the most granular level, according to your needs.
Many thanks for the help and advice. I began as an engraver-yes, the real thing, then used notaset on hand drawn staves on pages I had to measure out myself. Finale, for all its shortcomings, allowed me to switch off all automation and almost draw what I wanted. Some things that Dorico could never get close to (no criticism of Dorico, it’s great, but young). This new paradigm of letting the app do the work and I just change the settings goes against everything I’ve done over the last 45+ years. I’ll get there. For your amusement here is a recent project done in Finale so you can see what I mean. (first 2 pages of 19).
As much as I was not sad to see Finale die for everyday copying jobs it will definitely someday leave a vacuum as far as a program that allows the freedom and flexibilty to do what you have so admirably achieved here. I guess it will be some hybrid workflow with notation and graphic design apps. Or we’ll go back to doing it by hand!
It’s sad when any good tool dies, even if we don’t use it ourselves. I never used Score, but it was sad that it fell by the way-side, because it was an incredibly flexible system and a lot of people I know well in the industry considered it their go-to app for music setting. Finale is a great loss. Some of its foibles took time to work around, but what it did, it did well (does, as I still use it and will continue to). It is unfortunate that none of the alternatives can yet do everything it can. I am hopeful that Dorico will, eventually. The team is doing a great job, but they have to be commercially practical too, and upgrades that generate income must take priority over expensive to implement features that not many people will use. And now that they are not in a race to catch up with Finale, I fear the pressure to do so might be relaxed. We will see. I look forward to version 7…
Hi Peter, that is an amazing example of all the foolish freedom Finale gave us for so many decades, congratuations. I really loved that.
For now, Dorico is not designed that way. As you say, its paradigm is “give me the music and I will decide where to put it on the page”. Yes, you have thrillions of options to adjust (and to find…), but no easy or possible direct acces to each and every element in the score.
Anyway, Finale is no more with us, lets stick to Dorico and hope that the lack of real competition does not slow down its evolution in the future.
oh, I’ve used it a lot. Not everything it did it did well…it’s great for realizing just about any imaginable notation but for churning out thousands of pages of parts on a deadline? Let’s just say I won’t be looking back on that aspect fondly!
I would be sadder if it died off just because it didn’t gain enough traction in the market but actively killing it is a different story in my opinion.
My comment was not directed at you, but as a generalisation leading to my comment about Score. I agree with your following comments. Finale is extremely fast (at least relatively) at doing complex things, but for churning out huge quantities of simpler music… my experience is limited, that’s not the kind of work I’ve been doing. Anyway finale is not dead yet, I’ll be using it for some years to come. Just because there is no tech support and no future upgrades, what we have works well. Once the OS gets to a point where it conflicts with Finale’s function I’ll keep a dedicated machine running it. I have over 30 years’ work archived here, and my clients often need to revise a project for one reason or another. I hope Dorico gets to a point where I no longer have to be concerned about the choice.
I found this