I’m really at a loss here because the way Dorico works when handling horizontal movement of bar lines seems to be totally different from what I would expect Dorico to do.
Please have a look at the following example: Let’s say I want to widen the last bar of this system. (Please ignore all content, it’s just for demoing.) I switch to Engrave mode, select horizontal spacing, activate the box above the last bar and hit Alt+Left a few times.
What I would expect to happen is this: The bar moves to the left, and the content of both the last bar and the bar(s) before this line are respaced accordingly.
But what is happening instead is this: The bar itself hardly moves to the left at all, but instead the bars on the left of the bar move to the right, coming closer and closer, with the notes even reaching up to the bar (and even going beyond it, if I keep hitting Alt+Left) and no respacing happening at all.
(And if you think that I could grab the note that’s almost touching the barline and move it to the left, you’re wrong again, this will lead to a complete mess.)
What’s going on here under the hood so all of this makes sense somehow? Please help me understand this.
With the rectangle selection active, draw a selection around all squares corresponding to the notes you want to respace (expand/contract).
Not hold down Option/Alt and tap either the Left (contract) or Right (expand) arrow.
Well, from a UI perspective that really seems counter-intuitive, as everything else we can move with Alt+Left/Right will move in this direction.
Having Alt+Left not making the selected bar move to the left but instead shrinking or expanding some virtual space around it is pretty obscure, I’d say. There is a graphic element on the screen, and when I select it and move it, I expect it to move.
I know that the word “intuitive” is quite often thrown around here, often in a “I’m new to Dorico” context. But here I am, finding my way around Dorico pretty well, and this concept seems somewhat out of sync with the rest.
Thanks @Mark_Johnson .
I marked your post as the solution as it was the most concise answer. I hope I will rember this. “Each handle adjusts the space from the previous handle”. Brilliant, thanks
Also thanks to @Lillie_Harris for writing the manual.
My only point of criticism would be this: Selecting a handle and moving it should move the thing I selected, not adjust some space somewhere else. There should be a different UI element for this that makes it clear to the user that it’s not the element itself I’m gonna adjust by using the shortcut that is used for “moving things” everywhere else.
Dorico’s spacing behavior took me a long time to acclimate to… but once I got it, I ended up loving it! Mark is spot on in his description.
It’s different from Finale’s “static” moving of elements, in that it does adjust the entire system, as you’ve found. Also, it seems to adjust spacing column closest to the selection most dramatically, and spacing column furthest away are changed the least.
Thanks, @benwiggy
I already know (and use) note spacing changes. This thread here was about understanding the horizontal spacing features of Engrave Mode.
Also, when I do make these spot-changes to spacing, I usually delete the resulting system breaks that lock the system in place while you’re editing, because I still want the music to cast off naturally.
