Score Last Page Layout Compressed after reducing page size

Dorico
1

Hi everyone.

I’m pretty new to Dorico.

I changed a setting in Layout Options because the vertical spacing on my Jazz Big Band score was too close. I went to Layout Options>Page Setup>Space Size>Rastral Size to Size 8 (was Size 3).

It solved the problem nicely except now the last page has compressed about 40 bars into the one page horizontally.

Vertical spacing is good, but this particular page is unreadable.

Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

2

Welcome to the forum!

What setting did you change? Did you also insert a system break or frame break manually? If so, go to Engrave mode and select that break before the compressed page. Then open the Properties panel in the lower zone and look for this setting:
image

Disabling that should fix your problem. This is something that always puzzles new users and requests have been made on the forum to change the default behavior for this setting.

If you didn’t add any manual system breaks or frame breaks, please share some more information about what you did exactly. A screenshot would be nice but uploading a project file is always the best way to get detailed answers (though as a new user you might have some difficulty trying to add attachments to forum posts, I believe).

3

I’m seeing the edits to your post with additional information, thank you @ivanmusic885 ! (Note that users don’t get a notification when you edit an existing post though, I saw this by coincidence).

You mention you changed the rastral size, but the nature of the issue you’re describing (too many bars being cramped into one page) still sounds to me like there might be a system break or frame break involved. Could you make a screenshot of the page in Engrave mode that exhibits the problem, with Signposts turned on?

4

Thanks for your prompt reply, Zalde. Your solution fixed the problem first time.

I can’t remember adding any System or Frame Breaks, but they were both there just before the compressed page.

Before I changed the Rastral size (to fit my staves on one page), the formatting was fine. It was only when I reduced Rastral from 3 to 8 this problem occurred. I don’t know if I’d already put in a System or Frame Break manually or not beforehand.

Coming from Finale (which took a long time to master), Dorico is just as complicated, so learning and understanding it all takes time.

Much appreciated.

5

I’d guess that this score was an XML import and that you have not changed Dorico’s factory default MusicXML import options?

Unfortunately these are set to override many of Dorico’s normal layout decisions, so when you come to change things, Dorico does not behave as you would expect.

If you are new to Dorico, I would suggest:

  1. You work with all signposts showing (View>Signposts>Set all signposts shown). Even though this cluttters up the interface, it tells you a lot about what is going on the background.
  2. You uncheck all options in Preferences>MusicXML>Import. This will result in the import would always using the options that you have set.

I think this will speed up your Dorico learning and reduce frustration.
Good luck.

6

Thanks Janus.

I didn’t import XLM, but have disabled as you suggested.

Most likely I accidentally added a break when I was wading through and experimenting.

Thanks guys for your prompt replies, enabling speedy fixes.

Cheers.