Take a look at bar 132. I can’t seem to find a way to shift the note spacing of the first three down stem (small) noteheads while leaving up stem notes occurring on the same beats and the same durations where they are. For some unknown reason, Dorico did do what I wanted in the last eighth note of the measure, but not on the first three notes. I’d like to shift the first three small noteheads to the right so they are just adjacent to the right of the larger noteheads as seen in the last eighth note of the measure. That way, all down stem noteheads will be visible instead of being “hidden” behind the larger note heads. Thanks in advance for your help. P.S. How do I upload the Dorico file so you can see what I’m talking about? Bruce
Bruce, I can’t either, because there is no screenshot or project file attached.
Can you upload your example?
Hi kb, Here you go. Thanks for checking it out. I’d also like to shift to the right the down stem eighth notes in bar 136 as well, and then make them small note heads. My goal is to be able to see all note heads, instead of sharing note heads when the up stem and down stems share the same durations and rhythms.
Fleetwood-Nicks Medley.dorico (2.7 MB)
The reason that the last eighth note has separate noteheads is the tie on the upper note – because the lower note has no tie, Dorico displays them separately to make it clear that it doesn’t. If you delete the upper tie, or add a lower tie, then the noteheads overlap.
Notation Options doesn’t seem to have a setting for separating these by default.
One way you can get what you want is by adjusting the note column index. It looks like your small notes in that bar are in upstem voice 1, so in Write mode, select the bar, right click, and filter on Notes and Chords and then again on Voices > Upstem Voice 1. Then switch to Engrave mode. In the bottom Properties panel, change “Set Local Properties” to Globally. Then turn on the Voice Column Index property and then change it to 1.
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Thanks, asherber. But it appears I have a slightly different set of options for Voice Column index (see attached screenshot)
Screenshot 2026-02-03 at 6.02.31 PM.pdf (191.1 KB)
. When I choose “Voice column X offset and change to 1, it moves both the up stem and the down stem notes, even thought only the small note heads are highlighted. Also, I think my cued, small noteheads are down stem in this measure (8th note beam below the note heads).
You’re looking in the Note Spacing section – Voice Column Index is in the Notes and Rests section.
I thought so too, but if you select one and look at the status bar (or turn on voice colors), you’ll see that they’re actually upstem voice 1. Edit: If you enter a note in an upstem voice and then flip the note, it doesn’t turn into a downstem voice – it still belongs to the original upstem voice.
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Still seeing something different. Here’s what I appear to have as options in the
Notes and Rests options I’m seeing.pdf (149.5 KB)
“Notes and Rests” section.
You also have the half note rest selected, which is preventing some options from appearing. Try Ctrl/Cmd+clicking on that rest to deselect it.
(Also, it’s helpful to forum members if you put screenshots directly into your post, instead of attaching them in a PDF. If you have an image on your clipboard, you can paste it right into the edit window, or if you have it saved in an image file – not PDF – you can drag the file into the edit window and the image will appear inline.)
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