In the example below, I need to align the lyric line numbers, even though the lines don’t begin at the same time. I know I can hide the lyric number and add a manual number with several non-breaking spaces, but that’s not ideal for dealing with spacing issues.
I encounter this frequently, but I don’t know how common the need is for others.
Can you use a non-breaking space as a syllable on the first note?
You, sir, are a genius. It worked. Thank you.
Disregard the feature request… If this qualifies as a workaround, it’s barely one!
I keep telling people, but they refuse to listen to reason.
I will note that I have requested the option to have verse numbers align vertically between staves (à la hymnals) in the past and I still hope that that feature is implemented. Currently I have to correct in affinity publisher and it’s a pain.
Romanos, do you mean centring the whole lyric line between the staves? If you’re doing that in Affinity manually, surely you can do it manually in Dorico, now that each system’s lyric lines can be moved up and down?
Pardon, benwiggy, is this on a mac ctrl-shift-space or is it alt-space? I don’t get the desired result … 
Dorico uses Shift-Alt-Space for a non-breaking space, which is different from the usual Mac non-breaking space of Alt-Space.
Ah, OK your great man …
I thought, I’ve tried them all but this one works! So thank you from my part …