Dorico seems to decide what size staves are to be on a page. Can that (and how/where?) (yet?) be changed? I am used to be able to size anything I want in Finale, so this (missing?) feature makes it somewat useless to design a score layout the way I would like to. But maybe I just can’t find out how to do it (since, once again, there’s no manual …yet? when?)
Music spacing is also sadly (still?) missing. Again, coming from Finale, I am used to drag measures into previous or following systems and then update to space correctly. Can that somehow be done in Dorico?
At least, apparently with the first update, vertical staff spacing can be changed, but this is also a bit cumbersume since it, as far as I can see, only works on a system by system basis. One should be able to select a stave for the whole composition (or flow if you will) and position its distance throughout. Simple enough to ask for? No?
You can change the global size of the staff throughout a layout on the Page Setup page of Layout Options. You can make an individual staff smaller relative to the global staff size by e.g. selecting a note on that staff and choosing Edit > Stave Size, then choosing e.g. 75%. If you want to change the global staff size midway through a layout, create a system break (in Engrave mode, select the note before which you want the system to break, and type Shift+S). Once you have a system break, select the system break signpost, and open the Properties panel to change the global staff size from that point.
You can’t drag bars from one system to the next, but you can move bars from one system to the next by inserting system breaks and using the make into system/frame commands, again, all of which are in Engrave mode.
As for changing the distance between staves throughout the whole flow, you should use the settings on the Vertical Spacing page of Layout Options to change the defaults, and then only make adjustments on a local basis when needed. If you find that you’re needing to make edits on every system, you’re working yourself too hard and you should let the software do some of the heavy lifting for you.
You can change the global size of the staff throughout a layout on the Page Setup page of Layout Options
Yes, that works, of course. The text is a bit misleading, though, because I assumed it just changed the size of one staff. This is more like a page size feature since it also adjusts the spacing between staves accordingly (maybe it might be good to clarify this on the options page?)
You can’t drag bars from one system to the next, but you can move bars from one system to the next by inserting system breaks and using the make into system/frame commands
That seems really unwieldy … could simply not figure out how to do it. Sorry.
In engrave mode, select the first note of a system, select the last note of the bar you want into that system, and click Make into system. Dorico will put all the measures between the two selected notes into a system. Note that it can also work in the middle of a bar (anywhere you want actually)
Same philosphy with make into frame.
At the contrary, if you want to give more air to your music, select a note (you want to be the last of the system) and press System break.
In engrave mode, select the first note of a system, select the last note of the bar you want into that system, and click Make into system. Dorico will put all the measures between the two selected notes into a system.
Doesn’t seem to work for me. I click on the first note in the piece on the top staff (a whole note), then I Ctrl-click on the last note (any staff?) to select it as well, then Make into Frame or System, nothing happens. Why not?
At the contrary, if you want to give more air to your music, select a note (you want to be the last of the system) and press System break
Doesn’t work either.
I have 13 staves per page - I assume that’s a frame on each page? What is the difference between frames and systems in this case?
This is really strange ! It worked in the first version of Dorico already. If you press Make into frame while both notes selected are already on the same page — in page view — it seems normal that nothing changes : there must be one music frame per page (that’s the default masterpage) BUT if they are on different systems, this should normally squeeze the music in order to make only one system between both notes when you press Make into system. Not sure this is really understandable (yet it is very simple when you get it ^^)
It is the real “space size” parameter which you can change, the one from Layout options that rules “all” sizes in Dorico. This feature is quite powerful I think.
I just tried to change the size using the “click break system signpost and open the Properties panel” and while I was able to experiment with what was there and see the changes, it was confusing. When the dialog opened up, the number showing was “1” which I thought was the current size. So I tried to decrease the number only to find out that I couldn’t decrease it. When I increased it, the staff got smaller immediately (which was contrary to what I expected) and then when I changed the number back to 1 it got even smaller. I expected that when I returned the number to what it showed when the dialog opened up, the staff would return to its original size. It looks to my eye as if the number 5 is the default original (unchanged) size in that dialog.
My question is – can the dialog be changed so that when it opens the first time it shows the default size number so that it’s more clear how we need to change the number (up or down) to increase or decrease the size? Once the number has been changed, closing that dialog and then re-opening it shows the current setting, so why not on the initial opening?
The Properties panel isn’t a dialog, of course, it’s a panel. It’s surprisingly complicated to get the current effective value before the property value is set. We do plan to do it in future, though.
Dear dhbailey52,
you are right : 5pts is the default value of Space Size in Layout options when you start a project from scratch, so if you have not changed that parameter, this is the “normal size”. The value of “1” IS strange.
Clicked the first note of the piece and then SHIFT-S to create the System flag. Set the staff size property to 4.0, and everything fell into place (literally). Had some difficulty printing the page until I noticed the PRINT button hiding in the lower right corner of the screen. (Perhaps it should be highlighted in a contrasting color for people with superficial attention like me.) Thanks all for the help.