Below is a graphic of the default staff spacing. I am not sure why some exercise uses 0.8" between staves and others use 0.6" between staves.
Besides dragging them apart, is there a way to universally change this?
Robby
Besides dragging them apart, is there a way to universally change this?
Another question, is the 0.8" spacing, when I drag the handle around, I notice that 0.8" covers a lot of area (i presume because of 0.81", 0.82", etc.). Is there a way to show the hundredths of an inch, so I can be precise in my placement of things?
Robby
You don’t need to try to drag the staves accurately. If you double-click on a number, you can type the value you want.
I can’t guess why your examples seem to have inconsistent spacing, though.
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The staff spacing seems to be related to the height of the music frames…
I agree, except that when I drew the frames, each frame was 2.5" in height. I can double check to make sure that hasn’t changed.
I have noticed that in all of the menus when it comes to “justifying” music, it refers to the “page” and I think it means or should say “frame”. So maybe that has some to do with it. Not 100% sure.
Robby
The problem is that I got the right spacing when the frames were different in height… dragged them a bit and then suddenly the staff distance snapped into place … 
OK, I’ll experiment when I get home.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Robby
I experience this problem constantly. Dorico does not space staves evenly (check out the excellent January 2017 | Discover Dorico video on YouTube - West Side story has strange spacings). Not a problem with one page, but if you have 2 facing pages, this can look a mess.
I spend a lot of time altering the stave spacing by typing the value I want into multiple places, but you only have to get it wrong by a mm or two and you have to go through the whole page again. This is even worse if you’ve got two facing pages, one of which is a title, because you then can’t copy the spacings.
Alt+J helps, but if I set the value too low, I can’t find a way of widening the spaces easily.
I’d like the ability to enter a value for the spacing once, which is then applied to every stave on the page, and then more tools for additional spacing.
I’d love to discuss this further. The default behaviour of Dorico is excellent, but commercially, it needs tweaking (so far in 100% of cases), and there aren’t enough tools (that I can find) for fine tuning.
You can copy staff spacing from one page to another, if that helps.
Thanks Rob, but only if there are the same number of staves on each page. If you have a part, say three pages long, (page turns strategically placed in specific places), page 1 has say 10 staves (it has a title), page 2 has 11 pages, last page 9!
Then 1 and 2 need to match, 3 just needs to be even, but you can’t copy any pages
Dorico certainly does adjust the staff spacing depending on the contents, and that does follow traditional engraving practice. Few sheet engraved scores have even staff spacing.
Dorico may be a little too aggressive in its implementation, but I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a setting somewhere to adjust how readily it adjusts the staves.
I don’t think Dorico is too aggressive in its implementation. If you’re looking for a pleasing arrangement which works, its really good, and I’d put the default output in front of any band and they would be happy, but that’s not my job.
Sometimes the default output is just what I need, but not always.
You are right there are some tools available, alt+up/down arrow, alt+J, you can move staves up and down, systems up and down. You can even override the frame positions and sizes.
Ideally what I’d like is:
-the ability to space the staves evenly in one operation, by automatically overriding the spacing algorithms or typing a value, and having all the staves spaced to that value
-to be able pull the systems and staves up or down to proportionally space them (currently you can do it downwards, but not upwards)
-to be able to select any one stave and move it upwards or downwards, having all the other staves move proportionally around it.
I find, in Piano score, if I drag the treble staff, both treble and bass move. If I enter the number that relates to the same staff I dragged, only the treble staff moves and I have to move the bass staff individually. Very odd.
Whether or not both staves move depends on whether you drag the whole system (the handle at the top of the RH piano staff, with the blue stripe that runs the width of the system) or just the RH staff of the piano (the handle at the bottom of the RH piano staff).
Yes, I understand what happens when you drag. My comment was, when entering a spacific number between the treble staff and the system above (bass staff), only the treble staff moves, not the attached bass clef below as when dragging.
Because that number corresponds to the position of the top staff in the system, rather than the system itself. As you can see, there are two possible values that you can edit when you’re dealing with the top staff in the system. We’ll have a think about whether there’s a way we can allow editing of both values numerically at some point.