I am new to Dorico having been using MuseScore for many years. I write for a small trio having three instruments. Mandolin, Guitar (harmony/Rhythm)and Guitar/ Bazooka (Chords). The first player is Mandolin with notes, tablature and chords the other player is Acoustic guitar with Notes. I have the staves spaces between Mandolin’s notes and tablature stave, but cannot get the same space between mandolin and acoustic guitar staves. Can anyone advise if this is possible?
Hi Andrew, Welcome to the forum!
It should be possible. Are you starting from scratch or was this an import from MuseScore? Importing XML is convenient but often adds changes that produce undesirable results. If you can upload a dorico file, it might help to get a quicker answer.
In the meantime, have a look under “Library” for layout and engraving options. There are a lot of settings that can make life easier for you!
Also there are plenty of tutorial videos (the “First Steps” is highly recommended and was helpful for me to get oriented to Dorico’s way of doing things!)
— Jim
Chanter’s Song.dorico (1.9 MB)
This is the file. I did import this as a xml.
Also note I cannot get the stems to change to red for acoustic guitar, which would have been nice.
2026-05-12 10-56-59_Template.dorico (626.6 KB)
I also created this template which has they layout the way I wanted it.
Jesper
Yes will give it a try, the page size is more for creating a Pdf as one long page, then we use mobilesheets when playing and scroll it then scrolls through whole tune rahter than pages.
Thanks for the assistance
Andrew
What you want is maybe to avoid vertical justification between staves.
Maybe try this: In Layout Options > Vertical Spacing, set this value to 100:
Result will be:
Or if you prefer the systems to be justified (but not the staves):
Then keep 100 for this value, and decrease 2nd value (to e.g. 40)
And if you want it to be a little less tight:
You can restore these values to e.g. 6:
Ah, sorry, I understand.
Jesper
Jesper/Charles
Thank you both, Thats been a great help. I’m sure I’ll get my head round it eventually.
We mostly do tunes, with harmony so this will be fine for them. We do some songs. So need to tackle songs next. This is our preferred format with chords above lyrics and lyrics above the bars.
Again a very simple format but works fine for us.
I moved to Dorico because of it’s iPad App which MuseScore doesn’t have and I just don’t like the latest version of MuseScore. So only need iPad when going to rehearsals rather than having to take laptop. I am considering purchasing it for my laptop as feel it easier to work on.
Andrew (Alcluith)
Off topic, but bazooka? I assume that was auto correct not knowing what a bouzouki is, but if it was indeed a bazooka that’s fun and unusual. I didn’t even know that was an instrument, but Wikipedia tells me that the weapon got its name from the instrument because it looked like it!
Rikard
Yes didn’t notice that Irish Bouzouki for Celtic music.
View->Signposts->Hide Signposts
Jesper
Just to be clear: These signposts do not print; they are only there for informational purposes, to indicate something that is not otherwise visible.
Jasper
again thank you for that Maybe getting the terminology used in Dorico would help.
With everything new its an uphill learning curve.
I was able to change my chord font colour in tunes now in songs I can remember how,
maybe its an age thing
As @asherber said,
Nor do they “print” when exporting to PDF. But they do help you understand what’s going on in Dorico when things go awry!