Staves all bunched up - What do I do with this?

Changing Edit->Notations->Staff size for every single staff seems a bit tedious for that to be the solution. Is there a way to auto format the size of staves so they fit on the page? I don’t know what to search for because all the words I would use to describe the process in Finale do not give me what I’m looking for. HELP!!!

I would start with Layout Options > Page Setup > Space Size. This will let you change the size of a space for all staves in the layout. (A space is the distance between two lines on a staff, or 1/4 the height of a 5-line staff.)

You could also try using a bigger page size (Layout Options > Page Setup > Page Size).

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Is this an XML import? Start with Layout Options, under Page Setup. Set an appropriate page size, then adjust the Space Size [rastral size] to get all those staves to fit on that page size. There are other staff spacing options to set under Layout Options, but start with lowering the Space Size first.

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I had the same problem with XML-Imports.
go to Engrave Mode
klick first bar
klick “Create System Break”.
it solved my problem and could maybe help.

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Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, the solution was in the Page Size->Rastral size section of Layout Options.

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Thanks, this was a default file with me adding instruments as I go. This was the solution: The Rastral size was set to Size 8 (3.7mm). I selected Size 0 (9.2mm) which of course made things worse… :-s but when I switched it back to Size 8 (3.7mm) everything snapped to a proper size. It wasn’t obvious that this is what would occur, so thanks for pushing my brain to poke at it. :slight_smile:

Thanks, but this didn’t work, it just put a SYSTEM BREAK flag over the 1st measure.

Here’s what the page looks like now.

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:thinking: no…
You are describing a solution - but for a different problem. Notice that on the posters screenshot all systems have different clefs, so this is the first page of a Full Score layout.