System bar and beat spacing

I needed to move a bar to the previous system and that bar seems to be compressed more than the other bars in that system. Is there a way to expand the 3rd bar, and adjust the beat spacing within it? I don’t want to have to move notes around. In Finale I could make the bar wider, compressing the other bars, and drag the beat handles to adjust the spacing.

You can use the Note Spacing tool to make the last bar bigger. I suspect the problem is the large syllables.

I’d suggest change Engraving Options > Lyrics > Hyphens > “Minimum SPACE to allow for a hyphen” to a very small value; and you may find that things improve that way.

If I understand you correctly, making a localized (i.e., that system) Engrave (menu) > Note Spacing Change might fix this spot up for you. You could then add a “reset” note spacing change on the next system.

(Just seeing Ben’s reply; He makes valuable points about syllables and hyphens. I’m not seeing many places where’s there’s much space to “play with,” but maybe if m.145 b.2, m.146 b.1, and m.147 b. 4 were a bit compressed — via a note spacing change, not individual drags — it would, together with the change in hyphens, be enough…?)