"Unwanted" system divider.

I have searched for this for a while, as usual the answer is probably right in my vision, but alas … So help would be much appreciated.

I am working on a thirty-player score. In Layout options > System dividers, I have chosen the “extra long” system divider to show (when the minimum number of players is one).

I noticed that the system divider in the attached picture called “Before frame break” didn’t look particularly elegant, the two systems looked crammed, and to me, it looks different from what I would expect Dorico to create.

I went to Engrave mode, chose the first bar of the first stave of the second system, and used the Frame break command. The system moved to the next page, so the two systems now took up a page each.

But the system divider remained below the first system, now alone on a page of its own – so that system divider is now redundant, but has nevertheless stayed behind.

So I wonder: Am I right when I think that the first version of the page looks quite crammed, and that the distance from the system divider to the other objects is dangerously short? I tried to adjust but it didn’t work – actually there were no changes.

And: If I do use Frame break, and the second system moves to a page of its own – how should I remove the now unnecessary system divider on the page before?

Sorry for clumsy explanations. Perfectly aware that all of this probably arises from poor grasps of concepts and basic knowledge: Thanks in advance.


The page with two systems is obviously overcrowded, because you have slurs overlapping from bottom of the first system to the top of the second.

You could save some vertical space by moving the dynamics to the left of the notes where there is room (e.g. Cl. 5 and 6 and Cor. 1 on the first system, and several staves in the second system).

The system divider after one system looks like a program bug to me. However playing around with this and changing the “minimum number of players”, sometimes it disappeared and then didn’t come back. Try closing and re-opening the project, and it might vanish.

Thanks, Rob. Just a note to say that I didn’t try out your suggestions, I simply found out that I haven’t got enough time. There are so few pages that would need system dividers that the fastest solution, even one that makes sense, is to keep all staves visible on all pages. Still, thanks, and I add it to all the things I’ve learnt here lately.