As far as I can see, the voice column index paradigm only applies to the staff where voices are offset to prevent collisions of seconds:
If the notes were in the same voice and thus joined by the same stem, then they would participate in the columns and could indeed be moved through the order by way of the ‘Voice column index’ property. However, when they’re in separate voices and on separate staves, those voice columns simply don’t exist on the other staff, so there’s no way for them to interact. In due course, however, you will at least be able to adjust the graphical offset of such notes so that even if you don’t consider it appropriate to put those notes in the same voice, you would be able to achieve the result you want.
Those are interesting examples, Knut. I would have the tendency to align everything with the first voice, as it is the second voice which is offset to compensate for the seconds between the voices. IOW, I’d do it as in the Mikuli edition and not the Peters.
Yes, I’m guessing most people would, if for no other reason than because it’s the norm devoid of context.
With regard to this particular passage, however, The Peters edition is the one most faithful to the first edition (and probably Chopin’s manuscript). On top of that, I think it looks much tidier. It is certainly a special case, though.
BTW, the examples are courtesy of John Ruggero. We’ve been discussing them here.
In the Peters edition where the chords in both hands line up, I don’t consider them all offset, but rather that the melody note is offset to the left. I tried doing this in Sibelius and of course I had to pull the RH chord back by the same amount. It would be nice if the chord would automatically come back toward x = 0 as the top note gets out of its way. Obviously not gonna happen in Sibelius, but possible in Dorico?
