even distribution of measures
Is it possible to evenly distribute the measures in a score?
I might normally add / remove measure(-s), or just make a change within a measure and sometimes the previously uniform score gets upset and some measures stretch out to fill the page width.
In the worst case, one measure would stretch to take up the whole page width.
I then spend a lot of time laboriously correcting the layout by inserting/copying/deleting measures .....
Comments
It is very difficult to make the same number of measures to show on every line. The reason is that a measure with nothing but 16th notes will be much wider than a measure with a whole note. The easiest way to do it though is to select everything and press { about 10 times so the stretch will be reduced to the minimum. { is the same as Decrease Stretch Layout in the Layout menu. Once you have done this, use Edit->Tools->Add/Remove system breaks... to put a line break every x measures. Find a line where there is a break where you don't want one. Select Layout->Page Settings... and reduce the scaling so you have the number of measures you want on a line. I would do this AFTER all of the notes are entered or you will probably end up wasting time doing it more than once.
In reply to It is very difficult to make… by mike320
Many many thanks for your kind response - it has done the trick !
I (obviously) do not know enough about the problems associated with such a sophisticated and complex software but it seems to me, that it would be logical to "compress" the measures automatically to their minimum sizes starting with the first measure on the left and trickling through the rest. Presumably with some optional overrides.
Suppose I delete a measure in the middle of the page ..... the remaining measures on that line stretch to make up for the removed measure. So, in the extreme, I end up with one measure spanning the width of the page.
It can be corrected manually (laboriously as you point out) but unless I am missing something, that does not seem right.
Or is it?
In reply to Many many thanks for your… by piskal
You are correct about having to do it manually and the difficulties involved. That is why I recommended that you have all of your notes input prior to setting the lines. In simple scores having a set number of lines is not uncommon and what I described will rarely be too difficult, especially since you can use the same command to add and remove the line breaks (hence the name). You can actually omit the reduce stretch step (pressing { ) in simple scores. Once the scores get more complex this becomes difficult at best and impossible in many cases. I made a long winded explanation to cover anything you might run into, but once you are used to it, it will become second nature.
In reply to It is very difficult to make… by mike320
Thank you X100!
In reply to Thank you X100! by learnguitarwithandy
Note that now with MU4 there are several simpler and more powerful ways to do the sorts of things being discussed here. If you attach your score and explain what you are trying to do in more detail, we can show you the best way to get the job done. The hacks one needed in MU3 are generally not needed anymore.
In general, it is best to attach your score when asking for help, as then we can see exactly what is going on and assist better.
As it is, I am not understanding your comments about inserting measures and using copy/paste to solve layout problem - that should never be necessary. In particular, if you delete measures in the middle of a line, normally the measure on the next line will move up to the previous line, so you should not end up with one measure stretched across the page unless you have done something wrong. I can guess that maybe you have added line breaks you no longer need, and rather than simply removing the breaks, you are resorting to adding new measures. If so, then the obvious solution is to delete the breaks instead. And as mike320 mentions, best not to mess with layout at all until you are essentially done adding notes, as chances are you will waste lots of time otherwise doing things you'll need to change later.
In reply to In general, it is best to… by Marc Sabatella
Many thanks for your interest, alas, I have some other rather pressing problems to worry about now .....
I will come back to this ASAP and send you some examples of my "staff/measure" editing problems as you kindly suggested.
Regards,
piskal
[ accidental duplicate ]