Spacer
Recently in the nightly builds, the ability to change the system distance by dragging a stave (other than the top) was implemented.
However, should moving one system apply it to all in the score?
I see two possible sides:
Yes: If another bar on the same system requires it, but if that moves elsewhere (due to a size change), it may have to be re-applied.
No: Only some staves may need it (takes up unnecessary space in other systems).
Any opinions on how it could possibly be improved? I also talked about it here .
Comments
I just saw this, and haven't yet had a chance to play with a build that includes this feature. But I have a couple of thoughts based on what you've written.
The Page General Style already provides a method for setting spacing between systems globally, and for setting space between staves within a system globally. Spacers as they exist now are already fine for adjudting space between two specific systems, or between two staves within one specific system. A new facility that just duplicated existing functionality. Ut with a different interface would not excite me much. I mean sure, if it's ia little easier to use, great, but what has been missing until now is a way to adjust space between two specific staves globally. So that's what I would hope to see. That is, a way to male the distance between the last woodwind staff and the first brass staff be greater than than distance between two adjacent woodwind staves, and to have that affect the entire score, not just one staff. If the new facility you describe can do this, wonderful! If not, that's still something I would like to see.
In reply to I just saw this, and haven't by Marc Sabatella
Unless I'm misreading what you wrote "a way to adjust space between two specific staves globally", this is what it does. If I define a 3 staff piece (flute top, piano bottom) and drag the middle staff (treble for piano) it adjusts the distance between the top and middle staff globally. The staves above and below maintain their respective spacing.
I am much happier with a graphical way of adjusting things (a la the way Finale allows you to re-arrange the page) than the present MS way of multiple windows and values.
In reply to Unless I'm misreading what by schepers
Glad to hear this feature exists now!
I'm not opposed to also having a graphical way to change spacing between staves locally, but isn't that what the spacer already does? It does seem odd to have two such different methods, though. Seems something like drag to adjust the spacing for that particular staff in that particular system only, shift-drag to do so for that particular staff globally, maybe also ctrl-drag to globally increase the staff distance (ie, the same as setting staff distance in the Style).
And the same could indeed be done for system spacing - drag a system to increase to adjust spacing for that system only, ctrl-drag to do so globally (same as Style setting) Although FWIW, I actually *prefer* having truly global settings (like overall staff and system spacing) done via a dialog. It's easier to make things consistent from score to score that way. Similarly, rather than an actual drag to change spacing locally, I prefer using cursor keys, so I can count how many steps I am moving. In case I later want to do the same for another staff.
In reply to Glad to hear this feature by Marc Sabatella
Here's the log entry from Oct 26 regarding this feature:
- new feature: dragging a staff/measure up/down increases/decreases staff distance in a system score wide. This changes the style parameter akkoladeDistance/staffDistance for a single staff.
In reply to Here's the log entry from Oct by schepers
Sorry to resurrect this, but I'm finally at a point where I'm ready to use nightly builds a bit more aggressively. I find this ability to drag create more or less space between specific pairs of staves but globally (eg, not just in the current system) is really, really nice - but, I think it still need to also be a numeric parameter I can get to in order to control more directly. For instance, what if I want the additional space between winds and brass to be the same as the additional space between brass and percussion, or percussion and strings, in an orchestra score? I really dislike just having to "eyeball" things like this. Also, and perhaps more importantly, there need to be an easy way to reset this to the default, in case I change my mind about wanting that extra space (or drag a staff unintentionally).
that when a stave is moved, all following should shift to reflect the distance set. If following staves should not have that same spacing, then it would be a simple matter to simply shift the next necessary stave and all following would then snap to the new space. Either that or make the process user select-able, but again this starts adding "options" and I remember reading in a previous post that there were becoming too many options.
Regards,