Manually adjust the verticle distance between individual staves
Hi there, can anybody recommend a way to manually decrease or increase the distance between individual staves on a page? I remember in a previous version this was possible by (I think) hitting shift and dragging?
So far in 3.6 I have not found a way to adjust the distance of even all staves on a page by going to style/page settings/and then adjusting stave distance for the whole score. When I try this nothing happens.
The update video mentions that a previous option to use spacers has been replaced (01:30) but I can't see with what: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLR40BGNy68&feature=youtu.be
I think I clicked on the 'automatic placement' option and 'don't ask me again', if this limitation is related to this, does anyone know where the option to turn this off again is located (I tried reinstalling it but the option does not appear again)?
Many thanks in advance!
Comments
See: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/breaks-and-spacers#spacers
In reply to See: https://musescore.org… by Shoichi
Thanks, that worked. Spacers were not appearing when I searched for them in my pallet but I found them in the master.
In reply to Thanks, that worked. Spacers… by Tmhamilton
At the top right is the button that allows you to select Advanced
Spacers work great if the reason for increasing space is related to a specific situation in a specific measure.
Shift+Dragging no longer works, but the style setting it used to change is still available in the staff properties; were you can set the "additional distance above staff". This settings applies for the entire staff through the entire score.
I would recommend attaching your score here, as I think there may be a few misunderstandings going on here that we can clear up.
Meanwhile, a few things I can say that might help:
The whole point of the improvements in 3.6 is to produce good spacing right out of the box. You should almost never need to adjust spacing further (well, maybe a slight stretch, but still, it should be pretty rare). But the way to go about changing the spacing depends entirely on how and why you want to change it, which is why we'd really need to see the score in order not to steer you astray. Some possibilities - different tools for different purposes - include:
1) to add extra space between one pair of staves just on one system, use the spacer up/down
2) to reduce space between one pair of staves just on one system, use the fixed spacer
3) to change spacing between one pair of staves across all systems, use the extra distance above in staff properties
4) to change the default spacing across the whole score, there are a variety of settings in format / style / page, but again,m we really would need to see the actual score to advise further
In reply to I would recommend attaching… by Marc Sabatella
Thanks. Adding spacers to each stave works well enough. Sometimes it's more comfortable for me to group staves closer together when composing or make it easier to fit them on the screen.
In reply to Thanks. Adding spacers to… by Tmhamilton
Hmm, still it doesn't seem there should be any need to resort to that - the style settings should do the job nicely. I am still pretty confident that if you attach your score, we can help you more effectively and show you how to accomplish your goal more efficiently and precisely.
In reply to Hmm, still it doesn't seem… by Marc Sabatella
Here is the score. I was doing some counterpoint exercises and wanted to move the bass and tenor staves closer together for comfort. The spacers applied here work well enough, but clicking and dragging like it used to be with shift would be nice. I could imagine working on an orchestral score and wanting to adjust the spaces ad hoc while composing to fit various staves on the screen easier.
In reply to Here is the score. I was… by Tmhamilton
E.g., better like this ? counterpoint 23.mscz
(and on 5 pages only, instead 7)
In reply to Better like this ? [inline… by cadiz1
Thanks for the demo, it's good you can do it for individual pages, but it's only really composing in the moment (and usually on continuous view) that I like to adjust the distances. Spacers seem to be the best bet, I will add them at the beginning of all scores I work on :).
In reply to Here is the score. I was… by Tmhamilton
OK, I think I see - you want the staves so close together the lyrics at the end of the score actually overlap the next staff :-). Yes, to make that happen, you need spacers, or else disable autoplace on the lyrics.
Or, just wait to add those lyrics until you're done - the spacing will be tighter by default. Or will be if you reduce the minimum staff distance in Format / Style / Page.
I have successfully used the spacer function to reduce the distance between staves apart from exercise 5 and 9a in the attachment. I cannot work out why it suddenly does not work. Are you please able to help? Thank you
In reply to I have successfully used the… by dadamson
If you look at Format > Style... > Page, you will see that "Enable vertical justification of staves" is the chosen layout option.
If you really want to control the distance between staves yourself, then you should probably change the layout setting to "Disable vertical justification of staves". And then you can experiment with reducing the value of Max. system distance.
In reply to If you look at Format >… by DanielR
Note that the hack of disabling justification makes spacing worse on most pages and really isn't recommended. There was a bug in MuseScore 3 that made it seem like disabling justification was a good idea, because it was the only way to get max system distance to be honored. But that bug is fixed now (along with literally hundreds of other engraving issues). Even with that bug, the better way to solve issues like the ones that usually make people resort to disabling justification is to simply add a spacer to the bottom of the last page to prevent it from spreading so much.
In reply to Note that the hack of… by Marc Sabatella
Marc, thank you for the extra information - much appreciated.
In reply to I have successfully used the… by dadamson
Instead of using fixed spacer to decrease distance between staves within a section, it's much better to use them to increase distance between sections. Then the space within sections will close up automatically. Or better yet, you frames rather than staff text for labeling the different sections, then you can set their gaps above/below and make those style settings, Then you won't need any spacers at all - layout will be correct right out of the box.
That said, if you want to reduce distance on a specific system for some reason, you need to use the "fixed" spacer. But again, not reallythe right approach here. With that method you'd need to add these all over the place rather than just between sections.