Header/footer margins differ on first page with rest of score.

• Jan 26, 2021 - 07:57

When you have a very large copyright message (6 lines in the footer) that is only on the first page, it overlaps with the music. This wasn't a problem before when you could manually space the systems, but is an issue now with 3.6 and auto-layout.

Setting a very large bottom margin affects all subsequent pages.

I can think of 2 solutions:
1. Staff Margins (Preferred solution)
Have the ability to set staff margins separately from page margins, and allow different margins after the first page. That way you can control the spacing at the top/bottom of every page and the first page (optional).

  1. Page Settings Addition
    In addition to odd and even page in Page Settings, you can have a separate optional setting for the first page.

Additional:
It would be nice to have a different header/footer for the first page than the odd/even for the rest of the score. This could also then be used to make title pages easier to create.

Attachment Size
Staff Margins - Mock-up.png 112.88 KB

Comments

To be clear: you can still manually space systems in the same ways as always. A bug that will be fixed in 3.6.1 does prevent the fixed spacer from working properly with the new vertical justification facility. But it shouldn't be needed here, just be sure to have an appropriate small minimum staff distance. That ends up being easier than messing with fixed spacers anyhow.

If you have some score where you are having trouble with spacing, please attach it so we can understand and assist better.

That said, yes, I can see the value of different margins - or different headers/footers entirely - for the first page. What I'd personally instead is just using a frame for the first page. Also, make use of the macros for copyright on first page only, page number except on first page, etc. Title pages wouldn't normally use headers or footers at all, so I'm not sure what you mean there. Again, an example would help.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I've attached the first two pages of a commercially available score that I have redone in MuseScore just as an example of a score with a huge copyright message on the first page.

I tried to use spacers to move things, this didn't work after the staff that is going over the footer.

I agree that you don't need headers/footers on a title page. That was just an afterthought and probably muddled this discussion a bit.

The idea is:
Page 1 has a different header/footer and spacing so that you can do big title (this can be done with a text box) and long copyright (this can't). The rest of the odd/even pages has maybe a small title in the header with the page number and short copyright in the footer.

This would require a separate header/footer for page 1 from the rest of the document and also different margining since you don't want to waste space on subsequent pages.

Does that make more sense?

[The whole reasoning behind this is to make it easier for the beginner/intermediate user to do this kind of thing. I am not an advanced user of MuseScore, but I have had lots of experience in Sibelius, and even with all its quirks, it is in many ways still easier to use than MuseScore. This is just one of those things.]

Attachment Size
Sample.mscz 32.82 KB

In reply to by onaforeignshore

As mentioned, I would personally have used a text frame for that copyright message, but that comes with its own complications, so I can see why you'd elect to use this method.

Anyhow, I see what you mean about spacers on the last system of a page not working to create space between the last system of a page and the page margin. I feel like this has been broken and then fixed half a dozen times over the years, and I didn't remember it being broken again now, but broken it is. Well, specifically, it is broken if the new "enable vertical justification of staves" setting is on.

One workaround, then, is to disable that option (in Format / Style / Page). But that would be a shame to give up, it is very helpful in scores like this one. So instead I would agree the above workaround of using a vertical frame is better here.

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.