Move one measure up or down
Sorry if I missed this, but I'm sort of trying to do the opposite of a line break: I have four measures in a line, but I want to add the next measure to that line, so that it totals five bars. I only want this to happen for one line, where the rest should be four bars per line. I can't figure it out, since it's not about the whole document but just this one spot.
Thanks much.
-Dan
Comments
If you want more measures to fit than notmally would given your current settings, then you need to tell MuseScore to override those settings and make those measures narrower. So, select them and press "{" (shortcut for Layout / Reduce Stretch) as many times as necessary.
In reply to If you want more measures to by Marc Sabatella
When I do this, the measures expand and shrink to a certain point, and then run off the page. The first bar of the line remains the first bar of the line no matter what, instead of shifting up or down a line. I have tried selecting different groups of measures or just one measure, all to the same effect. I think the problem is, it seems to me that stretching or shrinking things is just a roundabout way of moving bars. What I actually want to do is move a bar up or down as many times as I want, and right away. Is this possible?
In reply to When I do this, the measures by Dan DiPiero
A bit hard to say without seeing the actual score, but you may be trying to squeeze too much into one line as what can possible fit, given the current settings
In reply to When I do this, the measures by Dan DiPiero
Yes, posting the actual score you would help. But the measures you want to select are the ones you want narrower - the ones you want to all fit on the same line.
Anyhow, I'd say you have it backwards - moving bars is a backwards way of shrinking or stretching things :-). There are actually several ways MuseS make the page wider, the margins smaller, the staff size smaller, the minimum note distance smaller, the minimum measure size smaller, the or lessen the degree to which lonjger notes are accorded more space than shorter ones. Just telling MuseScore "fit more measures on this line" without telling it *how* is like telling a student to "play better", without telling him specifically what you think could be improved or how.
Sure, MsueScore could simply assume you want to reduce stretch, and someone could probably write a plugin to do that. But realistically, that won't always be enough - it might also be necessary to change one of the other parameters as well. This is really a decision *you* need to be making - do you *want* a wider page, smaller margins, smaller staff size, etc. I know some other programs do try to guess for you, but I prefer being in control of how my music is squeezed rather than having a program make these choices for me.
In reply to Yes, posting the actual score by Marc Sabatella
I'm not sure I agree. It seems to me that thinking about how many bars per line you want is much easier than trying to guess how many are going to fit based on the measure length. Maybe that's just me, coming from using Finale. There, you just move a measure no problem, and adjust it to how you want after the fact. No matter how the measures stretch, no matter how you adjust them yourself, it knows you want four (for instance) per line, and sticks to that parameter.
At any rate, this would all be a rhetorical debate if I could have any luck doing what I need to. As it is, I've uploaded an image of the score before all the stretching business and after. That is, after I have selected bars 25 through 30--the ones I want on the same line--and pressed { repeatedly.
As you can see, the bars in the final system simply run into the previous page.
In reply to I'm not sure I agree. It by Dan DiPiero
Right, which is to say, Finale makes decisions for you that you have no control over. Do you know if Finale is making them fit by changing the minimum measure width, by changing the minimum note distance, or by changing the ratio controlling how much additional space is allocated for longer notes? Or for all you know, it might be making noteheads themselves narrower. I don't want a program making those choices for me, although when I first came over from Finale, I had the same expectation as you. Now that I understand how many different ways there are of doing this, I am much happier being in control of those choices. As I said, for the cases where you *don't* care and trust the program to just pick any old settings that get the job done, I could easily imagine a plugin applying some sort of hueristic to make that choice. Just as some people prefer driving automatic transmission :-)
Anyhow, there isn't much we can do from a picture, but if you post the score itself, we can probably help. Just a guess but it sort of looks like there is a line break forcing only five measures on that line, even though I don't actually see it. Maybe you turned off the display of non-printing items?
In reply to Right, which is to say, by Marc Sabatella
Ah, I see. Ok, here is the score. My non-printing items are visible, so I'm not sure what the deal is. I have had some luck with previous pages, but there are a few trouble spots where it doesn't work.
Thanks for taking a look.
In reply to Ah, I see. Ok, here is the by Dan DiPiero
You have a crazy high setting for Style / General / Measure / Minimum measure width that is preventing more measures from fitting. The default is 5sp; you have 24sp.
In reply to You have a crazy high setting by Marc Sabatella
I think I'm starting to understand how this works. Thanks!