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Topic: bar and staff length (Read 2453 times) previous topic - next topic

bar and staff length

Thanks to those who replied to my first question about pagination. I have a related question. (As you can probably tell, I'm a new user.) Is there a way to stretch/shrink/justify bar lengths so that all of the staves are the same length? I have a document where the last satff ends about halfway across the page. It's visually unappealing and distracting as a performer. Thanks.

Re: bar and staff length

Reply #1 –
File | Page Setup (or click "book" icon) | Options tab, check "Extend Last System."

If you also want to center-justify the last system (space it out equally) then put a Section Close barline at the very end of the top staff, and set it to "force system break." (Keyboard shortcut: b s s TAB space Enter .)

Re: bar and staff length

Reply #2 –
Please use Fred's second method.  The first one still is visually unappealing in that all it extends is the final measure.  With only four measures on the system, it will look three normal measures and one measure with an AWFUL amount of blank staff after it.

Re: bar and staff length

Reply #3 –
After using Fred's second method (I agree that you should forget first method), you may want to also add "force system break" to some of the previous barlines.

As an example, if you have three systems with respectively 8 bars, 8 bars and 2 bars, you may force one system break on second system, such that you have 8 bars, 5 bars and 5 bars. You may even force two system breaks, such that you have 6 bars, 6 bars and 6 bars... much more appealing!