how to set number of measures per line

• Sep 20, 2015 - 19:37

I have not been able to set the number of measures per line after hours of trying. How is this done?

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• Sep 20, 2015 - 20:40

Or just add line breaks manually if you don't want the same number on each line. See the Breaks & Spacers palette.

Note breaks only allow you to put *fewer* than the default number of measures on a line. If you want *more* than what will actually fit given your current settings, you will need to change something in your current settings - overall music size in Layout / Page Settings / Staff Space, or measure spacing in Style / General / Measure / Spacing, etc.

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• Dec 15, 2019 - 04:27

Everything in MY "Breaks and Spacers" pallette is grayed out. Having 12 measures per line and no obvious way to change it is driving me batty. I've tried the various tips on here, but none seem to apply to the latest (as of this writing) version. I have 3.3.4.9066 for Windows.

I'm taking your on line course; I hope I find the answer.

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• Dec 15, 2019 - 05:33

Palette elements cannot be "greyed out" (means you cannot select them) by all means, they're always clickable. Breaks and spacers are grey themselves, if you do want to add one just drag & drop or double-click like any other palette element, they won't be visible on printed sheet music but you can view and edit them in the software.

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• Dec 15, 2019 - 06:27

Indeed, breaks can be added normally from the palette. Although notes you’d only have 12 measures on a line if they are practically empty, and in that case, there’s nothing really wrong with that. Best to wait until you’re more or less done entering notes before trying to gauge things like this.

For more info on the various techniques involved in controlling this aspect of
Formatting, see the lessons on Page Layout in the course.

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• Feb 4, 2021 - 04:12

Good god I'm having the same frustration. Why is this so difficult. There should be a short cut like control M allowing us to type the number of measures we want for the selected measure or full score.
Page settings are super complicated.

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• Sep 6, 2021 - 22:40

OMG, for how long I have used this program I have not seen that option (albeit it's right there in the menu). [insert face-palm emoji]

Okay (perhaps this isn't the right place for this, but) can I make a request for the next update? Can there be an added button to the dialogue box that is like the ones on Page Settings and Style: APPLY TO ALL PARTS ?

Actually, just found this: https://musescore.org/en/node/281303 which I just commented on to move it up... :-)

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• Feb 4, 2021 - 17:13

If you continue to have difficulty, please attach your score and describe what you are trying to do in more detail.

But indeed, adding system breaks is dead simple, just as in a word processor, just hit Enter to add a break wherever you want. Unlike a word processor, there is also Add/Remove System Breaks to automatically add them every X bars.

But - again like a word processor - if you want more measures per system than actually fit given your current settings - page size, staff size, measure spacing, minimum note distance - there is no getting around the laws of physics there. You'll have to change one or more of those settings. Again, if you attach your score, we can assist better.

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• Nov 26, 2021 - 14:32

I am in the same boat as the OP here - Long time Finale user (2001....), and in many cases you want to increase the number of bars per line. You may just disagree with the automated spacing the program has decided on, or perhaps you have other overriding considerations. Here is an example I am currently working on. In the screenshot, you can see that I have a single movement that almost fits on a single page, but for two bars that end up on the next page. This is incredibly inconvenient for performance, and it would clearly be beneficial to make two of those previous lines that have 3, 4, or 5 measures per line to just have a single added measure. Finale makes this essentially trivial - something like Ctrl-M with the measures highlighted.

Musescore may not support "physically overlapping notes", but it should be possible to tell the program to override minimum settings for a particular line (in my specific case, I have a ton of space in the last measure of the second to last line, and the two measures I want to add are also very full of space. So I would like the second to last line to contain 4 measures, and the last line to also contain four measure. Bam, problem solved).

Attachment Size
MuseScore-SS.png 220.92 KB
Allettamento_de_Camera_in_F#_Minor.mscz 72.86 KB

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