More help needed - adding more bars

• May 12, 2012 - 00:10

Hello! I want to make my piece longer because I've run out of bars. When I set up my first try using a template it said to make it 32 bars and assured me I could add more later. Well, now I've got to the end of them and I'm trying to add more using Ctrl + B as shown in the Create menu, but instead of stretching themselves out neatly so that there are five bars per line, the new bars squash themselves up and go all tiny.

How can I add more bars while still keeping five per line?

Thank you :)

Posercom

Comments

• May 12, 2012 - 01:26

I'm sure it is, but I can't possibly read and memorise the whole thing.

I've already watched basic video tutorials and having learned the basics my approach is to proceed with inputting my music. If I come across something I don't know how to do, I try and figure it out by looking through the menus. That way I learn as I go along. If I can't do it that way, I type it into Google, which often brings up links to the manual but Google could not tell me how to do it so I came to ask here.

It is useful to read links before posting them. In this case the manual page you've linked to does not seem to answer my question, (i.e. how to restrict bars to five per line). It only tells me how to add more bars using control + B, which I've already explained I know how to do but the result is lots of squished-up bars.

Please can someone tell me how to make it so there are only five bars per line, as there were for my initial 32 bars in the template?

Thank you :)

Edit: the manual does mention:

"Layout stretch
You can increase, or decrease horizontal space between notes with this option."

which looks like it might be something similar to what I'm looking for, but it doesn't say where that option is located.

Reply

• May 12, 2012 - 01:33

Again, I suggest you just take a few moments and read through the manual. Most people don't memorize the whole thing, biut a front-to-back reading will give you a framework to delve in more deeply.

Stretch will not help you, you can use the Break every x measures Plugin to set # of bars per system.

Best regards,

Reply

• May 12, 2012 - 01:34

Oooooh hooray, I've figured it out by myself puzzling through the menus some more!

Fellow newbies reading this, here's how to do it (at least, the way I've discovered - not sure if there's another way):

You select the squashed-up bars and then go to "Layout" and click on "add more stretch" and keep clicking on add more stretch until the line finally ends up being five bars long again.

Hooray!

Reply

• May 12, 2012 - 02:01

No. I did not alter the stretch. How could I, when until now I didn't even know where that setting was located? As I explained, I was using a template which had created 32 bars for piano with two clefs (treble and bass). I suppose the template must have had some sort of stretch programmed into it. All those 32 bars arranged themselves nicely in groups of five per line, but when I started adding new ones afterwards, they squished up.

(At first I thought perhaps they were only small while they were still empty, and would get bigger and adjust themselves once I added music in to them, but they didn't).

Thank you for trying to help me anyway.

Reply

• May 12, 2012 - 02:17

I think I understand now, and I am surprised and happy that "stretch" served your purpose. It is not generally used in that manner.

In future, after you add measures (bars), the "Break every x measures" under "plugins" at the top of your screen will make the whole thing much easier.

In general, if you have not selected the actual bars you want treated, the plugin will impose your selection on the whole piece. If there is a select number of bars you want treated that way, (say a few lines of 3 bars and then back to 4 or 5 or whatever, the plugin will apply your selection to those bars chosen.

Reply

• May 12, 2012 - 06:55

The newly added bars are squished together because they are empty, so there is no reason for them to be artificially stretched out to only five bars per line. Once you put notes in the measures, they will fill the lines more normally. But if you ever want fewer bars on a line than fit by default, just add line breaks - either manually by clicking a barline and hitting Enter, or using the plugin Xavierjazz mentions. Adjusting stretch should only be needed if you need to fit *more* measures than the default on a line.

Reply

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