Fixed bar counts

I'm doing some musical analysis and I want to compare different passages note for note. To do this, I'd like line up the various versions vertically. They are 4 bars each.

How can I do this? I think it involves two things ... how can I specify 4 bars per line .... and then will the software keep the bar lines themselves lined up (adding space where needed if there are no notes), etc.

Something like this:

| a | a | a | a |
| b | b | b | b |
| c | c | c | c |

Such that there are 4 bars on each line ... and vertical columns are lined up.

Thanks