equal note length
hi there :) I'm new ti musescore and thanks to this forum I've almost manage to do everything I need (make Drum Sheets for my students the way I want to) BUT, I'm a little annoyed by the changing length of my 8th hi hats ... as you can see the last 2 are slightly longer ... is there any way I can set the 1st voice to be always equal ? Thanks 
Comments
I can see the last two in every measure has a slightly longer beam. This is due to the presence of the 16th notes followed by various eighth or dotted eighth notes. Rest assured this is quite normal to indicate to the musician that there are some shorter notes that exist that will be played out of sync with the high hat notes.
Now that the obligatory lesson on why this occurs is done, there is a way to fix this in MuseScore. Wait until the length of the system is fixed before doing this. Any other changes in the system will affect "fixes" you apply and you will need to redo them. Select a note and in the inspector under Chord you can move the offending notes to the left by making a negative horizontal offset. Changing anything else in the inspector will also affect other notes on the system or only the note head, and this is not what you want to do.
In reply to I can see the last two in… by mike320
Thanks for the "lesson" but I might be more used to read drum scores ... you know our notation standards differ from the traditionnal notation and we (drummers) like our scores clean and straight . we don't need a 8th note longer because there's a 16th note stuck between two, we know it's in between ... anyway, thanks for your contribution :)
In reply to Thanks for the "lesson" but… by le_fabatteur
As I said, the "lesson" was to explain why the notes do what they do. I assure you that if I hadn't explained the why of what happens, someone else would have. I hope the other lesson on how to make it look the way you want was more helpful.
Just so you know, I'm just a user of the program like you and know only some about drum notation. I'm more familiar with Symphonic scores where note distances are changed in nearly every measure of every staff. I was only trying to help a fellow MuseScore user. If you understand a little about what it happening it might make things easier in the long run.
In reply to As I said, the "lesson" was… by mike320
Thanks anyway mike320, I appreciate you comment on my request but I really speak as a drummer :) and alsomany drum writers groups 8th notes on the hi hat by 4 which is nonsense to me ... but it's the way some are working :) no real rule just methods we prefer :) we are not as strict as other musiciens ... not the same way tho ;)
In reply to Thanks for the "lesson" but… by le_fabatteur
Different publishers do things differently - some do indeed try to make spacing even, others stick to the more usual standards. It's hard to know when someone posts here what their level of knowledge or experience is, so we do often try not to assume people already understand relevant concepts. So we often provide more background in an effort to be more helpful.
Anyhow, another way to force more even spacing would be to insert invisible rests in another voices. A whole series of invisible sixteenth rests (or whatever the shortest note value is in that measure) will force everything to align that way.
In reply to Different publishers do… by Marc Sabatella
This is a really great idea :) I'll try and let you know as fast as I will have :) thx Marc
Mike's analysis is good - it is the sixteenths that are (quite correctly, according to standard rules of notation/engraving) causing those eighths to be spaced further apart.
However, given this, there is actually a simpler "safer" (less likely to be adversely affected by future layout changes) way to force more even spacing in cases like this: click the beam in question and then enable the "Local relayout" option in the Inspector.
In reply to Mike's analysis is good - it… by Marc Sabatella
Local relayout doesn't move only two connected 8th notes closer together. I tried it and that's when I went in the other direction.
In reply to Local relayout doesn't move… by mike320
Good point - I tested with the default layout of four eighths only. FWIW, another small reason why it's better to attach actual scores rather than pictures - then we'd both have tried with the same starting point.