forcing more bars into a line
Forgive me if this is a topic already covered here somewhere, but I am new to MS and cannot figure out how to change the number of bars per line of music. There has to be a way of eliminating the dreaded widows and orphans, and there are times when I just want 5 bars on the first line rather than the 4 MS gave me. I can't get the first bar of the second line to be up on the first line. It is a bar of rest, so, it doesn't need to be super pretty. There will be other times I'd like to spread out a line and spread them out for page fitting, etc. Is there a way to do this?? This was one of the few things I could do in Finale and Sibelius and I want to abandon them forever. Thanks in advance.
Comments
I found the "add/remove system breaks" under format, and that is useful. But it seems to be global rather than allowing for customization of each line if you need it. I'm having trouble figuring out what the system breaks and section breaks actually do, as no matter where I put them, nothing happens. Thanks again.
In reply to I found the "add/remove… by asotuba@gmail.com
I did manage to find a few relevant posts, which were very helpful indeed. I found that I can remove the system break icon by control clicking it, and could then delete it. This is pretty counter-intuitive, when so may other elements could just be selected and deleted with the delete key. I suppose there is some logic in it somewhere, like preventing one from ruining all the system breaks going forward. Also, the comment about selecting the bar or bar line and then return was incredibly helpful. With these tips that were previously posted (you have to search just right to find them, apparently), I think I'm now good with this issue. Thanks.
In reply to I did manage to find a few… by asotuba@gmail.com
No need to ctrl-click them, just a normal click will do fine; just like any other element.
But it is far easier to be somewhere in the measure and just hit the Enter key on your keyboard to toggle the system break on that measure.
As always, the handbook should be your friend: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/breaks-and-spacers
In reply to No need to ctrl-click them,… by jeetee
Yes- I did experiment more and stumbled on a youtube video that had more of an explanation of the various ways one can do this. Sometimes it's just knowing where to click ;) MS is pretty powerful and versatile, I'm learning, and I can't wait to start using it all the time.
More to the point, though - MsueScore only gives you four per line in the default empty score that is provided for your initial experiments with MuseScore. When you are ready to make an actual score via File / New, there will be no line breaks already present. So you won't normally need to be deleting line breaks other than the ones you add yourself. On the other hand, you will likely be adding line breaks.
And to be clear: deleting a line break is as simple as selecting it and press Delete, just as you would expect. Adding is as simple as hitting Enter.
In reply to More to the point, though -… by Marc Sabatella
For some reason, they weren't deleting for me when I wrote the first post. I must have double-clicked on the icon (Try that- if you DOUBLE click on it, it is selected, but the delete key does nothing. But if you then control click on it, you can get the submenus, including "delete". I don't know if this is a bug, or what- seems like if it were selected (turns blue) with either a single or double click, it should be deletable.)
In reply to For some reason, they weren… by asotuba@gmail.com
A single click selects something while a double click will put it into edit mode. Depending on the item pressing delete in each situation will vary. Try it on staff text and see the difference. Pressing delete on a notehead in edit mode does nothing because it's undefined to have a note without a notehead in MuseScore.
In reply to A single click selects… by mike320
Wow. That is so precise and easy. In a practical sense the stretch tool seems to take care of most spacing problems, but this is exactly the tweak tool I was hoping to find in this program.
In reply to For some reason, they weren… by asotuba@gmail.com
Indeed, double-click is to enable "edit mode", which allows you to adjust positions manually using the cursor keys. This really shouldn't be relevant for breaks, but it does work - you can double-click the break, move it with the cursor keys, and the adjustments even survive save and reload. No really point to it so probably it should just be disabled, but I was surprised to see it actually does "work".
In reply to Indeed, double-click is to… by Marc Sabatella
I didn't realize it works on breaks. Good to know. I keep my breaks visible so I know where they are but they sometimes make it difficult to see what's on the staff. Don't disable it.
Will adjusting the stretch, via the Format pulldown, address this problem ? Do you know how many bars you want in a particular line before you see it on the screen or are you fiddling after you see what it looks like?
In reply to Will adjusting the stretch,… by Cornetto-di-basso
Generally, I just fiddle around after I see what it looks like. The bars vary quite a bit as far as number of notes, etc. I do use the stretch quite a bit, and it takes care of many issues. Thanks.