Guide: Per-page vertical staff spacing adjustment

• Dec 9, 2020 - 02:37

MuseScore can automatically space multiple systems vertically within each page, but there are many posts on these forums asking about adjusting vertical staff spacing on a per-system basis, typically with the goal of vertically filling each page with however many staves happen to be visible on a single-system page. The official method is to use staff spacers, but here is a faster method:

  1. Create a staff text that says "spacer" (or any other word)
  2. Set its stacking order to zero.
  3. Set its colour to the background colour. (It can still be seen when selected, so use Ctrl+A to find it.)
  4. Copy and paste it in every staff whose spacing you want to adjust.

Now you can use these camouflaged staff texts as spacer handles. You can select any combination and move them together. Moving them so they collide with adjascent staves will cause all the staves to move down to clear the collisions. The spacing only applies to one system, and unlike staff spacers they can be copied and pasted.

Caveats:
--You can't see them when they aren't selected. Use Ctrl+A to find them.
--You may accidentally drag a spacer text while trying to drag the page by the background.
--They interact with all automatically placed symbols, not just the staff.


Comments

That's what I've been doing for years, but I use a period so there will be minimal auto avoidance if there are items on the staff above hanging below the staff. I'll continue to do this once 3.6 is released but the automatic page fill algorithm is impressive.

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