Formatting issues after adding instrument staff
I'm notating a piece for solo cello, and in addition to all of the notation oddities (no time signatures, etc.), there is one movement that goes requires two staves. I did this the way I know how—add an instrument, enter the notes, then hide it when it's empty—but it resulted in several unusual formatting issues, none of which I can figure out how to undo:
- There is now a barline at the beginning of every staff which shouldn't be there, and wasn't there before I added the additional staff. While I can select each one individually, there doesn't seem to be a way of selecting just these barlines without selecting all the barlines.
- The first line of the first movement now has blank space at the end of it, for a reason I can't figure out or undo.
- Some of the courtesy time signatures at the end of systems (which I've hidden) are now creating additional space at the end of the systems.
I've attached the culprit file. Any assistance is most appreciated.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Rain Songs.mscz | 27.52 KB |
Comments
Format/Style/Barlines->Barline at start of multiple staves;
Format/Style/Page-create courtesiùy time signature
In reply to Format/Style/Barlines-… by Shoichi
Thank you!
It's conventional to show the initial barline for scores of multiple instruments, that's why this appears. But indeed, your case is special, you probably want the initial barline only on those systems using two staves. I don't think there is a direct way to get what you probably should have here: no initial barline on the single-staff systems, but do have it on the two-staff systems. If you have to choose, I think you're better off just keeping the barliens on the single staves, since it's harmless, whereas not having on the two-staff systems is almost guaranteed to cause confusion as people don't realize it's a single system until it's too late.
But if you do wish to make the initial barlines invisible for the single-staff systems, then indeed, I think you'd need to hide them individually. Another approach of course is to have the movements as separate files.
Not sure what you mean about blank space at the end of the system, unless you mean the space for the courtesy time signature? really, it would have been much better not to use all those time signature changes, but instead to have simply altered the duration of those measures directly (using Measure Properties, or via the insert / delete commands to add/remove beats or the join / split measure commands). but given you already have them, then simply disabling courtesy time signatures will provide a workaround.