Horizontal spacing
I have examples of scores which could surely be squeezed much more horizontally.
Are there controls to enable this? I can only find controls for vertical positioning - which also does affect horizontal placement.
I should be able to get all the notation in the attached example on to one line - shouldn't I?
Comments
You have forced the last measure onto a new system by adding a system break in the preceding measure. If you delete it, every thing (and probably more) fits on one system. See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/breaks-and-spacers
In reply to You have forced the last… by SteveBlower
Thanks. I thought I'd already spotted that and dealt with it.
Difficult to check now as the original file may have had more bars which were deleted, but leaving the system break.
However is there a way to control the horizontal layout in the attached - now corrected - version?
Cluster notations-v2.mscz
I can see no way to make that system shorter - or do I have to reset all the page margins etc.? If I want that to be (say) 8cm long, how do I do that? Relying on automatic placement doesn't always seem to do what I'd hoped for.
In reply to Thanks. I thought I'd… by dave2020X
Append a horizontal frame and adjust its width. See https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/frames
Cluster notations-v2 with frame.mscz
In reply to Append a horizontal frame… by SteveBlower
Interesting. It's a way of fixing things, though it's also possible to get some really weird effects depending on where the horizontal frame is put and what adjustments made to it.
In reply to Interesting. It's a way of… by dave2020X
I wouldn't say it's just "a way of fixing things", it's one of the purposes that horizontal frames are provided for.
Regarding "weird effects". if you don't want weird effects, don't put the frames in weird places!
In reply to Thanks. I thought I'd… by dave2020X
As noted, one of the main purposes of horizontal frames is to allow one system to not extend all the way to the margin. Another is to allow a separation between separate excerpts placed on a single system but not meant to actually be seen as a single line of music - separate examples in in an education worksheet for example. In your example I'd probably add one betwene each measure.
Beyond that, there are lots of other controls over the horizontal spacing of things - mostly in Format / Style / Measure. None are really relevant here, but there are usually the settings to play with if you ever do have a need to squeeze more measures onto a system but for whatever reason don't wish to reduce the staff size.
In reply to As noted, one of the main… by Marc Sabatella
Looks lik Format->Style->Bar (Measure) would have been the thing I really wanted/needed to use.
I'll try to remember for next time.
In reply to Looks lik Format->Style->Bar… by dave2020X
Well, it's useful sometimes, but isn't relevant to either of the examples here. Nothing here will make a system end before the margin, nor will it remove systems breaks. But in other cases, it will allow more measures to fit on a system than otherwise would, by reducing the spacing between notes, or the spacing between the barline and first note, or between clef and key signature, etc.
The defaults are normally good and reducing them will usually result in music that's too crowded by professional standards, but if it's the only way to fit someone on a given number of pages without reducing staff size, and reducing staff is not an option, these options are there. But definitely not the first place to turn - more of a last resort - and again, not actually relevant to the specific issue here.
The only setting here that is not just a last resort is the "Spacing" setting. This is the global (for the score) setting that individual measure "stretch" is based on. Reducing this to the minimum (1.0) saves you from needing to reduce stretch on selected measures (which is normally the other way to squeeze more measures on a given system) if you have many systems where you want more measures. But everything will then be more crowded than one would normally like, so you'd then go and add system breaks to re-establish where you actually want them.
That's often the easiest way to optimize layout if you have something you want to fit onto fewer pages than currently - reduce the staff space and the spacing until everything fits comfortably with room to space, then go back and add system breaks to balance things well and fit the pages completely.