Working in a lead sheet format, sometimes when I do a system break, I end up with systems further down the page that have, for example, only 2 bars in them. How can I choose the number of bars I want in a specific system? Also, how do I undo a system break? I know about the undo button, but it's not practical if you want to undo it later.
Another question: In a lead sheet, how can I switch back and forth from a double piano stave to a single treble stave?
Sibelius 3.0
Win XP
choosing number of bars per system
Working with System Breaks is more simple than you think. here are some guidelines that will make your life more easy 
:
System Breaks (and Page Breaks) are free toggles:
- You already know how to create a System Break (Select Barline and hit Enter on the Main Keyboard).
- Now, just select one of the bars that has a System Break (any System Break Bar in your Leadsheet) and hit Enter again. The System Break is now undone.
- You can create and undo a Sytem or Page Break at any time, anywhere in your score, just by selecting the Barline and hitting Enter.
- That's simple enough.
Now, to the
Undesireable amount of bars at the end
- If you end up with three or two bars at the end of a leadsheet, these bars are often to wide and they don't look nice.
- Go with the pointer to the right side of the final barline.
- Place the pointer just next to the final barline, on the right side, along with the middle staffline.
- Now, click and hold the left mousebutton pressed. A small blue rectangle appears (as a sign that you can drag).
- Now, drag the rectangle (and with it all bars) to the left. You can drag the bars left and right until they have the right look in comparison with the other bars in the leadsheet.
- Hit Esc
- Done.
In the beginning you'll have to fiddle around with System Breaks and create and undo them several times until you get the desired look of your leadsheet. But after a while you'll develop "an eye" for it.
Changing from two staff sytem to one staff system
- What you have to do is to use the "Hide Empty Staves" tool.
- There are some things you'll have to look out for.
- First, create all music as it comes.
- When done, create System Breaks at the points where you will change the amount of staves in the system.
- Make sure that all the staves that you want to "disappear" are really empty: no text or other symbols attached to it and all rests are bar rests, not created rests.
- Now, tripple-click on the bass staff of your piano system.
- Go to Layout > Hide Empty Staves or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Alt+H
- All bass staffs that were empty are now hidden, with only the treble staff showing.
- If the result is not what you want, select the whole score or a passage and go to Layout > Show Empty Staves or use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S. Select the staff you want to reappear and click OK. The staff is now in view again.
If you want to change from 2 to 1 staff in the middle of a system then you enter a whole new area. Let me know if you want this too. It is possible and easy to do but kinda complicated to explain here.
Zap
:System Breaks (and Page Breaks) are free toggles:
- You already know how to create a System Break (Select Barline and hit Enter on the Main Keyboard).
- Now, just select one of the bars that has a System Break (any System Break Bar in your Leadsheet) and hit Enter again. The System Break is now undone.
- You can create and undo a Sytem or Page Break at any time, anywhere in your score, just by selecting the Barline and hitting Enter.
- That's simple enough.
Now, to the
Undesireable amount of bars at the end
- If you end up with three or two bars at the end of a leadsheet, these bars are often to wide and they don't look nice.
- Go with the pointer to the right side of the final barline.
- Place the pointer just next to the final barline, on the right side, along with the middle staffline.
- Now, click and hold the left mousebutton pressed. A small blue rectangle appears (as a sign that you can drag).
- Now, drag the rectangle (and with it all bars) to the left. You can drag the bars left and right until they have the right look in comparison with the other bars in the leadsheet.
- Hit Esc
- Done.
In the beginning you'll have to fiddle around with System Breaks and create and undo them several times until you get the desired look of your leadsheet. But after a while you'll develop "an eye" for it.
Changing from two staff sytem to one staff system
- What you have to do is to use the "Hide Empty Staves" tool.
- There are some things you'll have to look out for.
- First, create all music as it comes.
- When done, create System Breaks at the points where you will change the amount of staves in the system.
- Make sure that all the staves that you want to "disappear" are really empty: no text or other symbols attached to it and all rests are bar rests, not created rests.
- Now, tripple-click on the bass staff of your piano system.
- Go to Layout > Hide Empty Staves or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Alt+H
- All bass staffs that were empty are now hidden, with only the treble staff showing.
- If the result is not what you want, select the whole score or a passage and go to Layout > Show Empty Staves or use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S. Select the staff you want to reappear and click OK. The staff is now in view again.
If you want to change from 2 to 1 staff in the middle of a system then you enter a whole new area. Let me know if you want this too. It is possible and easy to do but kinda complicated to explain here.
Zap
# I am NOT a "Professional Sibelius Trainer"
# Please state the Chapter(s) of the Sibelius User Guide you already searched in order to solve your problem.
# Remember that this is not an official Sibelius website.
# Please state the Chapter(s) of the Sibelius User Guide you already searched in order to solve your problem.
# Remember that this is not an official Sibelius website.
Oops, I made an error in my previous answer and I think I should correct it:
- In the System Break part, I indicated several times to select "a bar". Of course, it should have read "a barline".
-Sorry for that.
More about specifying the number of bars in a system
- Normally, you choose the amount of bars in a system by using the System Break.
- After having created a System Break, Sibelius will automatically respace the system you just specified and also all bars and systems following that break. In order to do this, Sibelius follows a complex set of Note Spacing Rules. If you feel really brave, you can go to House Style > Note Spacing Rule and check out all the things you can adjust. However, I strongly suggest not to fiddle with these rules unless you are really sure what you are doing.
Normal
- In most cases you will want to have less bars in a system than Sibelius has spaced out without System Break.
- This is no problem: just create the Sytem Break and Sibelius does the rest.
More Bars, normal
- It you want more bars in a system than Sibelius has spaced out, try to create a System Break on the barline that you want to force back into the previous system.
- If Note Spacing Rules are not violated by this System Break, this will work fine. Otherwise, the System Break will spread all the bars over two systems.
More Bars, forced
- If for some reason you really really want a number of bars (greater than the normally spaced bars) to be forced into one system, select the whole passage and go to Layout > Format > Make into System ..., or use the shortcut Shift+Alt+M.
- All bars and music of that passage are now cramped into on system.
- Note that in this case, the Note Spacing Rules are violated and -certainly when Lyrics are involved- the result might not look that good.
- If the result is not okay, you can always Undo or -at a later stage- select the passage and go to Layout > Format > Unlock Format or use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+U.
So, although there is no method for specifying the amount of bars in a system that involves "typing a number in somekind of window", the above methods are sufficient to achieve any result you would desire.
Zap.
- In the System Break part, I indicated several times to select "a bar". Of course, it should have read "a barline".
-Sorry for that.
More about specifying the number of bars in a system
- Normally, you choose the amount of bars in a system by using the System Break.
- After having created a System Break, Sibelius will automatically respace the system you just specified and also all bars and systems following that break. In order to do this, Sibelius follows a complex set of Note Spacing Rules. If you feel really brave, you can go to House Style > Note Spacing Rule and check out all the things you can adjust. However, I strongly suggest not to fiddle with these rules unless you are really sure what you are doing.
Normal
- In most cases you will want to have less bars in a system than Sibelius has spaced out without System Break.
- This is no problem: just create the Sytem Break and Sibelius does the rest.
More Bars, normal
- It you want more bars in a system than Sibelius has spaced out, try to create a System Break on the barline that you want to force back into the previous system.
- If Note Spacing Rules are not violated by this System Break, this will work fine. Otherwise, the System Break will spread all the bars over two systems.
More Bars, forced
- If for some reason you really really want a number of bars (greater than the normally spaced bars) to be forced into one system, select the whole passage and go to Layout > Format > Make into System ..., or use the shortcut Shift+Alt+M.
- All bars and music of that passage are now cramped into on system.
- Note that in this case, the Note Spacing Rules are violated and -certainly when Lyrics are involved- the result might not look that good.
- If the result is not okay, you can always Undo or -at a later stage- select the passage and go to Layout > Format > Unlock Format or use the shortcut Ctrl+Shift+U.
So, although there is no method for specifying the amount of bars in a system that involves "typing a number in somekind of window", the above methods are sufficient to achieve any result you would desire.
Zap.
# I am NOT a "Professional Sibelius Trainer"
# Please state the Chapter(s) of the Sibelius User Guide you already searched in order to solve your problem.
# Remember that this is not an official Sibelius website.
# Please state the Chapter(s) of the Sibelius User Guide you already searched in order to solve your problem.
# Remember that this is not an official Sibelius website.
