staff spacing

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grantcahoon
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2021 4:53 am
Sibelius Version: Ultimate
Operating System: Mac

Post by grantcahoon » Sun Dec 04, 2022 9:47 pm

Sometimes when I print music, the bottom staff of the bottom system is cut off. To fix this, I try to move the bottom system up just a bit. The manual explains that I am supposed to be able to do this manually by (1) selecting the staff (2) shift click and drag the staff where I want it. When using a two staff system, as in printing a flute duet with each part on a different staff, there is a point when the top staff of the two staff system will not move any further. Is there a way to bypass this and move the staff exactly where I want it? I have tried turning off the magnetic control, but it still won't move where I want it to. Why won't it let me move the staff higher on the page so the printer doesn't cut off the bottom notes. I would rather not change the margins to do it, surely there is another way!


andyg
Posts: 1727
Joined: Tue Feb 14, 2006 8:55 pm
Sibelius Version: 7.1.3 and 6.2
Operating System: Windows

Post by andyg » Mon Dec 05, 2022 11:22 pm

You adjust the setting where Sibelius automatically spaces the staves evenly. Set it to 100%.

But the obvious solution would be to adjust the margins so that they lie within what your printer can cope with. Or maybe it's a printer or Mac OS issue?

MikeLyons
Posts: 1631
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:20 pm
Sibelius Version: Ult. 2024.3.1/7.5
Operating System: Windows

Post by MikeLyons » Tue Dec 06, 2022 2:45 pm

In Sibelius you have two sets of margins - a page margin (4 sides) and staff margins (top + bottom).

Adjust the page margins to what your printer can cope with and then make space for the bottom staff by increasing the bottom staff margin.

Change the justify page when x% setting to 85 or 90%. This will give both you and sibelius some wriggle room when laying out your pages.
Sib 6.2, 7.5 and 2023.6, Windows 11, 32GB RAM, 16TB 7200RPM Storage, 2TB SSD, Note Performer 3.3.2, EWQLSO, EWQLSC, Harmony Assistant and some others. mike@mike-lyons.co.uk

grantcahoon
Posts: 31
Joined: Wed Feb 17, 2021 4:53 am
Sibelius Version: Ultimate
Operating System: Mac

Post by grantcahoon » Wed Dec 07, 2022 10:42 pm

Thanks for the suggestions. Is there a way to change a setting so that the top staff of a two staff system, when appearing at the bottom of the page, can be moved at will, rather than being allowed to move only to a certain spot? I want to move it higher, but it won'tlet me move it higher. Also, where do you change the "justify page setting" to 100%. I see where to change the margin in Sibelius under "Layout" which allows you to choose standard, narrow, wide or mirror margins,(which I assume are page margins) but where do you change the staff margins?

KJ_Palmer
Posts: 388
Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2011 6:22 am
Sibelius Version: 6.2, 7.5
Operating System: Windows

Post by KJ_Palmer » Thu Dec 08, 2022 12:02 pm

The "justify page when..." setting bit is in Appearance > Engraving rules > Justify staves when page is at least xx% full.
You should then find you have more room at the bottom of the page to move things around a bit.

To move system staffs up/down I find it quickest to select any bar in the lower system staff (so it turns light blue) and drag that so the top staff moves relative to the lower. If you drag the top staff it will move the whole system.

Side note: You may also want to play with the number of spaces between staves and system. There's no hard and fast rule, just experiment. I find that 5 and 7 (respectively) usually works best. Also try optimising and reset note spacing from time to time on all or part of the score. This can fix spacing problems if you've been tweaking things a lot. There are many other settings, e.g. Staff size, text size and so on that affect the balance of the score layout. I like to get to a state where optimising doesn't (signifcantly) change the overall look of the score after my adjustments.
Sibelius 6.2, 7.5.1, Windows 11

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