How to make the last staff shorter?

[Little-Acorn]

Finale version 2011
Windows machine

When writing out a piece, the last staff often winds up only two or three measures long, as opposed to the rest that have anywhere from six to ten measures in each staff.

I've used the utility that moves a measure (or selection of measures) to the previous system or the next system. But sometimes it's better to just leave the last two or three measures alone, and let them become the last line.

When I do, the system stretches those last few measures out to make them fill a full-length staff, from the left side of the page to the right.

I'm sure there's a way in Finale to make that last staff only half as long, or a third as long (as required) than the rest of the staves, so that the few measure in it are of "normal" length. But I'm damned if I can find it in the Help section.

Any hints?

[Peter Thomsen]

In “Finale-speak” there is a difference between the words ‘staff’ and ‘system’.

A staff goes horizontally through all the measures in the entire document.
If you switch to Scroll View, you will get the idea.
If you, in Scroll View, see only one staff, then the document is a one-staff document.

A system is one horizontal line of measures, in Page View.
You can not see systems in Scroll View.

What you (in your description) call ‘staff’, is - in “Finale-speak” - a system in a one-staff document.


Solution:

Page Layout Tool.
Margins appear on all systems.
Click inside the margins on the last system, to select it.
Page Layout menu > Systems > Edit Margins…
(or work smarter by getting there via the context menu)
Change the Right Margin value from zero to something bigger, to move the right end of the system.

Tip:
Before you begin, change the program’s Measurement Units to something small, like Points or EVPUs.
This step will make the layout values big numbers (mainly integers) which are easier to work with than the small values you get with the default Inches.


There is also a “quick-and-dirty” (less precise) solution:

Page Layout Tool.
Margins and handles appear on all systems.
Drag a system handle to adjust the system margins.
Drag a system to move it.

[miker]

I've never used anything but the "quick and dirty" method. Keep in mind, though, that most publishers would frown on that solution, and would prefer that you juggle some measures to fill (or eliminate) that last system.

[Little-Acorn]

Thank you! Great information!

The "quick and dirty" method sounds good enough to me.

[scorn]

thank you too , i wast just wondering how to shorten one staff , finale made a staff too big in my score
regards