Broken Systems

[raweber]

Any idea why Finale is doing this to me:


I locked the third system to spread out the notes in the fourth to keep them readable. When I don't lock any systems Finale displays normally. If I lock the last four measures to a system they stack on top of each other (illegible). If I stretch the two thick measures with the measure tool enough to spread them out, the last four measures also split as shown.

Any ideas?

[Peter Thomsen]

This issue is not a matter of measure width, but rather a matter of system formatting.

I would go to
Document menu > Page Format > Score…
and examine/edit the system settings there.

When creating new systems/pages Finale uses the settings in {Page Format for Score}.

In the attached image it looks like Finale has created the last four systems with a huge Right margin.
Obviously the Right margin in {Page Format for Score} should have been zero instead of a huge value.

If you - in {Page Format for Score} - change the Right margin value to zero, then the change will not affect already existing systems.

To update the existing systems with the new (corrected) margin value, use

Page Layout Tool.
Page Layout menu > Redefine Pages > All Pages of Current Part/Score

[michelp]

Besides Peter's explanation, which is important to understand, the Page Layout Tool can also provide a manual solution. The right handles of the shortened systems (select them all) can be dragged to the right margin.

[raweber]

Yeah, that's what it was doing. It didn't even occur to me to check the page layout, but when I locked the systems it was maintaining the same short system at the end that it had for a single measure. Not sure why it happened, but thanks for the tips!

[Peter Thomsen]

… when I locked the systems it was maintaining the same short system at the end that it had for a single measure. Not sure why it happened, but thanks for the tips!

The culprit is a program setting in the Page Layout menu:

Page Layout menu > Update Page Format for Score

When you created the short system at the end of the document, Finale updated Page Layout for Score, thus making the short system the default formatting when creating new systems.

I could be wrong here, but it might suit your workflow better if you leave “Update Page Format for Score” toggled off - except for the (rare) occasions when you need it toggled on.

NB:
“Update Page Format for Score” is a program specific setting, not a document specific setting!

[raweber]

Thanks for the tip, I will definitely do that!