Spacing Staves Equally...a mess

[wonder]

I still have yet to figure out how to automatically get equal spacing for my staves.

I will go to the Page Layout tool, and select 'Space Systems Evenly'.

I cannot get the staves to space equally. As you can see from the attachment...the left side of the staves ... they're obviously not equidistant from each other as one would expect from a "space staves equally" command.

I've been working with Finale for years and still have yet to figure out the proper way to format pages (margins, systems, staves, et al).

Can someone shed some light on this?


I, like all of you, work with homemade templates.

I have formatted my template to where it looks great. Then when I use that template and have to move some measures around to fit in a system, the formatting goes out the window!

Any help is appreciated.

Finale 25
Mac

[zuill]

First we need clarification. This looks like you only have one staff. I think you might be referring to spacing Systems. If that is the case, then we can proceed. It's not too hard to get a good look. Maybe post the file so we can be of specific help.

Zuill

[oldmkvi]

After Space Systems Equally, do Respace Staves, All, Do not change the number of staves.
Then it will pop into place.

[motet]

If you have changed the margins in some of the systems, that may be affecting your result. I believe "Space Systems Equally" puts an equal amount of space between the bottom margin of one system and the top margin of the next. If this is the case, you can use the Page Layout tool to reset the margins. (The top margin of the first system is special, so you might want to leave that one alone.

[Peter Thomsen]

If you have changed the margins in some of the systems, that may be affecting your result. I believe "Space Systems Equally" puts an equal amount of space between the bottom margin of one system and the top margin of the next. If this is the case, you can use the Page Layout tool to reset the margins. (The top margin of the first system is special, so you might want to leave that one alone.

You can set the desired (default) margin values for all systems - including the special margin values for the first system - in
Document menu > Page Format > Parts…

When you do so, you will not see any change in the already existing systems.
But all new systems will be formatted with the new default values.

To update already existing systems with the new default values, use
Page Layout menu > Redefine Pages > …

[wonder]

Yes...sorry, I must've meant "systems" versus "staves".

I'm attaching the finale file.

I'll try the above suggestions.

[wonder]

EDIT:

I did try the "respace staves" command ... but nothing moved/changed.

[motet]

In what you've attached, the staves already look evenly spaced. Your expressions could be better placed, though.

[zuill]

I am confused. The original picture and the attached Finale file are not the same piece of music. I think I need some clarification. This is a score, but the other looks like a part, and from another composition. Maybe you attached the wrong file.

Zuill

[wonder]

Almost all my charts aren't perfectly spaced ... I just had uploaded a random chart.

Heres the chart from where the first screenshot came from.

You'll see the bad staff spacing when you go to Page View and see the individual parts. (Concert, Guitar, Drums, et al.)

[wonder]

I think I'm starting to figure it out.

I'm finally able to spend some time learning the formatting and am getting the hang of it.

There's so many options that it takes a minute for me to wrap my head around how to do what I want to do but hopefully I'm on the right track.