Understanding page resize and staff height

[dankreider]

I've been trying to better understand staff size, rastral numbers, and Finale settings. I've been really helped by Robert Puff's post (http://www.rpmseattle.com/of_note/under ... in-finale/) and Peter Thomsen's comment (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10452).

I'm just wanting to make sure I understand page rescaling correctly. If my staff height is set to 20.5 points, and Scale System is set to 100%, and if I scale page to 80%, am I correct in assuming that gives me a staff height that's 80% of 20.5? So... 16.4 points, or 0.23 inches tall?

Thanks in advance! Maybe a dumb question but I just want to make sure.

PS: Oh also, can't tell you how many times I tried changing settings in the "Page Format for Score" dialog box but couldn't understand why it didn't look any different... until I found the "Redefine Pages" command. LOL.

PPS: I'm also feeling, rather belatedly, that my "scale page to 80%" is a bad way to do it. It was a result of trial-and-error to find what I liked when starting to typeset a hymnal, but three years later, all 328 Finale files have the same settings. Do others of you stick to 100% page scaling as a general rule, and change other things as needed?

[BuonTempi]

I'm just wanting to make sure I understand page rescaling correctly. If my staff height is set to 20.5 points, and Scale System is set to 100%, and if I scale page to 80%, am I correct in assuming that gives me a staff height that's 80% of 20.5? So... 16.4 points, or 0.23 inches tall?

Do others of you stick to 100% page scaling as a general rule, and change other things as needed?

Yes, your calculations are right. As a rule, I keep Page at 100%, system scaling at 100%, and just set the Staff Height. It's very easy to get confused if you have two or more of these things altered. (E.g. Text objects on the page will reduce to the Page Scaling; Text objects attached to the Staff will scale to the staff - unless you use Fixed Point Size....!)

[Peter Thomsen]

… It's very easy to get confused if you have two or more of these things altered …

Amen to that.
I recall an attached Finale document where the (un-experienced) forum user had used all 3 scalings: Page Scaling, System Scaling, and Staff Scaling.
The layout was, ehm, quite a mess.

[David Ward]

… … As a rule, I keep Page at 100%, system scaling at 100%, and just set the Staff Height. It's very easy to get confused if you have two or more of these things altered. (E.g. Text objects on the page will reduce to the Page Scaling; Text objects attached to the Staff will scale to the staff - unless you use Fixed Point Size....!)

I tend to reduce the system size rather than stave height in larger full scores, but use fixed point fonts for tempo marks &c. This seems to make it easier if the occasional system needs to be a little smaller than the others (eg with multiple divisi etc). Even in scores whose systems have a modest number of staves (or indeed in a part) I have encountered a whole page worth of systems where a system reduction from, say, 100% to 97% for just that page has solved uncomfortable crowding without the need to rethink the page layout.

However, I wouldn't consider myself a true expert and may be taking a less than ideal approach.