System margin too large now

[cornopean]

Some years ago I composed a clarinet quintet which I am converting into an organ piece. I started by imploding staves 2, 3,& 4 onto one stave before deciding how to redistribute the notes. I added organ staves from the Wizard then copied Stave 1 to the RH of the organ, the combined new stave to the LH organ and the bass clarinet to the pedals. I then deleted the wind parts, thinking I could respace the staves and system.

Unfortunately the upper system margin is huge and refuses to be adjusted in Page Layout. I have tried varous methods such as respacing the staves (are they locked?). Trial and error allowed me to fix 2 systems by going to Page View and dragging the top stave upwards. I thought - as I'd fixed it in Scroll view I might be able to use Respace > Use scroll view settings, but no.

Is there a way to do this in one move?

The attached 'score' is what I have - minus all the notes which I didn't want to publish here. As you see from my sig, I am still on F2011: I am on Windows 10 and will change my sig in a moment.

I suppose the answer is simple if one uses Finale regularly which I used to do years ago.

Thank you.

[Peter Thomsen]

You are trying to customize the overall Page Format settings which will be used everywhere in the document, right?

You tell that you are “still on” Finale 2011.
The following instructions are for Finale v26.
Finale 2011 may be different.

1) Go to
Document menu > Page Format > Score…
and set the formatting as you need it.
When you have done so, you will not see any immediate change in the layout.

2) Switch to the Page Layout Tool, and go to
Page Layout menu > Redefine Pages > All Pages of Current Part/Score
Now the entire score is formatted according to the settings in Page Format for Score.

It may take some “trial-and-error” with 1) and 2) before you get, what you need.
But when you are done, you can trust that all new pages/system created later will be formatted with the same settings.

[motet]

There's something wrong with the file. I tried Redefine Pages in Finale 2011 and it didn't fix it. Here you can see that the it says the top margin is 70e, which doesn't correspond to the picture.

You might have luck creating a new file, and then copying your music into it.

[cornopean]

Thank you for looking. I shall try both methods. Looks as if I should upgrade but have to watch the pennies.

[motet]

I don't think upgrading will solve this particular problem. The file seems corrupted, as I said. I tried opening it in Finale 2014 and that didn't fix it.

[Peter Thomsen]

I was able to fix this Finale document in Finale v26.

The staves are numbered 6 - 7 - 8.

My guess is that the five staves 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 originally were above Staff 6.
When they were deleted, Staff 6 was for some reason not re-positioned, at least not in the systems after System 2.

I went through the systems one by one, and used the Staff menu item Staff Usage to set Staff 6 at zero position.

After I had done so, everything worked, and I could format the pages.

See the attached Finale document (exported in Finale 2012 format).

staveproblem.mus

[motet]

Aha!

[cornopean]

Peter, that methods works fine in F2011. You are a star. Many thanks.

[I was only suggesting I upgrade as things will have moved on; not as a solution to this problem.]