Space between the bar line and the first note of the bar.

[TonyEastwood]

I'm a lazy composer and use the transposition tool very extensively/experimentally. Finale does a great job of chromatic transposition and often spaces the music a long way from the bar line in order to fit in an assortment of sharps or flats (i.e. for chords).

Unfortunately, If you transpose back to a key that then doesn't require so many accidentals then it often leaves a big gap between the bar line and the first note.

I only know two ways of removing this large gap – one is to use the "measure attributes" and enter a negative value for "extra space at the beginning". Another is to invoke the 'special tools' | 'note position tool'. The first method works for all the parts in the score – the second method allows one to adjust just one part.

However, it surprises me I have to use these quite slow methods. For some reason control-4 and control U formatting does not recover this magic missing space.

Is there some better way to reset the gap between the bar line and the first note at the distance required by the current set of accidentals?

[Bill Stevens]

If you use the Measure Tool > Measure > Show Measure Spacing Handles does that do what you want?

::: Bill

[Peter Thomsen]

… use the transposition … Finale does a great job of chromatic transposition and often spaces the music a long way from the bar line in order to fit in an assortment of sharps or flats (i.e. for chords).

Unfortunately, If you transpose back to a key that then doesn't require so many accidentals then it often leaves a big gap between the bar line and the first note … For some reason control-4 and control U formatting does not recover this magic missing space …

Unfortunately I am unable to reproduce your problem.

As a test I entered (in the key of C Major) a chord with the notes D - F - A - C.
Then, I transposed the chord up by a minor second, and got the notes Eb - Gb - Bb - Db.
The layout was fine after I applied Music Spacing, and Update Layout.

Then, I transposed the chord back down by a minor second, and got D - F - A - C.
And there was a big gap where the note accidentals had been.
But the layout was fine after I applied Music Spacing, and Update Layout.

What is your setting in
Document Options - Music Spacing > Manual Positioning
?

Try e. g. {Clear}.

[TonyEastwood]

Thank you for your helpful replies

Apologies for not replying sooner, I'd inadvertently not ticked the box that would notify me of your replies.

For "Document Options - Music Spacing > Manual Positioning" I have "Ignore" - as I have made many manual note and accidental position adjustments, pressing "clear" just right now may be the disastrous. (I can try it one the next piece) This is the "'curse' of guitar music" - there's just far too much packed on to one stave, including fingerings; and just to make it worse guitarists can't turn pages easily. There's a define advantage in "packing it on" the page horizontally . You should see what a fugal passage looks like!

The issue I see is revealed by the "Show Measure Spacing Handle" - I can now see that for some bars there is surprisingly large gap between the bar line and the 'measure spacing handle' that defines the start position of the first note. It appears to vary.

(I may have been incorrect in thinking that repeated transposition had caused this issue, it may be something else, by the time I think a bar is complete its probably gone through 20-50 revisions (many of which are individual layer moves, copy, pastes etc).

I can see I can drag the Measure Spacing Handles about - but is there somewhere I can simply reset all the gaps between the first note and the bar line to some consistent (small) value?

Thanks again for you invaluable help.

Tony

[TonyEastwood]

This is what I see. It seems inconsistent (screen shot a bit muzzy but the Extra Space at Beginning and Extra Space at End are both zero.

Finale Help says

Show Measure Spacing Handles. Choose this option to display the measure spacing handles on each measure. With these two handles (on the bottom staff line) you can control the space between the left barline and the first note in the measure and the space between the last note in the measure and the right barline. These values are represented in the Measure Attributes dialog box under Extra Space at Beginning and Extra Space at End.

[N Grossingink]

The "Measure Spacing Handles" are not what you want, I think. The "space at beginning of measure" is controlled by 2 different settings - Document Options/Accidentals/Adjustment at Start of Measure and Document Options/Notes and Rests/Spacing Before Music. I'd suggest as a starter to set Accidentals/Adjustment at Start of Measure to minus 1/2 space - type in [-.5s] and hit return. That will snug up the spacing between the barline and accidental.

As far as the gap on the bass staff, nothing can or should be done because the note is vertically aligned with the chord above in the treble staff.

[motet]

The extra gap is probably due to the accidentals.

[N Grossingink]

The extra gap is probably due to the accidentals.

That's sort of what I said and offered a possible solution in my reply.

[motet]

Sorry--yes, you did.

Concerns about spacing of individual staves in a score seems like a common beginner mistake.

[TonyEastwood]

RE: "space at beginning of measure" is controlled by 2 different settings.

Ah - that's exactly what I didn't realize. I only knew of one of them. So now with my increased understanding I can now solve the problem.

Many thanks