David,
I've found that in parts, I don't find optimized staff movement to be the best way to adjust things. Instead, I think it's better to change the vertical margins, as this is something you can do for a single system or a group of systems without effecting others.
I agree with you here completely. I prefer to play around with the Distance Between Systems and then use Jari's System Spacer to compensate for those systems where I desire an extra amount of spacing, eg. in a multi mouvement piece, the system with the movement changes, indent and increased distance. That way those added changes are not lost, and for pages that are "run of the mill" no changes, I prefer Finales system spacer, because I find frequently with Jari's plugin that I loose the last system and then have to take micromeasurements away from the Distance Between Systems.
The reason for that is that I find there are two competing layout problems, fitting music onto the page without crowding the top and bottom margins, and then also adjustments to individual staves to accommodate notes/expressions/etc. in extreme rangers. The ability to adjust multiple systems at one time in a quantifiable and systematic manner that isn't really available with positioning optimized systems.
My big concern here is a score that is for SATB and wind quintet. sometimes to accomodate the lower notes of the Alto voice, I am forced to first descend the lyrics for her, and then frequently add additional space for the tenor. All well and good until i decide to change something on the page and then once again go around trying to approximate the distances or else go into the STAFF/Staff Usage and recalculate, with intricate mathematical figurings the appropriate space that needs to be used.... possible, but sure as hell a lot of undesired extra work.
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