My top/bottom system margins are always zero and also the distance to the first staff is always zero, but of course that is a personal preference. I find that it provides the greatest flexibility in the work I do. I separate the systems using "Distance Between Systems". An incredibly useful tool for doing this is JW Space Systems, a free plugin.
I repeat the first sentence: I really am not sure what you are talking about. But it seems you may still be using page scaling instead of system scaling. Before ca. Fin01, the best practice for page layout was page scaling. But starting with whichever version it was, system scaling became much better practice. It does require a different way of thinking and working than before, however, and retrofitting older files is not recommended.
Better, how?
Precise margins on every page, irrespective of percent reduction. (In, e.g., orchestral scores, different systems/pages may have different reductions.)
Easier system layout on pages. (It is much easier to get the systems you want on a page, then use JW Space Systems to spread them out evenly.)
No need for fixed font sizes on page titles. (Pages are always 100%.) This allows you subsequently to scale a page up or down, for example, to print a miniature score.
But, perhaps you are already using system scaling. From your descriptions of what you are doing, I can't tell for certain. In any case, anyone who is wedded to page scaling may certainly continue to work that way.
David W. Fenton wrote:
On 15 May 2005 at 9:11, Robert Patterson wrote:
RegoR wrote:
Does anybody know if there is a way to revert back to <default> system spacing for a single staff on a single page that has been moved. When the staves are moved individually, I see nothing anywhere that indicates the height or distance moved, like for example one sees when one moves lyrics up and down to accomodate a low note.
The easiest way would be to turn off optimization and turn it back on
(using any of the several available methods.) This will revert to the
"default" (actually, Scroll View spacing) for sure.
Er, no, that does *not* revert to the default spacing -- it changes the formerly-optimized system's margins to replicate the same spacing it had when optimized and dragged.
If you do a lot with optimization, Tobias Giesen's Staff List Manager
plugin (part of TGTools) is absolutely indispensable. It displays and
allows you to edit the relative evpu spacing on each staff. It allows
you to add or remove staves individually. And, it allows you copy an
optimization on one system to any number of other systems.
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.
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.
-- Robert Patterson
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