Moving individual staves/systems vertically

You can change the spacing of individual staves, including ossia staves, by changing the vertical position of individual staves and systems independently of your project-wide settings.

Important

We recommend that you add extra pages and finish laying out your pages before moving individual staves. Individual staff spacing changes are automatically deleted if the page on which they occur or the rhythmic position at the start of the system changes.

Procedure

  1. In the Engrave toolbox, activate Staff Spacing.
  2. Select one of the following on each staff/system you want to move vertically:

    • Staff spacing handle

    • System spacing handle

    Note

    • You can switch between having a staff or system spacing handle selected by pressing Tab.

    • When using the mouse, you can only move one staff/system at a time.

  3. Move the selected staves/systems in any of the following ways:

    • Press Alt-Up Arrow to move them upwards.

    • Press Alt-Down Arrow to move them downwards.

      Tip

      If you want to move handles by larger increments, you can press Ctrl/Cmd as well as the standard key command, for example, Ctrl/Cmd-Alt-Up Arrow.

    • Click and drag a single staff/system spacing handle upwards/downwards.

Result

The vertical position of the selected staves/systems is changed. The color of the handles changes to indicate that you have moved them.

Example

Figure: Staff spacing handles at their default positions

Figure: The second staff has been moved upwards