System breaks

System breaks occur when musical material reaches the right page margin and must continue on a new system, usually below the previous system on the same page or on a new page. Dorico SE automatically arranges music across systems so that notes are correctly spaced and legible, but you can also control system breaks manually.

System breaks that you have inserted manually are indicated by signposts, which you can hide/show at any time. They are also layout-specific, meaning each layout can have system breaks at different rhythmic positions.

Figure 1. System break signpost, selected
Note
  • By default, system/frame breaks snap to the barline before the earliest selected item. You can change whether breaks are allowed at rhythmic positions within bars.

  • You can also control the content of systems by fixing the number of bars per system in each layout.

Video tutorial about system/frame breaks (English)