Measure layout

For information regarding the relative widths of the measures in a particular system, see To adjust measure widths in a system.

You can easily control the page layout of measures in PrintMusic so that measures remain locked in a particular system. This kind of control over measure layout is especially useful when you’re fine-tuning a piece’s layout—avoiding an awkward page turn, forcing a key change to fall at the beginning of a system, and so on.

Note that the measures you rearrange in the following instructions become locked into the arrangement you specify; they won’t be affected by future measure-rearranging commands like Update Layout.

To move a measure to the previous (or next) system

1. If you’re not in Page View, choose View > Page View.
2. Choose the Selection tool , and click the measure to be moved. If you want to move more than one measure to the next system—the last two on a line, for example—click the first measure of the group to be moved. If you want to move more than one measure to the previous system, click the last measure of the group to be moved.
3. Press the UP or DOWN ARROW key. If you press UP ARROW, the selected measure (and any that precede it in the system) moves to the previous system. If you press DOWN ARROW, the measure(s) move to the next system or are consolidated if you are editing the last 2 systems. In either case, PrintMusic then automatically adjusts the layout and locks the systems.

To force selected measures into one system

1. If you’re not in Page View, choose View > Page View.
2. Choose the Selection tool , and select the measures you want to lock into a single system.
3. Choose Utilities > Fit Measures. The Fit Measures dialog box appears.
4. Select Lock Selected Measures into One System and click OK. PrintMusic places the selected measures into a system by themselves and updates the layout.

To specify a number of measures per system

PrintMusic can automatically lay out a certain number of measures per system for you—either within a certain region, or for the entire piece.

1. If you’re not in Page View, choose View > Page View.
2. Choose the Selection tool , and select the range of measures for which you want to specify the number of measures per line. See Selecting music for some region-selecting shortcuts. If you want the same number of bars per line for the entire piece, choose Edit > Select All.
3. Choose Utilities > Fit Measures. The Fit Measures dialog box appears.
4. Enter the number of measures per system for this document.
5. Click OK (or press ENTER). A non-printing lock icon shows you which systems have become locked.

To remove system locks

This process will undo the procedures above, restoring all measures to “floating” status—in other words, their system affiliation may change as the page layout changes.

1. Choose the Selection tool , and select the music you want to unlock.
2. Choose Utilities > Unlock Systems.

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