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Page layout

Many instructions for setting the page layout for your documents appear under their own entries. See, for example, Document Options-Music Spacing; Distances; Margins; Page size; Measure layout; and To change the widths of many measures. For instructions on arranging measures within the score (setting the number of measures per line, for example, or moving a measure to another system), see Measure layout. For details on printing large scores that require taping several laser printed pages together into composite pages, see Tiling pages for printing.

Note: See Working with staves and systems for a step-by-step tutorial overview of page layout.

The initial layout of any document’s pages is determined by the settings in the Page Format for Score dialog box (from the Document menu, choose Page Format, and then Score). In this dialog box, you can specify dozens of page layout measurements (see Distances ). Changes you make to the page layout in the Page Format for Score dialog box, however, don’t immediately affect existing pages—only pages yet to be created. If you want the changes applied to existing pages as well, choose Redefine Pages > All Pages from the Page Layout menu (which appears only when the Page Layout tool is selected).

An easier way to make formatting changes, however, is to use the Page Layout tool. See To change the page layout, below.

A common use of Finale’s page layout tools is to specify how much music should fit on a page—how many measures per line, for example, or how many systems on a page. It’s important to realize that there are four elements affecting the amount of music on a page. First, look at the distance between staves in each system; if you decrease the total height of the system (by clicking the Staff tool and dragging the staves closer to each other), more systems fit on the page.

Second, you can adjust the distance between systems. If you’re trying to fit another system onto a page, the simplest solution is to slightly decrease the space between all systems, so that the cumulative effect is to create just enough room for another system on each page (see To change the distance between systems, below). You can also specify the number of systems on a page by using the Space Systems Evenly command (see To specify a number of systems on each page). The third factor affecting the amount of music that fits on the page is the amount of reduction you’ve applied to the music on a page—you may find that a reduction of even a percentage point or two is just enough to fit another measure per line, or another system per page (see Reducing/Enlarging). Finally, don’t forget that you control the “tightness” of the spacing of the music itself, with the Music Spacing command in conjunction with a Spacing Width Library (see Document Options-Music Spacing). The tighter the music, the more measures will fit on a line, and hence the more music will fit on the page.