Getting Started with QuickScore Elite

Formatting and spacing music

Tutorials  How To  Manual  MIDI and Audio

There are three basic ways to space music, which can be used in combination with each other.
The first is to use engraver spacing. Select Engraver Spacing from the Display Score dialog. When engraver spacing is used, notes are spaced by their appearance, not by their durations. With engraver spacing, a whole note will take up much less space than four groups of thirty-second notes. Engraver spacing does not affect the placement of bar lines or the number of bars in a line.

The next is to adjust the placement of bar lines and the number of bars in each line.

The simplest way to adjust the placement of bar lines and the number of bars in each line is to let QuickScore do the job. Choose the Space Music dialog from the Display menu, set the density you want (the number of 16th notes that would appear on a line at the density you have selected will be shown) and click on OK. The placement of bar lines and the number of bars in each line will be adjusted based on the density of music in each bar and each line. You can choose to only space bar lines or bars per line, and you can select a range of bars instead of your whole piece, but it is worth having QuickScore do everything, at least the first time.

The adjustment of bar lines can be done by hand using the spacing tool (on the far right in the tool bar). The number of bars in a line can be changed line by line by putting the cursor in the first bar of the line and selecting the Display Bar dialog and setting the Bars per Line value. You can also set the number of bars per line globally by setting it in the Display Score dialog.

Finally, you can move individual notes around without affecting their timing using the spacing tool. Use this technique to adjust the few notes that still aren't in the right place.