In this video, I'll demonstrate how you can adjust the global setting for
the spaces between systems in a score using engraving rules.
To open engraving rules,
go to the "Appearance" tab.
In the "House Style" area,
click on "Engraving Rules."
There are a variety of areas that you can adjust in Engraving Rules.
For staff adjustments, click on "Staves."
Since this score has lyrics and chords,
we're going to add more spaces between the systems.
Set it to 14.50 spaces.
A space in Sibelius is the size between two lines on a staff.
Notice that spaces between staves is also an option.
However, in this example,
this has no effect as there's only one staff in the score.
If this were a multi-staff score,
then we would also want to adjust the spacing between the staves.
Click "Okay" to close the window.
You can also adjust this number by clicking on the "Layout" icon,
and in staff spacing,
the same numbers that we adjusted are here for systems and staves.
You can also make an adjustment here.
The advantage of doing it here is you see the effect on
the score as you are making the adjustments.
I also like to change the justify percentage.
Going back to the engraving rules via the "Appearance" tab,
you'll see there is an option to set the justification of staves.
The default is 65 percent.
I like to change this to a higher number,
such as 90 or 95 percent full.
Let me demonstrate why.
With the setting at 65 percent,
if you add bars to the score,
when the score gets more than 65 percent full,
Sibelius will add space and spread them out or justify them on the page.
I'm using this shortcut to add bars to the end of the score;
Ctrl B on Windows,
Command B on Mac.
Notice that when I add the first bar,
it adds a system and the page spreads out.
I'd rather control this myself.
In the Engraving Rules,
Justify area, I'm changing it to 95 percent.
When I click "Okay," watch how it affects the score.
That spreading out is not there,
and now, I can control it manually.
I'm going to add more bars,
and you'll see as I add systems,
it does not spread out until the page is 95 percent full.
Sibelius does allow you to make manual adjustments to the score.
If you were to drag a staff,
that will override the settings in engraving rules.
If you make an adjustment to the spaces,
the area that you dragged will not be effected.
You can remove manual adjustments by selecting some or all of the piece.
I am clicking in this bar and Shift clicking in the last bar to select a group of bars,
and then go to "Layout" and click "Reset space above" staves.
I also check below as well.
Now, the score is back to the default settings that are in engraving rules,
which can also be set in the Layout tab.