Look and layout · Design mode ‹ All chapters

Design mode

Fine-tune one system at a time, its margins, the space between its staves and the width of its bars, by dragging.

Available on iPad, iPhone and Mac.

Included with the unlock · What the unlock adds

Your device
Greensleeves on iPad with the Design tool, the first system selected and shaded, a ruler along its top with a mark for each beat and bar, handles at its left for the tempo, the rehearsal mark, the staff and the tab, and System 1 at the top right.
The first system selected with the Design tool, its ruler and handles.
On this page

Reflow lays the score out by itself. Design mode is for the last touches, where you want a system a little different: more room for a busy bar, a staff further from the one above, a line that ends where you want it. Every change is on one system, and the rest of the score keeps its layout.

The Design tool

The Design tool (the ruler) is the last one in the tool selector, in the first row of the input panel on iPhone, also in View › Tool › Design. Without the unlock, it opens the unlock instead.

Design mode works in the Page and Continuous Scroll layouts; in the Horizontal layout, a system can’t be selected.

Selecting a system

With the Design tool, tapclick a system to select it. A ruler shows along its top, with a mark for each beat and each barline, and handles show at its left, one for each staff and each lane above or below it (tempo, rehearsal marks, chord names, lyrics, dynamics…). Its name, System 1, shows at the top right of the score. TapClick outside it to put it down. One system is selected at a time; the others stay as they are.

What you can drag

  • The system’s edges: drag the top, bottom, left or right edge to move that side of the system on the page.
  • Between two staves: drag the handle in the middle, up or down, to change the space between them.
  • A staff’s or a lane’s handle, at the left: drag it to move that staff, or that lane of chord names, lyrics or dynamics, up or down.
  • A barline on the ruler: drag it sideways to make a bar wider or narrower.
  • A beat on the ruler: drag it sideways to give that beat more room, or less: room for a dense chord, or a gap closed up.
On iPad and iPhone, the handles take a larger touch than they show: start the drag on the handle or close to it.

Undoing and resetting

Each drag is one step to undo. TapClick the system’s name (System 1) for its settings:

  • Top, Bottom, Left and Right move its margins a step at a time, as dragging its edges does.
  • Apply to All gives every system of the score this one’s layout.
  • Reset puts the system back as Reflow lays it out by itself.
On the Mac, the ••• at the right end of the ruler has Reset to Defaults too.

What you change in Design mode is kept in the score’s file, and it shows the same in print, in a PDF and in an image.

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