Layout and printing · Manual

Maestro lays out the score and the parts on its own, but you can adjust every choice by hand: paper format, systems and pages, distances between staves. This chapter also covers working with linked parts and printing or exporting to PDF.

Page View and Scroll View

You see the layout in Page View, which is what gets printed. View → Scroll View (⌘E, Ctrl+E on Windows) switches to the continuous view and back. Some features in this chapter (hiding empty staves, resizing individual systems) only work in Page View.

Page format

Document → Score Page Format… (on Windows File → Page Format…) and Document → Parts Page Format…, as in Finale. You can choose:

the paper: A3, A4, A5, B4, Letter, Legal, Tabloid or custom, with width and height;
portrait or landscape orientation;
the four margins in millimeters;
the staff height in millimeters: leave it empty for automatic, based on the number of staves.

Parts can have their own format or follow the score’s (Same as the score). The format applies to Page View, printing and PDF, and is saved in the document.

Automatic layout

Without any intervention, Maestro:

picks the staff height for the ensemble (about 7.3 mm for parts and piano, 5.5 mm for band and orchestra);
calculates the distances between staves and systems from the notes, lyrics and chord symbols that stick out;
spreads the systems over the full height of pages that are at least 60% full, like Finale’s vertical justification; emptier pages keep them at the top;
in ensemble scores where only one system would fit per page, shrinks the staff a little (down to 75%), like Finale’s Resize System, to fit two systems per page or save pages;
separates two systems on the same page with the system divider (//) in ensemble scores.

Choose how measure numbers appear in Page View, printing and PDF in the settings, Appearance section: at the start of each system, on every measure, every 5 or 10 measures, or none.

Manual layout

Select one or more measures and use Document → Layout, or the Layout palette tool at the bottom of the left palette:

Command	Mac	What it does
New System from This Measure	`⌥⌘↩`	Starts a new system at that measure (again to remove it)
New Page from This Measure	`⇧⌥⌘↩`	Starts a new page at that measure
Selected Measures in One System		Fits the chosen measures on a single system
Measures per System…		A fixed number of measures per system
Size of Selected Systems…		Shrinks or enlarges whole systems (40–200%), Page View only
Remove Breaks from Selected Measures		Removes manual system and page breaks
Automatic Layout		Removes all breaks, measures per system and system sizes

On Windows these commands have no shortcuts: use them from the menu or the palette. New system from here and New page from here are also checkboxes in the Inspector when a measure is selected.

The score and each part have their own layout. Breaks follow inserted and deleted measures and meter changes.

Scores opened from Finale

When you open a .musx file, Maestro imports systems and pages as Finale had them, along with the staff height, resized systems and fixed staff distances. If you prefer Maestro’s more compact layout, choose Document → Layout → Return to Maestro’s Layout: in one undoable step it removes systems, pages, sizes and fixed distances and sets the staff height back to automatic. Automatic Layout, instead, only removes the breaks and keeps the staff height.

Staff distances

With the Staff tool (⌘8), drag a staff up or down: its distance from the staff above changes on every system. While you drag, you see the staff in its new position and the distance (“+2 spaces”).

Drag with ⌥ (Alt on Windows) to change the distance in that system only.
From the staff menu: Distance from the Staff Above… (in staff spaces, negative too), Automatic Distance, All Distances Automatic, Distance in This System Only… and Automatic Distances in This System.

The distance is added to the automatic one, so staves never collide. A single-system adjustment belongs to the system that starts at that measure, as with Finale’s Page Layout tool.

Hide empty staves

Document → Layout → Hide Empty Staves, like Finale’s Optimize Staff Systems: in Page View, from the second system on, staves with only rests for the whole system aren’t shown, so more systems fit on a page.

The first system always shows every instrument.
Piano and harp are hidden only when both staves are silent.
A staff marked Always visible (in the Inspector) is never hidden: useful for the vocal line or the lead instrument.

The setting is saved with the score and can be undone with ⌘Z.

Linked parts

The same window shows either the score or one part: pick it from the pop-up menu at the bottom left, or use View → Next Part (⌥⌘]) and View → Previous Part (⌥⌘[). On Windows use View → Score or Part…, Next Part and Previous Part from the menu.

A part is a view of the score: whatever you write or edit in the part goes into the score and vice versa, so they always stay in sync. Each part has its own layout, the instrument name at the top, its transposition and multimeasure rests.

Extract parts

Document → Extract Parts… (⌥⌘P; from the menu on Windows) prepares one part per instrument (a braced piano stays together), transposed, with its name at the top and multimeasure rests. Choose the parts and what to do with them:

open them in new windows (Mac only);
export them to PDF, one file per part in a folder;
print them all in a single print job;
export them to MusicXML, one file per part.

For small notes before entrances, see cue notes.

Multimeasure rests

In parts, consecutive measures of rest become a single bar with the number of measures above it, broken by key and time changes, rehearsal marks and repeats. View → Multimeasure Rests (⇧⌘M; from the menu on Windows) turns them on or off in any score. A new score opens with multimeasure rests turned off.

Printing and PDF

File → Print… (⌘P, Ctrl+P on Windows) prints the Page View pages, fitted to the chosen paper and rotated if needed. On Windows a print preview appears first; its Print… button opens the print dialog with paper and orientation already set.
File → Page Setup… (Mac only) chooses the printer and paper.
File → Export PDF… (⇧⌘P; from the menu on Windows) saves the same pages as a PDF.

When a part is showing, you print and export that part. In print and PDF everything is black, including layers that are colored on screen. To collect several pieces in one PDF, see the setlist.