[dj]

Hi,

The idea behind the page layout mechanism was to have Composer lay things out the way it thinks they best fit the page, then allow the user to move things as they wish to satisfy their need.

One good starting point is to re-set your format to the default (Layout/Page Layout/Def). This should set your pages to roughly the same, give or take a couple of bars.

You can move staves and bars from one page to another with the tools in the Page Layout toolbar. You can also manually set the number of bars displayed, not just per page, but per staff, using "Specify number of bars per line tool (bpl)". And, finally, you can move staves up or down on the page (and whole pages of staves) using "Move barlines and staves in select mode (enter)" and dragging the boxes that appear. That screen also lets you (in a limited way) drag individual barlines across the staff, to space measures out.

It's not a fully automatic procedure, but then musical notation is so different from bar to bar that it's hard for a program to outguess the composer.

Good luck.

David