IWBNI it were possible to respace the music in a partial measure region that has been selected, without affecting the spacing of the parts of measures that have not been selected.

As it is now, when a selected partial measure region is respaced by using the menu item Apply Beat Spacing, Apply Note Spacing, or Apply Time Signature Spacing on the MassEdit>Music Spacing submenu, the full measures that contain the selected region will be affected.

For example, consider the following 4/4 measure which has been spaced by using the following settings on the Music Spacing Options dialog box: Reference Duration = 1024, Reference Width = 111, Scaling Factor = 1.0:

Suppose one selects the mass mover tool and then selects the last two beats of this measure as shown in the following figure:

Next, suppose one changes the Scaling Factor on the Music Spacing Options dialog box from 1.0 to 2.0, and suppose one presses the key 4 which is the keyboard shortcut for the menu item Apply Note Spacing on the MassEdit>Music Spacing submenu. This will cause the entire measure to be respaced as shown in the following figure:

If the feature proposed in this suggestion were implemented, then the result in this case would be as shown in the following figure:

This feature would be useful, for example in the following situations:

• Spacing Music with a Lyric Syllable on the First Note of a Tied Group of Notes: In a piece with lyrics for which one has selected the option Avoid Collision of Lyrics on the Music Spacing Options dialog box, when there is a syllable attached to the first note of a tied pair of notes, one may wish to respace the first note so that the syllable is allowed to overlap the second note of the tied pair. With the feature proposed here, one could do this by selecting the partial region that contains only the first note of the tied group, temporarily deselecting Avoid Collision of Lyrics, and respacing the selected partial measure region.
  
  
• Indenting Music in the First Bar of a System: As mentioned in Suggestion 145 (Indenting Music in First Bar of System), it is possible to insert space at the beginning of a given measure by attaching an articulation that is a space character to the first note of the bar, positioning the articulation to the left of the first note, and then selecting the option Avoid Collision of Articulations on the Music Spacing Options dialog box. Other items listed in the Avoid Collision of section of the Music Spacing Options dialog box (e.g. Chords or Lyrics) may also be used for this purpose. With the feature proposed here, one could temporarily select the option Avoid Collision of Articulations (or Chords, or Lyrics, depending upon the type of object that is to be used for this purpose) and respace only the first beat of the measure.
  
  
• Changing the Spacing around a Mid-measure Clef: As mentioned in Suggestion 654 (Options to Specify the Space Before and After a Given Mid-measure Clef), as it is now, if the option Avoid Collision of Clefs is selected and music is respaced, all mid-measure clefs are positioned so that the minimum space before the clef and the space after the clef is equal to the value specified in the text box Minimum Distance Between Items on the Music Spacing Options dialog box. With the feature proposed here, one could increase the space around a mid-measure clef by temporarily changing the value for Minimum Distance Between Items and respacing only the beat in which the mid-measure clef occurs.