horizontal shift of note column - hardly works!

[Tom Cloyd]

I need help with this construction: \once \override NoteColumn 
#'force-hshift = #{doesn't matter what you put here 'cause it rarely 
works anyway}

My ly code problem demo snippet is here: http://pastie.org/8433947

After two hours of futility tonight, and a review of my previous go 
around with this problem, I still can't figure this out. Never really 
understood "the fix", although I did get it work, once.

- the previous problem: 
http://lilypond.1069038.n5.nabble.com/horizontal-shift-of-note-column-not-working-td15374.html

- the fix: 
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/lilypond-user/2010-04/msg00030.html

Am I the only one who ever needs to shift notes horizontally to clean up 
a score? Seem hard to believe. But it doesn't work reliably, and the 
documentation is minimal at best.

In the code snippet, in the bass voice, measures 2, 3, & 4 there is no 
column collision. Then suddenly in m. 5 - BAM. But it's fixable (and 
fixed, in the code). An attempt to fix the collision by moving the alto 
voice in the same measure failed. Why?

Measure 7 bass and alto voices won't budge, period. Am baffled by this.

Beat 1 of measures 8, 9 have the same problem (as does much of my score).

There appears to be NO other way to move notes out of vertical 
collisions. With this barely working, what do people do?

Thanks for any help!

--

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Tom Cloyd
Cedar City / St. George, Utah, U.S.A: (435) 272-3332
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