Balancing Original Gravity and Est ABV

I have brewed many batches with the assistance of BeerSmith. Most have been All Grain "Ordinary Bitter" style.

One thing I try to do is get the OG, Bitterness, Color, and ABV sliders in the middle of their range -- attempting to be true to the style. However, I consistently find that if I adjust the ABV to the middle of the range, the OG is high. If I aim for a middle-range OG, the ABV is low.

Any suggestions for how to modify the recipe to bring both OG and ABV sliders to the middle of their range?

Attached are a couple of screen shots showing the Style Guide Comparison and the ingredients list.

There is absolutely no reason to adhere to the BJCP guidelines unless you're brewing for competitions. Even then formulating a recipe that hits the middle of the various ranges probably isn't going to get you a higher score. Beyond that, you are limiting the possibilities of brewing beers that are much tastier to both you and others that you share with.

Suppose you brew a beer as you describe and decide you would like it more if it were hoppier, crisper or sweeter. If you make adjustments to achieve any of these goals, where are your sliders now? A guideline is a guideline. It is not a law chiseled in stone.

As BOB357 stated, there is no reason you MUST stay within the style guidelines.  Further, any result that fits within the range for a given style IS meeting the style guidelines.  You do not need to be dead center to match style.  If you look at the AHA competition winners you will see how much they push the limits of their given style.

With your example, you can adjust the balance of malts to get your color dead center, the amount of malts to get the OG centered, and the hops to get your bitterness where you target it.  To get the FG target centered you need to adjust the mash temperature to achieve the right fermentability of your wort or the yeast strain to alter the attentuation.  That said, the FG target has many factors which affect the actual outcome, so don't sweat missing that in the end.

As Oginme suggested, dropping the mash temperature a degree or so moved the ABV slider to the middle.

I completely agree that the style guidelines are merely a guide. My question was really about how to control one of the variables in the brewing process, and thus become a more proficient brewer.

Thanks for helping!