Lillie -
I have taken a look at your outstanding "thread 2 “Patterns” example project and I see that the token{@flowotherinfo@} is the token you used for the large “category” heading. As I read through the Dorico Tokens list it says: “Flow tokens display the corresponding entry for the nearest flow below the top edge of the token’s text frame”.
So it appears that you have used the “Other Info” Setup field to associate text with the first flow in each Pattern. I see the other flows (apart from 1, 10, 20 have no {@flowotherinfo@} information which thus allows you to “name” the pattern by actually associating text with the first flow below the text frame where {@flowwotherinfo@} is located?
Awesome. I will see if I can figure out a way to do this with my exercises. I’ll review page template export/import procedures.
Flow numbers: the flow number token displays the corresponding flow’s number in the order of flows in the project. It doesn’t matter whether a flow was previously later in the list, or earlier, or whatever. If it’s currently the first flow in the project, it’ll be Flow 1 in the numbering sequence. That’s the rule.
(Your alternative option is to include explicit numbers in flow titles, and display flow titles in your flow headings. However, that of course will not update automatically if you re-order flows.)
Music overlapping flow heading: this is because Dorico measures the gap between the bottom of the flow heading and the top staff line. This keeps the gaps consistent, but doesn’t account for notations that extend significantly above the staff.
Flow headings, as stated in the manual, exist inside music frames. Therefore, if you move the music frame, the flow heading will move with it. Similarly, flow headings are positioned above the top system in the flow. If you raise/lower the top system, the flow heading will move.
The way to change the gap between flow headings and the music is to change the flow heading bottom margin. You can change this for all flow headings in the layout, or just on individual pages. Once again, here is the page in the manual that explains margins in Dorico, and gives you directions for how you can change them.
(Going forwards Manny, it would be very helpful if you could take the time to read the responses and references people give to you before posting follow-up questions. I have now shared links to the same pages in the manual up to 3 times in this thread.)
I know I must sound dense, Lillie, but I assure you have already done the “Firt steps” exercise and watched all of the videos on Layouts, Note input and (I believe) Engrave mode. But sometimes it seems I have to “know everything before I can do anything”.
I have found the documentation on creating a new custom Flow heading. (Which was assumed in the provided link).
However…
The link provided :
does not explain how to change the top and bottom margin of a custom Flow header. It simply points to Layout options and does not discuss individual pages as far as I can see. Can you please point me to the documentation that limits bottom margin changes to a single custom Flow heading?
Thank you for your reply.
I finally blundered my way into the margin dialog ib the Insert Flow Heading change dialogue. I can’t understand why the dialog exists here in “insert flow heading change” since the main settings for top and bottom margins are in layoput options, but thank you for pointing the way.
It belongs there because “insert a flow heading change” is making a change to the project default. This allows you to set different margins for the header of each flow (or at least the flows on a particular page). The settings in layout options are the project global defaults.
You will see this principle all over Dorico. There is a place to set a project default (usually in ‘options’), and somewhere else to change that default for a specific instance.
If the manual has prerequisites for creating custom “anything”, you can consider that optional if you don’t need to use a customized version of that thing. It’s simply there to clarify that if someone wants to insert a flow heading change because they want to use a different flow heading template on a particular page, that template must exist already – you can’t create it as part of the “apply to page” process.
You can trust that if I’ve given you a direct link to a page, it’s just that page that you need
As it happens, step 7 on the page about inserting flow heading changes tells you that you can, if you like, change the margins above and below flow headings.
The limitations of “inserting flow heading changes” are in the introductory sentence, and in the result: you can apply flow heading changes to individual pages, or from all pages from a selected page onwards. If you have multiple flow headings appearing on that page, they all pick up the flow heading changes – you can’t single out one flow heading on a page, unfortunately.
On a note of encouragement: you don’t need to “know everything” before “doing anything”, although I appreciate how in some of the more detailed areas of Dorico, it might feel like that the first time you work with a particular feature. Keep going, you’ll get there!
I am trying to apply two streams of wisdom (badly) at the same time. Stream 1: watch the tutorials, read the manual, Stream 2 “just get your hands dirty and try it”. Thus creating a lot of annoyance for all. But I appreciate the incredible wisdom of Lillie and the rest of very wise forum members.
This set of exercises is becoming “1 step forward 2 steps back” and I am getting more and more lost in the ontology of this app.
A day or 2 ago I created a flow heading change for Exercise 5 to get out of the way of high octaves, but it does not seem to be applied any longer. How do I apply it and make it stick? Why did it go away?
Also, in general, to properly select the page(???) flow(???) I am working on, what guide do I have to make sure I am about to apply a flow heading properly? Do I need to have the flow selected in Setu? Or a specific page on the rght-hand panel?
I don’t know what page I am working on because page numbers are disappearing. I attempted to apply the default page template to everything but it is not working. I see no page numbers on many of the pages. Is that because I am working in different flows? If so could someone please list (1, 2, 3) steps to:
a) Fully understand what page I am working on if page numbers ar enot visible
b) Understand how to determine which templates (page and flow heading) are assigned to a given page (I do not see any way of learning this)
b) explain whether I need to be working on a page or a flow, because I do not know whether pages alone guarantee if I am applying page templates correctly.
b) Explain how to make sure I am assigning the default template no matter what flow I am working on
c) I am worried that the flow header changed because the page number will change as I re-order the exercises. Should I be worried bout this?
PPS
When I change the flow order, the flow header changes are nullified, so it looks like flow headers do not “remember” where they have been assigned. They appear to be wedded to absolute page numebrs. I guessing that I should wait till the music input and exercise order is finalized before I make flow heading changes?
when you insert your Flow Heading change, add some bottom padding - it’s probably not necessary to make a new header. just use the default and add the padding
In the right panel in Engrave mode, you should see the page template and presumably also flow heading template, if applicable, used for any given page highlighted in the corresponding section - this happens when you’ve selected a page in the Pages section of that panel.
“when you insert your Flow Heading change, add some bottom padding - it’s probably not necessary to make a new header. just use the default and add the padding”
“when you insert your Flow Heading change” what does thi apply to? Sorry, lost the train of thought.
I successfuly did create a custom flow heading and I do see page numbers on the page with that heading. Not clear what this instruction is aimed at. Is it a page number issue? I think you are instructing me how to raise up the flow heading? I dunno…I did it a couple of days ago and, as in some actions, you don’t do them often so you forget what you did.
“i believe Flow heading changes are page dependant, so definitely wait until the order is finalized”
Yes, I found that out when my flow heading changes disappeared when I re-ordered.
