Break stave every four bars

I’m new to Dorico and today have been driven to tears by trying the should-be simple operation of breaking the staff every four bars to make the music easier to read. I’ve tried ‘return’, ‘shift + return’, ‘ctrl+return’, ‘alt+return’… none of it works. I’ve searched the help site which tells me that ‘shift f’ but it doesn’t. I’ve also tried searching the forum. It doesn’t help that I am not sure what search terms I need - page break? Staff break? Please help!

Thank you!

Welcome to the forum, aisha. Please see here, and you might also find this video helpful.

I would add that you can ask here (or on the FB page) way before being upset about what you’re looking for :wink:

Thank you Daniel and Marc. My layout problem is now fixed! My next question is how to put a line under selected bars to indicate the introduction in a hymn arrangement, please?

Aisha, there is not yet native support for drawing lines in Dorico. I recommend adding what you need with the text tool, using an underscore character. You can also try the Arrow Crafter font. Then you can move it where you need it in Engrave mode.

If you want a bracket, you can fake it by creating a tuplet (using the semicolon) and hiding the number. You can then move the bracket around in Engrave mode. If a bracket is what you need, circle back around here and we’ll help you out!

Thank you Dan. The attached image shows what I want. I tried the text method before asking the question - I laboriously added it to each part in the score but it didn’t reproduce onto the individual parts. If Dorico doesn’t have this feature at the moment please add to the wish list.

Thanks again

Aisha
intro-marker.jpg

Brackets and lines are definitely on the list!

For this bracket, here’s the easiest way:

  1. Select both bars
  2. Tuplet tool (semicolon)
  3. Type “4:4” or 3:3, or whatever, just make sure the numbers are the same.
  4. Hide the number in the Properties panel (ctrl-8)
  5. Move it around in Engrave mode
  6. With the tuplet bracket selected, choose Edit—Propagate Properties.