Can I quickly select and delete multiple bar lines?

Dorico
#1

For reasons that I don’t quite understand, deleting a bar line signpost doesn’t actually delete the bar line (it doesn’t do anything, in fact, except for de-select anything). You have to click directly on the bar line to delete it.

So, I’m looking for a quick way to delete multiple bar lines. “Select more” works on the bar line sign posts, but delete doesn’t do anything as mentioned above. “Select more” on a bar line selects the other sign posts, but not the bar lines, so only the first selected bar line gets deleted.

Is there a fast way to select and delete multiple bar lines? Or are my options click-delete-click-delete / click-cmd click-cmd click-delete?

#2

Why do you want to delete barlines? What are you trying to achieve? Wouldn’t it be easier to assign the correct meter (or free meter) to the bars you have?

#3

This!

#4

I inserted bar lines. Now I want to delete them.

#5

Just replace the time signature with an open meter, and they’ll disappear.

#6

We may be misunderstanding each other. I’m not talking about the automatically inserted bar lines that result from a time signature.

I inserted a bar line, using the bar popover. Now there’s a bar line, with a red X signpost above it. If I click directly on the bar line, I can press delete to delete it along with the signpost.

What I don’t know how to do is quickly select several of these manually-created bar lines. “Select more” selects signposts but not bar lines, and deleting a signpost doesn’t do anything. There’s no filter for bar lines that I can see. So, I have to click each bar line one at a time to select them for deletion.

#7

Ah, I did indeed misunderstand you. I’m afraid I don’t know of a faster way, sorry!

#8

I suppose you could add a bazillion beats into the first measure using Shift-B, 50q or whatever… then select the notes and cut-paste them into the gigantic measure you’ve created. Finally, shift-B, -100 to delete the now-empty measures at the end.

A bit strange, but it should work. That’s the best I’ve got…

#9

You can advance to the next barline by pressing Tab. You could record a macro script that advances one barline at a time and then deletes it.

However: I’ve never manually inserted a barline. I’m sure there’s an easier way of doing whatever it is you’re trying to do. If we could see a project or screenshot, we may be able to suggest an easier way of getting your end result.

#10

There are scores where bar lines don’t follow any pattern at all, and the easiest way to engrave them seems have an open time signature and just insert them where they happen to be.

In fact you could argue that regular bar lines and time signatures were just a “temporary musical fashion” that lasted from about 1600 and 1900 - irregular barring was pretty common both before and after those dates!

(Here’s the end a 16th-century example by Byrd, that makes perfect rhythmical sense when you hear it, but refuses to fit into any consistent time signature …)

Byrd.png
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