Can anyone help. I’ve a short vocal score where I want to hide empty bars in a single treble line. I go to Layout Options > vertical spacing > hide empty staves. At RH I select Treble. I select All Systems. Then Apply. But nothing happens. Any ideas?
I was going to attach it, but it says that .dorico files are an invalid file extension.
Thanks
You need to compress the file (.zip) for the forum. It’s possible that your staff has a hidden element like a forced clef, especially if it’s an xml import.
Thanks Stephen. Yes, it’s an xml import. How can I find a hidden item?
Try selecting the clef at the beginning of the flow on each staff and deleting it, one by one.
Sometimes I just try clicking on clefs, and hit Delete - that will remove any “custom clefs” that the xml may have added. Or you can click in a blank part of the staff and hit Delete, also.
I’ve been stung once or twice by either manual clefs as previously mentioned, or a forced rest that you can’t detect. Deleting anything in the affected bars (double check there aren’t any forced barlines too) might solve the issue.
Thanks to Stephen and Dan. I’ve tried all that, but no luck. I don’t seem to be able to select clefs at all. Here is the zipped version of the score attached.
Let all mortal flesh.zip (449 KB)
Hi!
Layout options > Vertical spacing > Hide empty staves > ALL SYSTEMS did the trick. But in the right hand panel, don’t select Treble : those are the layouts affected by what you’re doing. Select full score 
Thanks Marc. I just selected Treble. I guess I should have realized that it was the Full Score. Thanks to everyone.
I have a project where hiding empty staffs does not work as I’d expect it to to. I have read multiple threads about that same problem and still I’m sure I set everything correctly.
I attached the project, the problem occurs in the vocal & piano layout. The first system should only show the synth staff, as in the second system. The third system should only show the vocal staff, as in the 4th system. To me it seems obvious that the presence of system objects like Tempo text and Rehearsal marks prevent the staves from hiding, but to my understanding they should not.
For troubleshooting:
- The project originates from an XML import
- there are no explicit clefs at the beginning of the staves
- I selected the empty bars end pressed delete to erase any unwanted hidden objects
- In layout options hide empty staves is set to “All”, no exceptions made
Here is the stripped down project file:
wonthide.dorico.zip (1.5 MB)
It seems that this Layout Option is the culprit:
I’m afraid I can’t reproduce this in a native Dorico project, so there has to be something specific about your project (possibly another setting) that’s interacting with this. I’m not sure what.
Hmm, this setting solves the problem by creating another. Now either piano or vocals are properly hidden when empty, but the bass clef of the piano staff stays visible when there’s content in the treble clef.
Unfortunately using a single staff instrument for the piano would not be an option, as in another flow (not in the stripped down version) is using both systems.
Anyway - actually this is not a multi-staff instrument but a layout consisting of two players (vocal and piano). Does Dorico treat such layouts as one instrument using multiple staves (regarding said layout option)?
It seems like a bug to me, I hope Daniel will have a look into it.
When I said “I can’t replicate it in a native project”, what I meant is that I
- Opened one of my own Dorico projects that is for voice and piano,
- Created a new part layout with just piano and voice
- Deleted the stuff from the top stave of the piano in one system, the bottom stave of the piano in another system, and the vocal line in yet another system.
- Then I set the Staff Visibility to what you have.
It works absolutely fine. So no, Dorico doesn’t treat “such layouts as one instrument using multiple staves”. There is something specific about this project.
The hidden chord symbol at the beginning of the first bar is the cause of the upper staff not hiding. You can see this chord symbol if you show signposts.
Ok, when I delete the Chord symbol the staffs do hide indeed.
But how does that help my case? The Chord symbols are there for a reason: they must be shown in the guitar and bass part.
This cannot be the expected behaviour, right?
You can set the Chord Symbol visibility options for each player
See… Hiding/Showing chord symbols in layouts
In Setup, select Piano, right-click → chord symbols… select ‘hide for all instruments’ (I think this means all instruments held by by player ‘Piano’!), or whatever option you want. For your Guitar select ‘show in score and parts’
I think you’re right and this is just a bug, sorry. There’s no Chord Symbol or Slash region there so no chords are displaying, but it still won’t hide. You could simply change the global visibility for them as Janus said above, but as this is a stripped down file I’m assuming that’s not an option as you probably want them to show elsewhere. The fact that a chord symbol exists at all is enough to force visibility there even though it isn’t showing for that instrument in that system.
I did find a workaround though. Assign a chord region in that bar so the F chord symbol shows. Click the F and hide it in Properties. Now delete the chord symbol region and the staff should be hidden for that system.
I think I’ve fixed it?
wonthide-2.dorico (697.8 KB)
Setup. Select vocal+piano layout.
For BOTH vocal and piano players set Chord Symbols-> Hide for all instruments.
1 Like
Thanks Janus & FredGUnn.
Janus, I can’t turn them off, as I need chord symbols to be displayed at a later point in the project.
FredGUnn, your method is working, so thank you again for diving into this.
It seems like a bug, though. When I create a new project from scratch and add a single chord symbol to the beginning, all empty staves are hidden as expected.
Dorico is so far the only application I came across where bugs occur in specific documents rather than the app as a whole.
1 Like
This one isn’t document specific, it’s just a bug, and seems reproducible with all projects for me. If I set chord symbols to show between staves, I then even get both staves showing erroneously.
It would be great if this could be fixed so empty staves using “Show in Chord Symbol and Slash Regions” would actually hide when there is a chord symbol in another staff.