That isn’t really the best workflow for this anymore. You can change to another number of lines (except 0) using Edit Instruments in D5. If you’re still on D4, then it’s better to use a doricolib file for this than to edit the instruments.xml directly, as all the factory files in that folder get overwritten with any update. @benwiggy posted a doricolib file with 0 and 1 line instruments here in this thread.
There’s not really any documentation for creating doricolib files, but they are very powerful and I use quite a lot of them to customize all sorts of aspects of the program. You can open Ben’s file though and get an idea of how they work though. Just a warning, if you get the syntax wrong, Dorico won’t start, so just be prepared to undo or delete doricolib files if you make a mistake somewhere in there.
Glad that this is on the roadmap, but just wanted to say that this is super important for people working on making examples for books, etc., where staves disappear (or switch to one-line to show rhythm only) etc. on a regular basis. This has been completely supported via Staff Styles on Finale since 3.7 (1997) and with all gratefulness for what the Dorico staff has taken on since the merger news, but quickly switching the number of lines (keeping or hiding notes) is a feature of Finale I use between 2 and 4 times a day, and I keep needing to jump back (or occasionally using MuseScore when it’s not mid-measure) in order to get common workflows done. With Finale Staff styles defined, creating an effect like below is two clicks (Staff Tool → Click Region) and one Shift-# keystroke for a predefined staff style. Please if you can make a work around that does not involve a new flow (which disrupts MusicXML export/Audio export) or a frame break or assigning a new player/instrument/etc. Thanks!
Finale – 30 seconds
Dorico – 25 minutes – gave up.
This feature is what I miss most in Doric in general, because you can realize so many situation with it.
Happy to report that Dorico 6’s Cutaway scores now makes this possible – over time it might even become as intuitive as the Finale Staff Styles (which I still miss for so many other things such as switching to 1-line scores temporarily) but at least this particular problem is much improved.
I’m having a heck of a time writing a part for woodblocks with Dorico 5. The nonpitched percussion default forces you to write on one line, and there seems to be no way to differentiate between low/medium/high woodblocks. MuseScore is way ahead of Dorico on this. Any advice would be most helpful. Thanks!
I’m not sure exactly how you want things to appear, but if you put the three woodblocks into a kit, instead of having a player holding three separate instruments, you can then choose (in Layout Options > Players > Percussion) whether the wood blocks appear on a grid, a 5-line staff, or separate 1-line staves.
Has there been any feature added to alter the number of staff lines on a pitched instrument? I cannot seem to find a suitable workaround. For example, make Tuba a 1-line staff for two bars, then back to normal. Do I need to have that player hold some random instrument to make that work?
Staff Styles.
You never realize the treasure you have until you lose it.
Yes, among Finale’s countless shortcomings, Staff Styles are honestly one of the features that other notation programs should outright copy, because they add an enormous amount of notational flexibility and freedom.
Of course, the question of playback arises, but many users don’t need it, or at the very least they should be able to suspend playback when the sound libraries or virtual instruments are unable to reproduce certain sounds.
