I’m trying to make a new template in Dorico, that fits my workflow. I essentially want to have this kind of setup:
first page = graphics with notes or a mind map for ideas
second page = ideas page, like a work sheet, with several musical frames where I can skribble ideas and short musical fragments
Third page and onwards - a flow for composing my piano sketch
After piano sketch: the full orchestra for orchestrating my piano sketch
My problem is, the first two pages look fine (graphics page, and worksheet page with nine musical frames created from 9 flows. But then I get a blank double page, and then on my sketch page, suddenly all 9 musical frames turn up in one big MA frame for some reason. Then the next page is orchestra as I want. How do I get rid of the blank pages and fix the piano sketch page? Here’s a couple of pictures of what I mean:
Sure! Couldn’t find the template file in the folder where it is supposed to be, but saved it as a .dorico file: Orchestral workflow template.dorico (580.0 KB)
Hi @Nikolai_Myklebust, I didn’t look at your project, but I recreated one, following your description. Here the result, which I think suits your needs. And with no page overrides. Please, study it (to see what the possibilities are), and if you have questions, please ask:
I also assigned the instruments to the flows strategically in Setup mode.
For clarity I deleted all the Instruments Parts Layouts.
The Layout where I made all this changes is the one called Full Score customised.
Closing thoughts
Nevertheless: that done and said, I am not sure that this is the best approach.
My suggestion, instead:
You could just use several different layouts for your concept, ideas (that one in one layout maybe), and sketches, and then use another Layout for your score. You can very easily switch between various layouts, and don’t need to move the page template changes in Engraving options (using the little arrow icon in the upper right Pages panel) in case your sketch needs to be longer that expected for example. Using different layouts would be the way to go (and all still remains in one Project).
The Page Template that is assigned to Pages 4-5 is the Default one. The Frame Chain that is used within is MA and it is displaying all of the flows, hence they are all showing.
It seems that you need five Page Templates:
Title (the graphic)
Ideas
Sketch
First (the first page of the full orchestration)
Default (the rest of the full orchestration)
You create these in the Edit Page Template dialog exactly the same way as you have on the page except the “changes” will be there by default when you apply that Page Template to a page using a Page Template Change.
@Christian_R@DanielMuzMurray Holy moly you guys! Thanks for the help! Both of your template suggestions will be studied and learned from I clearly need to learn more about layout settings and page templates! Will ask questions if some turnes up, have to dive in to your suggestions first
I would put the piano sketch and the orchestral staves in the same flow and use separate layouts when I wanted to work on the piano sketch alone. That would let one score the music with the piano sketch at the bottom of the page for reference.
Yes, this seems like a good idea, to at least consolidate the sketch and the orchestration into one flow with different layouts! Will try that I think I still want a separate "ideas part to just sketch out small motifs, chords, and other ideas that I want to draw inspiration from when composing my sketch.
Great work! Just wondering, how do I get more ideas pages into the template? I added another page with the ideas master page to get up to 12 flows of ideas into musical frames across two pages, but, I dont have enough master chains to assign different flows to all the musical frames. Any suggestions? Sorry, but I am pretty n00b at these features in Dorico, have been focusing much more on just composing within more standard template setups, but wanted to make something more suited to my workflow
Because you have all of these page templates in the one layout, it will make things quite tricky to get extra pages automatically between template changes. This is because page template changes are attached to pages. So, if you have a template change on page 4 and you run out of room on page 3, all sorts of things could happen.
This is another case easily solved by having a separate layout. FWIW there is a key command you can have (maybe its default) for switching to the next/previous layout.
I have now tried to make a new template by editing the one @Christian_R sendt, where I have removed the piano sketch flow and master pages, and added a layout for pianosketch that is connected to the orchestration flow, and I can change back and forth between orchestra and sketch with the tabs on top (or if I learn the key command). But, I still can’t get the ideas page to work for up to more than 7 flows. After that I run out of master chains to link the last 5 musical frames (ideas flow 8-12) as it repeats the master link number from my other musical frames. Is there a way to get more master chains so I can get all 12 ideas into the two first pages?
Also, there are suddenly 4 blank pages in the middle where the piano sketch used to be. How do I remove those? Tried making them into default, but nothing happende. And it is easy to add pages, but not to remove them. Template idea 2.dorico (587.7 KB)
EDIT: Hmmmmm, maybe I’m getting what you are saying about the layouts. Maybe it would be easier to just have a layout with ideas connected to the first flow and have it as a separate tab? And instead of separate frames use system breaks and double bars to separate the ideas?
This is because you don’t have any Frame Chains that include flows 8-12. Instead you have a combination of different frame chains that have different flows.
Again, I think this can be avoided by having separate layouts and allowing all frames on the First and Default Page Templates to include the same frame chain. New pages will be automatically added as necessary and they will all look the same.
The reason is because you have Page Template and Flow Heading Changes on Page 8 (and more):
Okey, now I tried to make a simpler template idea, where I removed the musical frames master page, and I’ve made 4 layouts: concept, ideas, piano sketch and orchestra.
Concept: only contains the page for the graphic and a text frame connected to its own empty flow
Ideas: a simple flow with a sketching piano connected to its own flow with a secondary piano only.
Sketch: connected to a third flow with full orchestra and a sketching piano but only shows piano 2/sketching piano - can change between sketch and full orchestra by switching between the layout tabs on top.
Full orchestra costumized: shows the full orchestra.
I don’t quite undestand what controls the rastral size on the first orchestra page connected to the orchestra first page master page, but I’ve changed the full orchestra customised rastral size to fit.
Any other tips for this template? Template idea 3.dorico (504.1 KB)
Might pick up the thread later if I discover problems when working with it, planning on making a composition with it very soon
Hi @Nikolai_Myklebust, you can define a different Space size for breaks (System or Frame breaks), that will apply till end of the flow or until another break with activated Space size (and different values), if you select the Break signpost (I inserted a System break at the beginning of that flow for this purpose) and open the Properties panel in Engrave mode.
But now that you have the score in a separate layout (in your version 3), you can delete that System break and use the Layout Options for that layout, to set the desired rastral size:
Hi @Nikolai_Myklebust, I noticed that in your version 3, in the Full Score customised layout, you deleted the First page template and the score DEFAULT page template.
Because of the different Music Frames chains that I assigned originally to my previous file (that used a different structure that one you are using now), now you have an inconsistency:
the first pages (that uses the score FIRST page template) has the MU Music Frame chain, while the subsequent pages (that use the Default page template) have the MA Music Frame chain.
One way to correct this, is to edit (for the Full score customised layout) the score FIRST page template and assign MA as chain (for both left and right pages) so it will nicely work with what the Default page template uses .
This, I think, is what I’ll use as a final template for now I just made the first layout tab into the “concept” tab again, and then I think I’m done for now! Thank you again all for the feedback, demonstrations and help, this forum is the best!
I clearly need to learn more about layout settings and page templates! Will ask questions if some turnes up, have to dive in to your suggestions first 
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