Creating Text specific to an instrument section and/or Player

I want to do two different but similar things:

  1. I want to create text that only appears on the layout for a specific player’s part. I do not want this text to appear on the full score.

  2. I want to create text that only appears for an instrument section and not in the full score. By “instrument section,” I do not mean section player. I instead mean all the instrument players visually grouped together by the thick black bracket at the beginning of each system. For example, in my project, Violin I, Violin II, Viola, Violoncello, and Double Bass are all visually grouped together by a thick black bracket. I do not know if this thick black bracket is only for visual purposes or if there’s a term for the section players within this bracket.

My current approach is the following:

  1. To have text only visible for one player, I create the text in the full score at the time location I want it and on the staff I want it on. I then set the text to “hide.” This is a great solution, and I’m wondering if this is the recommended way.

  2. To have text only visible for an “instrument group” (see my definition above of what I mean by “instrument group”), I create text on the top instrument of the group (ex: violin I). I then copy-and paste the text onto every other staff in the instrument group (violin II, viola, cello, double bass). I then ctrl click them all, and I select “hide.” This procedure works (and I got it from here, though I’m not sure I understood this post correctly: "System objects" for only string section?), but it is tedious. Additionally, if I change the text for, say, the Violin Is, it does not update the text for all the other instruments because they are literally separate objects. I am wondering if there is a better way to do what I want.

I’m using Dorico 3.5, so if the solution is different in Dorico 4, do let me know so that when I upgrade to Dorico 4, I will use the Dorico 4 approach instead.

It seems like what you’re looking for is a kind of halfway house between staff-attached text and system-attached text, and I’m afraid that’s not something that Dorico supports at the moment. So your best bet is to use staff-attached text and duplicate it as necessary to the other instruments in the section, then hide all but the one you want to appear in the full score layout via the Properties panel.