Dorico Hangs writing empty flows

[jonburr]

I’m in another multi-flow project, this time a musical. The client wants to do things not in order, but the Flow numbers are key to organizing the project. Therefore, when skipping numbers to return to later, I’m adding placeholder Flows to the project.
As the number increases, this becomes more of a problem. Sometimes Dorico will add multiple flows when I’ve just clicked once (in the Info window.)
Then, entering a Flow title and hitting “Enter,” I get the spinning ball. Sometimes the program just hangs.
Also, I find it cumbersome to have to then add the Flow title again so it appears in the Setup Properties panel>Flow card instead of the Flow number. That can also cause a hang.
Does anybody else have this issue? What’s causing it? Are the devs aware, if it’s a problem? It has been for every multi-flow project I’ve had to deal with.
Is there a reason why the Flow title doesn’t automatically populate to its corresponding place in the Flow card in Setup>Properties?

[Christian_R]

Hi @jonburr,

@jonburr

I find it cumbersome to have to then add the Flow title again so it appears in the Setup Properties panel>Flow card instead of the Flow number

@jonburr

Is there a reason why the Flow title doesn’t automatically populate to its corresponding place in the Flow card in Setup>Properties?

There is a Flow name, and a Flow Title.

Lower panel of Setup mode

• If you write some text in the lower panel of setup mode, renaming what is for example Flow 1 per default, you are giving the flow a name, but writing it in that specific place (lower panel of Setup mode) links momentarily the Flow name to the Flow title, so that you will see your Flow titles to inherit that text, if you look now at the Project Info dialogue.
• If you then change the text in the same place (lower panel of Setup mode) the link is maintained, so that the flow title will inherit this change of the flow name. This link is maintained until you edit different text for the flow name and flow title in the Project Info dialogue:

Project info dialogue

• In the Project Info dialogue, on the left panel you can define Flow names, and in the right panel you can define Flow titels. So you can write independently a name and a title, and they can be different. When you define independent/different flow name and title in the Project Info dialogue, the link between them is broken, so that from now on, when you change the text in the lower panel of Setup mode, this will only change the flow name, leaving the flow title unchanged.

See this post for a picture:

Need Flows and Flow Titles after all

Hi @MusiComPublishing, adding to the excellent reply by @asherber , I noticed that in Project Infos, you have different name and title for Flow 2. Not sure if this is what you want: [CleanShot 2025-07-19 at 01.32.05@2x] There is a very fine correlation between Flow Name and Flow Title in Dorico: If (in a new project, on after creating a new flow) you reName the flow, editing the lower panel text in Setup mode (which represents the Flow Name), or in the left panel of Project Infos dialogue, D…

And here the Manual:

Flow names and flow titles - Dorico Pro - 6.1

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@jonburr

entering a Flow title and hitting “Enter,” I get the spinning ball. Sometimes the program just hangs.

To give advice the issue should be reproducible. If you can upload a Dorico file that presents this issue it would be easier to diagnose the causes.

But I think that uploading the Diagnostic Report would possibly also help to understand what is going on.

[jonburr]

@Christian_R

If you can upload a Dorico file that presents this issue it would be easier to diagnose the causes.

I can’t do that because of copyright issues - it’s not my IP, it’s work for a client.
Here’s the Diagnostic report.

Dorico Diagnostics.zip (2.6 MB)

[jonburr]

@Christian_R

• If you then change the text in the same place (lower panel of Setup mode) the link is maintained, so that the flow title will inherit this change of the flow name. This link is maintained until you edit different text for the flow name and flow title in the Project Info dialogue:

I cannot see the utility in this design. I’ve found to be a consistent inconvenience.
If the linking is automatic, then why doesn’t the “default” (the Flow title, would be my expectation) show up in the Card in Setup? I can’t imagine a scenario that requires this convolution of labeling.

I just added another Flow to the project (the last one), and changed the Flow name on the Card instead of in the Info panel, and it did so without spinning ball and hanging.
I have been managing Flows from the Info panel. Is that not the “correct” way to do it? Why would it work well one way and not the other?
And, if the intent is to make the Flow name independent of the Flow title, why not make the association work well both ways, instead of favoring the Card input?

[jonburr]

For the last bunch of Flow additions, I’ve moved the Cards in Setup rather than the “move” arrows in the Info window. It makes a lot of difference; it doesn’t hang. It feels like it was designed to be done in the Properties panel of Setup rather than the Info window. The app performance when done in the Info window is atrocious. Aside from the fact that you can do it that way, and it seems obvious to do it that way, it turns out the Properties panel has very limited downside in performance. I wonder why that is?
And how I ended up thinking that the “wrong” way was the right way to do it?
I’ve wasted hours. My conclusion at this point is that the Info window Flow handling is buggy as all heck. Don’t even try it!