Engraving token that means "this flow's relative number in this layout"

I have one project with a bunch of sketches, and a bunch of compositions. I want to create two separate PDFs, one for sketches and one for compositions. I’d like to show the ordinal number for each flow in the layout.

I’ve got these flows:

  1. Sketch 1
  2. Composition 1
  3. Sketch 2
  4. Composition 2
  5. Sketch 3
  6. Composition 3

My sketches layout includes flows 1,3,5 and my compositions layout includes 2,4,6.

When I export them to PDF, I’d like them to appear as:

  1. Sketch 1
  2. Sketch 2
  3. Sketch 3

and

  1. Composition 1
  2. Composition 2
  3. Composition 3

but using {@flownumber@} produces (as expected)

  1. Sketch 1
  2. Sketch 2
  3. Sketch 3

etc

So is there any way to include a flow’s relative number within a specific layout?

Would it be possible to use an otherwise unused field in the Project Info dialogue, populate it with the numbers that you want displayed for each flow and then using this token instead of FlowNumber in your layouts?

It requires doing it by hand, but can be a useful technique. (I’ve used it before to generate Roman Numeral flow numbers)

The other option is to assign flows and sketches to different layouts (although this will require re-engraving). That way you could export each layout.

If the OP wants to jump through hoops, rearranging the flow order just for the export would change the default flow numbers, but I dare say that wouldn’t be worth the effort for me; I’d stick with the given flow numbers or eliminate them entirely from the export (if possible).

Yeah I could use work number. It’s not automatic, but manually numbering flows very little work compared to writing the flows in the first place :slight_smile:

(I’ve used it before to generate Roman Numeral flow numbers)

FYI Dorico now provides {@flowNumberRomanLower@} and {@flowNumberRomanUpper@}, so you won’t need to do that manually anymore. Unless of course you’re skipping flows in your layout, like I am here.

They are already in different layouts. Dorico sets {@flownumber@} to the absolute flow number, rather than relative to the layout.

Or do you mean to “Export → Flows… → Export layouts as separate files” ? So then I would have on Dorico file for sketches, and one for compositions?

Yeah, it seems like manually entering numbers is my best bet. In fact, I think this thread helped me solve another problem I’ve had, which is that Dorico doesn’t include the flow number in the file name when exporting audio. So the audio files are in a different order than the flows in my project. So by explicitly naming the flows “Sketch 1” (or whatever), I can just include the flow title in my engraving layout, and the exported audio files will be in the correct order on disk as well.

This has been requested before and is on our backlog. We’ll add it when we get a chance.