Entering an actual underscore in lyrics

Can I enter an underscore in lyrics?
I’m engraving a hymn that has multiple verses. I have to engrave exactly as it is written. Some verses have no words at the start of the lyrics and have a couple of underscores to indicate not to sing there. The problem I’m having is I can’t find a way to enter an underscore in the lyrics. They turn into elisions. Dashes don’t work and I’d prefer not to have to enter them using Shift-X for text entry.

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Yes, input an underscore as usual. Then use “Edit Single Lyric” and select the underscore you’ve entered. Then select the underscore in the edit field and change something very slight, like setting the stretch to 99%. That will break the elision and display a true underscore.

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That’s a crazy way to do it, but it works. Thanks.

I know back in Oct '22 I was able to change it to an underscore by editing single lyric but today (Mar '23) nothing I change in the edit single lyric options results in an underscore.

I entered a single underscore as a lyric. I went to edited single lyric, highlighted the underscore in the edit window and changed the stretch. I also tried changing every other thing I could change and I still have an elision mark, not an underscore. Did something change in recent updates?

The unicode character U+FF3F will give you an underscore to use in a lyric that Dorico will not convert to an elision slur.

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Unfortunately U+FF3F is not as slim as the line used by Dorico when I use it… I should try and find a font that works for that. A little bit too convoluted to make a simple repeats box (1-2) with lyrics continuation work, if you see what I mean…
And Dan’s workaround does not work anymore, FYI.

After entering one or more U+FF3F characters in a lyric, using Edit Single Lyric to change the font size and baseline shift can produce a line identical in thickness and vertical placement to a real extender line.

You are right. But it is very convoluted, especially for something as normal as that. Two problems actually : there’s one extra continuation line (like an underscore) under the First repeat bar (set to be repeated twice, so I get three underscores instead of two), and none in the second repeat (set for the third verse). I understand we’re waiting for the famous ties that cross those repeats, I’ve been dealing with this for some years now… But it’s the first time I do notice this problem with continuation lines that are not correctly set. Is it new or was I just blind?

I guess this is what you mean:

Image

I think that Dorico has always assigned lyrics to notes without regard for the repeat endings.

:pray:
That’s exactly what I mean, yes. And, well, it’s wrong, isn’t it?

In the fullness of time, Dorico will handle ties into repeat endings better than it does now. However, there will always be a need for workarounds to accomplish things that Dorico does not yet accommodate.

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