Export score and parts as pdf

Sorry, I thought I once used this function - but obviously I was wrong. I don’t understand, why the output using the system dialog does not perfectly mirror the output using Dorico’s print functionality. So I second MissCoconutCurrie’s request :slight_smile:

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I usually print from Dorico at home, so it’s not an issue in that case, but it’s handy for when I need to print out charts at my work. I’m not allowed to plug in personal devices to the work printers, so in that case I need to email the charts to myself and print them from a work computer.

Also, if I’m sending the charts to someone else to print, it’s much easier to attach one PDF with everything in it to the email rather than a zipped folder with the individual parts. Having everything in one PDF also ensures that I don’t accidentally omit any parts when it comes time to print them. If individual musicians need to print their own parts, they can open the PDF and print the range of pages that correspond with their instrument parts.

It’s a small feature request, but it would make many people’s lives easier :slightly_smiling_face:

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As a conductor who also acts as his community band’s librarian much of the time, I prefer the PDFs all in a single file – it’s just so much easier to glance at all the parts by scrolling through a single file instead of opening a large number of individual files.
Both methods have their strong points and weaknesses so it would be nice to choose to either have them all in a single PDF file or created as individual PDF files. It’s certainly not a deal-breaker for me as it’s easy enough to combine them after the fact but it does require one more step before a project is complete.

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+1 This honestly should already be a feature. I am an active young(ish) composer and I can speak for many of us in saying that 99% of the time I will send my parts and score to my performers as a single PDF file, especially when the commission comes from someone who lives far away from me. It is quick, cheap, and expected; organizations often specify that the parts and score must be delivered digitally. I also sell the parts and score as a single file on my website (the only way I can through Squarespace, as I cannot sell multiple digital files as a single shop item) Currently, I have to export each file separately and combine them as a single PDF after, which is a pain. (I’m hoping commenting here someone will say “oh actually you click this button in the menu” and I’ve just been missing it this whole time)

No, you aren’t missing anything.

You can export all the PDFs in one go, if that helps. Just select all the Layouts on the left-hand side on the Print mode. (Shift-click the bottom one to select them all.)

And you could always zip the PDFs into one archive file. There are some pretty painless ways of combining PDFs together, too.

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I use PDF24 Tools online ( PDF24 Tools: Free PDF solutions for all PDF problems ), and Sejda ( https://www.sejda.com/ ). There are others.
Some have limits - number of pages/documents, size of finished document, time limits between jobs, no ability to insert a blank page, etc. Some have a downloadable desktop version, usually with more restrictive limits (eg up to 50 Mb, only 3 jobs per day, doesn’t work on all OS’s, etc.). There is often an option to obtain an unrestricted version/licence, but of course you have to pay for it.

You just have to add all the files to a folder, then zip the folder, and upload the zip file. I’ve done this on my Squarespace website a few times.

On MacOS you can select all PDFs, right click and do Quick Actions->Create PDF.

The order of the PDFs is the order you selected them.

This is very handy, but of course if you decide to change something in the parts you have to do it again…

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Technically, it’s the order in which they are appear, in the Finder list. You could hold the Command key and select each one in a random order, but they would still be joined ‘top to bottom’. (I’m not sure what happens in Icon View…)

This does mean that you can sort them by Modification Date, or in Descending order, etc, and they would be joined in that order.

Interesting, I just tried this (holding command and clicking) and they do appear in the order in I clicked. My version of MacOS is 12.6

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Oh. My mistake. I was sure I’d tried that (as I’ve created a lot of my own Quick Actions for PDFs.)

Hello Daniel, is there any progress on this functionality? I too frequently need to export to PDF in a single file, and what further complicates ordering in Acrobat (which I subscribe to and use) is that the exported files are not in score order. For me the current process is not the 5 second solution: I still need to reorganize the files in a standard order so musicians can find them—perhaps I’m missing a way adding a numerical value at the start of the file name that aligns with score order automatically ?

There is one small advantage, which I would not want to lose: As a result of combining multiple files, at least every part is bookmarked, making searching easier.

There’s no built-in feature to create a single PDF from multiple layouts as yet, I’m afraid, though it remains something we plan to add in future.

Unfortunately, the Qt framework doesn’t provide a means of setting up bookmarks as part of its API for PDF creation, so even once we’re able to support this kind of combined PDF directly, we won’t be able to add bookmarks.

Presumably, Acrobat joins them by filename alphabetical order? If you use the Layout Number in the filename, (and the Layouts are numbered correctly), then that should work.

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Thank you! That worked. It took me a while to find where the numbers were, I still have a hard time following the instructions in the manual, but I figured it out.

This is so easy… literally seconds to create. Thanks for this gem of information!

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I’m looking forward to it eagerly! It’s been four years since this message, is there a risk of having to wait another four?

I would hope not, but until it’s actually been implemented, we can’t say for sure when it will appear.

Yet another ridiculously simple feature which Sibelius has had for years that Dorico just simply doesn’t have…seriously considering going back to the dark side, as dorico workflows are just not as intuitive as the programme currently stands…