Feature Request: Dynamic Linked Flows

One of the features of Dorico that I most appreciate is the distinction between notated music and layout (I still remember the epiphanic joy I felt when I realized this — which is precisely what separates a music notation program from one that merely imitates engraving!).

Combined with the ability to import flows from other projects, these features have been a powerful resource for me, making it easy to compile sets of pieces for different occasions.

Inevitably, while adjusting the layout of these new sets, I keep finding mistakes or things that I decide could be notated slightly differently — and this is where trouble arises. I have to update each change in the notated music in both the “original” project, from which I imported the flow, and in the current project I am working on (and possibly others where the same flow is used).

Since notated music and layout are distinct, it would be great to have the option, upon importing a flow into a project, to keep the new instance linked to the “original” — so that changes to the notated music in one would be reflected in every linked instance of the flow. This is what I mean by “Dynamic Linked Flows.”

This link would be optional (chosen at import time, perhaps) and could allow some customization of what gets synced — transposition comes to mind as a potentially irrelevant one, while articulation, dynamics, fingering, and so on could be very useful. Of course, once implemented, the Dorico team would do what they always do: understand users’ needs and adapt the software accordingly.

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I can certainly see the potential benefits of this idea, but I’m afraid it’s pretty unlikely we’ll be working on anything like this in the short to medium term. Our recommendation would be to have all the different layouts in the same project, but of course I know this means that you might have to have a lot of flows in the same project, and there are disadvantages to that as well.