Frame chains

Dorico
1

I’m really at a loss re: frame chains.

Would anyone mind posting a small file containing 3 or 4 separate music frames, each with different music? I would really appreciate having one to study.

Or an alternative would be if you can point me to a detailed demo or explanation of how they work.

Thanks much.

2

Have you watched this video? Could be helpful.

3

Lew, what is it you’re trying to achieve? I could certainly knock something up for you, or dig something out of the back catalogue, but it’s helpful to know exactly what you’re struggling with.

4

“What is it you’re trying to achieve” is important.

The “best” strategies for creating say an exam paper where each question has text and a snippet of music in a “random” format, or a set of short pieces or exercises where several fit on a page with no text apart from headers, or a collection of pieces each one or two pages long, would be three different answers to the question.

5

I just want to understand how the music frames interact; how to set the MA/LA chains, etc.

So let’s go with a text frame saying, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, 1st four bars.” Then a music frame w/the first four bars.

Then three more similar pairs of text (Twinkle, 2nd four bars) and corresponding music frames.

I’m assuming that will show me how they work?

Thanks much.

6
  1. Draw all sorts of music and text frames all over tarnation, however you want them to appear.
  2. Music frames drawn on the same page as an existing master frame chain (MA) will default to a layout chain (LA).
  3. In the music frame dropdowns, change all the frame chain designations to MA, which will keep the music flowing.

The more powerful something is, the harder it is to understand. I confess I don’t understand music frame chains entirely. I need to wrap my head around them more.

7

Frame chains are a difficult concept to digest indeed! Because of their flexibility, a written explanation isn’t necessarily the best way to explain them, but nonetheless I did recently update the explanation of frame chains in the manual to try to make it clearer why in some cases, adding layout frame chains didn’t stop the flow selected for that layout frame chain appearing again at the end of the layout. (Basically, if the layout uses the default master pages, they are set to display all flows in the master page frame chain by default. Showing a flow in a different frame chain doesn’t stop it also appearing in the master page frame chain.)

This part of the docs is here: Music frame chains

In addition to the video posted above, I also like this one Ant did, about using the frame chain selectors in layout frames to create an index - there’s some really useful tips and visual examples here to help with frames/frame chains/layouts: How to Use Flow and Player Frame Filters to Create an Index Page | Page Layout in Dorico - YouTube

8

Thanks Lillie - that page of the documentation clarifies a lot.

9

Oh good that’s great to know, thanks :slight_smile:

10

Thx very much to everyone. I look forward to “diving in.” But in the meantime, at the very least I am grateful to know I’m not the only one who finds this subject to be a bit opaque!

11

I always recommend Daniel’s blog entry

as the best practical entry point I know for getting used to things like frame chains and other layout matters. It takes you through what you need to do step by step (acknowledging that we’re new a couple of versions further along, so some steps may vary). I personally find text instructions, interspersed with pictures, easier to follow than a video, because I can take my time and do everything myself at each stage along the way. I would love to see a whole library of tutorials like this one.