I would like to see the full instrument names only on flow one and abbreviated on every other flow. Is that possible?
I’m afraid not without some serious jiggery-pokery at the moment, because the staff labels are determined in Layout Options and so can only vary by layout, not by flow. In the long term what I expect we will do is introduce a special “staff label change” event, which will allow you to specify an override on the default staff label settings for a given system.
What you can do now, which is not much good but will allow you to get the result you want, is to create a duplicate set of instruments for which you edit the “full name” field to be the desired short name, and assign them to the player. Write the music for the first flow on the first instrument that shows the full name, then write the music for subsequent flows on the second instrument that shows the short name. You should see the appropriate staff labels at the start of each flow.
Take a look at the attached trivial project, which demonstrates this.
staff-labels-exx.dorico.zip (85.3 KB)
Thanks Daniel, it’s worth the effort.
Just running in the same problem. I have an orchestra work where the second flow is a “Theme with Variations”. Because it is impossible to hide time signatures within a flow I decided to cut the flow in many little flows, each containing one variation. And now I have the full instrument names in every variation, although I want to have no instrument names at all in the variations (the variations are rather short). It would be much easier if Dorico could hide objects.
Would not Daniel’s solution above be just as valid for your situation until a future version of the program can solve it more directly?
(“Same problem: same solution.”)
Yes, Derrek. But I wanted to describe the dependies to the other problem with the time signatures. Too, I am tired to use workarounds in professional notation programs.
What do you mean by ‘impossible to hide time signatures within a flow’? Select the time signature, open the property panel, and active ‘Hide time signature’. I think this has been possible since 1.0. Or am I missing something here…?
Regarding the original question about staff labels, it is certainly possible from version 1.2.
- Go to Engrave mode
- Create a system break or frame break at the very beginning, and select it
- In the property panel, you will now see a ‘Staff label’ switch with a drop down menu.
Okay, what I meant was that you cannot hide the time signature at the end of a system.
I see, thank you for the clarification
Ahhh … thank you, you are my hero 
Hey Daniel,
nice solution but for an orchestra score with 30 different instrument groups not really a workaround.
Imagine working in galley view with 60 in place of 30 instruments. My scrolling wheel will be happy 
I hope you can imply your suggested improvements in one of the upcoming versions.
This is a very old thread, Dorico was bearly one year old. The solution now: select Layout options>Staves and Systems to show abbreviated names, and at the start of the piece, put a frame brake. Select it (the signpost) and in the properties, choose Labeling : Full name. Voilà. Problem solved.
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wow…GREAT !!! Thanx Marc…
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