I suspect I’m missing something or doing something wrong.
If a singer has lyrics with a word extension to the last note of a passage, followed by several systems of rests before the next entry, it seems that a ‘ghost’ (invisible) word extension is preventing me from hiding empty staves for that singer.
For now I’ve found a work around; namely to add a temporary note immediately after the last real note in the part, take the word extension to where it is meant to go, and then delete the unwanted note.
By doing this I’ve just reduced 36 pages of score to 34 while otherwise leaving Dorico to its own layout devices.
Are you saying that you’re getting a lyric extender line that is lasting for multiple staves with no notes? If this is the case, the only reason would be if you pressed space to jump to the next note a few staves later. You should instead press enter or forward arrow at your last note, and then there won’t be an extender line, then the vocal stave will be empty and “hide empty staves” will work correctly. They aren’t hiding now because it thinks there is a lyric there.
If I press enter or forward arrow, I don’t get the extension line I do want, ie to the last slurred (not tied) note of the current passage. I seem to have to press the space bar to get that, after which it jumps to the next vocal entry. This it does visually exactly as I want without any extension line visible, but it seems to behave as though there is now such a line all the way to the next entry as far as hiding the supposedly empty stave is concerned.
My work around will do for now, as it only took a few minutes to deal with several of these (and thereby save two pages of score).
I discovered another workaround after reading this thread from the other day. I selected all the bars between the first one after the lyric and the bar before the lyric re-enters, and simply pressed Delete. The empty staves were hidden.
Dorico treats tied notes as one unit for Lyrics, so pressing Space or Hyphen will move to the next note after the tie. (I can’t remember if Finale actually did this, or if you had to step through the subsequent notes on a tie.)
If you want an extension on a tied note before rests, then press Space, and Dorico will draw the line, and move to the next note after the rests, if there is one. If you press Space again (on the note after the rests), then you get a line from the tied notes, over the rests, to the next note.
Tied notes seem to be OK automatically: it’s only slurred (ie melismatic) notes that appear to be having a problem. There’s no visible word extension line where it’s not wanted, but it’s as if there were as far as hiding the stave is concerned.
The word extension does indeed appear without further ado for tied notes and without any subsequent problem with hiding staves. The word extension line is not appearing without my using the space bar for slurred notes, and then there is the problem mentioned.
Thank you: it’s good to know that I’m doing something right.
I used manuscript from before 1950 until 2000, when I started with Finale (and when I first, rather reluctantly, used a computer: always a Mac). In 2024 as soon as the imminent demise of Finale was announced, I installed Dorico. However it is only with the current (now semi-complete) project that I actually started using the software. I think it was only one month ago.
In other words, I still have much – very much – to learn. (I still begin everything in manuscript.)
This concocted file seems to illustrate the point. I can only create the first word extension by using the space bar. The second one has tied notes and doesn’t need the space bar. If via layout options, vertical spacing, staff visibility I hide empty staves, the vocal stave fails to hide on the second system, but does hide as expected on the fourth. However, I can take further action to remedy this as described above. The action suggested by John Lilja seems to be the simpler.
I would always use the Space bar in both circumstances. You’re right that you can avoid having an extension line on the slur – if you use Right Arrow, or Enter instead of Space – but you can’t avoid it on the Tie.
As to the systems not hiding between to lyric phrases – seemingly because you Space from the first system to the third – then yes, I’d argue that this is a bug that needs looking at. (Never noticed this before, myself!)
The “duration” of the word extension does seem to go all the way to next lyric. If you try to reduce the duration of the first extension, then you have to press Shift Opt Left quite a few times (16, if set to quavers) before you can then see the duration on the top system.
One workaround is to enter the first word without an extension, and then extend the duration of the syllable to the second note.
