Header's flow title token not working on the first page of a flow

Regarding tokens, I’ve been experiencing something strange. I created a master template for my parts that includes this token string as a header: {@playernames@} - Suite: {@flowtitle@} {@page@}/{@pagecount@}

It works fine, except for on the first page of a flow. There, the {@flowtitle@}sometimes works, but often doesn’t. The strangest part is that it’s not consistent. I tried clearing overrides on the “broken” pages, but that didn’t fix the problem. I guess it’s not a big deal (because the flow title does show up at the start of the flow inside of the music frame), but it does seem that something has gone wrong.

If the First page template is set to show the flow title big in the middle (ie where the project title is on this example), and you’re also showing flow headings, then this layout option for flow titles above flow headings is likely taking effect:

Ah, yes! That seems to be what was going on. Thanks for the help!

1 Like

Hi Lillie, I’m unable to get my FlowTitle to show on my first page template:



Attaching a cut down project. What am I missing?
Where Is My FlowTitle.dorico (1.1 MB)

Hi @falhousen, you need to add the number of the flow, whose tile you want to show, inside your Token:

{@flow1title@}

Thanks, that works.

I note that I don’t need to include the flow number in the token for the subtitle; {@flowsubtitle} works… it actually works with or without the flow number.

The token {@flowtitle} is also working on the Default page template, without the flow number.

I don’t think I’ve ever included a flow number in my text tokens before, and it’s worked fine in the past. Additionally, this file only has 1 flow. I wonder if this is a change in the latest version of Dorico?

I found this in the Help system, but it doesn’t seem to clarify my issue:

Ok, If I have this option turned on, I need to include the flow number:

I think it depends on the position of the token to the actual music frame,
if as an experiment you grab your frame with the title token (without numbering) and put it on top (overlapping) of the music frame, it will recognise that in that music frame the flow1 is present and the tile correctly appears in the layout. (I don’t know why the subtitle token seems to recognise the right flow while the title token in this case needs the number.)

But generally you use the flow title in the flow header…, so it will automatically recognise the flow.

Example, moving the token text frame directly in layout just to demonstrate:

(the following posts clarify further)

1 Like

I may be out of date, but it used be the case that a flowtoken could not be referenced before that flow had started in the frame chain…

1 Like

Is the flow heading layout option set to show in this layout? If so, there’s a corresponding option that automatically hides flow titles when they’re above a flow heading.

No, but I discovered that if I turn off “Show chord diagrams used at start of flow”, it recognizes the flowtitle token without a number. I think Christian_R is on the right track that the token needs to be within a certain distance to the music frame in order to associate itself with the flow.

@falhousen
I think generally you used a not optimal workflow:

to summarise (see also the video at the end of this post), I think the issue there is that you didn’t edit your Flow heading to insert the subtitle token in it, but instead created the flow title and subtitle in a text frame that is separate from the music frame.

You need to delete (from First page template) the frame that contains your title and subtitle tokens, and edit instead your Flow heading, inserting the subtitle there and a text frame with composer subtitle, if you need a different composer for every flow for example, and eventually delete the flow number token, if you dont want the number displayed, or if you only have one flow(*). And of course activate the Flow heading visibility and the chord diagrams in Layout Options. You can further adjust the dimension of the music Frame that in this case can be dragged till the upper page margin, and in the flow heading you can set the property for the text frame to have Vertical alignment Top:

Where Is My FlowTitle-edited flow heading.dorico (1.3 MB)

(*)in case you only have one flow, it would be better and easier to use the project info fields, instead of the flow info fields, and reset your first page template to the factory settings, using the Library Manager.


@falhousen
I made a video for you, as it may be more clear what I mean:

I haven’t been using flow headings for the most part, but instead have based my templates on Dorico’s factory templates that use text frames for title, composer, layout name, etc.

I will look into whether using flow headings makes sense for my workflow.

Thanks.

Yes but in that text frame there are normally Project tokens.
For Flow tokens, using the Flow Heading is much more comfortable IMO.

I’ve finally had a look at the project, and yes it’s this option for hiding flow titles above flow headings that’s causing the flow title not to appear – even though you have correctly hidden flow headings using the Layout Option. I’ll pass that on to my colleagues to take a further look, but for now, set “Flow title in header” to “show” and all will be well.

1 Like

Thanks Lillie, and Christian_R!