I’m working in Dorico 4 SE. I have Dorico 5 SE available, but I haven’t made the Big Switch yet.
I’ve set up a nearly empty file that has all the goodies in place that I like to start with when working on a new project. It’s just one empty bar set up with the sound I want, my name, my copyright, a title placeholder, etc.
For some reason, it has an empty second page. I can’t figure out why, wo I’m not making much headway on getting rid of it. It makes no sense to me. I’d like this file to open with just one page.
What’s the fix here?
I’ve attached a screen shot of how this file looks upon opening, ready to Save As a starter for a new project.
Just to say again: this is Dorico SE 4, the free version. Lots of things it doesn’t do.
If you added information directly on page 2, like “New project” in the header, then that will have created a page template override – which unfortunately you can’t see or remove in Dorico SE.
Page template overrides lock pages in place: Dorico wants to preserve your customization!
Title, composer, copyright etc information is best added in Project Info. Dorico will then display it automatically using the tokens set up on the default page templates.
You can also get a free copy of Dorico 5 SE, if you like.
I didn’t add information directly on page 2, at least I dont think I did. The page 2 header uses the {@projectTitle@} tag, which I wouldn’t have been knowledgeable enough to put in there. At least, I don’t know how to get rid of it, so I probably don’t know how to add it either!
I’m reluctant to copy the notes into a new file, because I’ve gone to a fair amount of trouble to get quite a few other things the way I want, such as the players, the sounds, the layout names, etc. If I can’t get that extra page to behave I’m willing to live with it.
Both of the pages in this layout have page template overrides.
Page 1 was overridden at some point when this part layout still used the Default Part page template set, because the text frame that used to contain the layout name is still at the top of the page.
Page 2 was overridden to change the running header token to {@ projectitle @} (minus the spaces) from the default {@ flowtitle @}. *
*When you start new projects from the Hub, Dorico switches which token is displayed in the running header depending on whether you activate “Project will use multiple flows”: if activated, running headers use the flow title; if deactivated, the project title. In SE you can’t change this after creating the project, but you can simply make sure the Project and Flow title are the same, and there’ll be no discernible difference on the page.
Removing those overrides also reveals that you had set the Layout Option for using the First page template (the design that has the big title and composer/lyricist frames on) to “Never”. This tells Dorico never to use the template with the big title and composer for any page, at all. Possibly not what you want, but you may have got confused with the separate option for hiding/showing flow headings.
Here’s your template with the overrides removed, and the Layout Option for the First page updated. The running header uses the flow title, but if you really want that to be the project title and you ask very politely, I’ll swap it for you
Not a surprise that there was a variety of unwanted stuff in there. It’s been quite a learning curve! And actually I did set the first page template to never because it seems to make my short songs look nicer, or at least more the way I want them.
Thanks so much for your help! The file looks great!
You’re welcome! If you make sure you don’t make any edits directly to pages, and only ever add titles, composers etc in Project Info, then you can use/not use the First page template very flexibly. Dorico can add it/remove it from pages freely, provided those pages aren’t overridden. Best of both worlds!
