I need to condense an orchestral score for the first time. This means a "“short score” or “French score” in which staffs of non-playing instruments would be removed, showing only the staffs of instruments that are playing at a given point. Thus system dividers would be used on every page, and not when everyone is playing. There are probably a number of Steinberg videos that would instruct me how to do this. Are there any Dorico users out there that can recommend the best videos to do this? Thanks in advance!
I’m not sure if this is exactly what you’re looking for, but in your score layout, go to Layout Options > Vertical Spacing > Staff Visibility, and set Hide Empty Staves to “All Systems”.
That seems to match your description of only showing the staves of playing instruments, but it’s not what I think of as a short score or condensed score – that would involve combining some of the orchestral lines, like this:
(The labeling here is rather idiosyncratic.)
@asherber 's advice takes care of hiding the empty staves. Under Layout Options - Staves and Systems you will find options to turn system dividers on/off and adjust their appearance.
One thing to note is that when making scores like this, you may find you want to judiciously use some manual system breaks or Note Spacing Changes to make the systems coincide better with when instrument entries and long rests occur. Otherwise Dorico will just follow whatever note spacing rules prevail and will not adjust things with regard to what instruments are playing at the time.
Direct answer re: staff visibility https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpBcG5th7MI