Hi,
In pedagogical piano music, many times we use 8va over or under a note - but when it’s only one note, we don’t like to use the horizontal line since there’s no need for it. How can I remove the horizontal line completely? I can see how to take the hook off, but not the horizontal line.
I’m not 100% sure, but I do not think you can…
I tried just now and it would not collaborate much.
In the Engraving options you can set the minimum length of octave lines to 0 which should remove the line in your case.
Thank you @Martin90 ! There’s still a small dot showing, but I can live with that (unless someone has a way to get rid of that). Thanks!
Yes, sorry. I hadn’t tested it and didn’t notice the dot earlier. You can reduce the width of it a bit by setting the minimum line length to -1/10 but I don’t know a simple way to get rid of it completely.
What about entering those instances using a custom playing technique containing the 8ba glyph?
Yes, that works indeed but doesn’t apply the automatic other stuff like transposing the notes. If that’s not an issue, a custom playing technique will probably be the easiest way to go.
An “actual” one (that plays back correctly but has the pesky “dot that won’t die” (
)) could also be there, but hidden.
This project file has the custom 8ba symbol, @WendyS:
2024 11.21 WendyS 8ba.dorico (381.4 KB)
Oh wow! That was very kind of you @judddanby to make that for me. I’m still pretty new to Dorico. How would I import that symbol to a current file or template?
Another way is to create a default text element containing a single white dot, for example, and put it over the line fragment to cover it. 
“Martin, Martin, he’s our man…!” 
Excellent question! I believe the answer is to use the Library Manager to copy it over. But if you go in and look at the element in my file, it might be even easier to just replicate the process.
Thank you so much for showing me those steps @judddanby ! That was very helpful and I’ve got it all set up now. Thank you so much!
@WendyS I don’t think it’s a good idea to omit the dotted line because of potential confusion with the sign for col ottava: an 8 without a continuation line under (or occasionally over) a single note.
The best publishers use an 8 (with no va) followed by a dotted (or dashed line) for all octave signs in the standard piano literature.
