Is there a way to wrap instrument names over multiple lines. In particular, I would like the following…
Piano
(Rehearsal
Only)
I fudged it for the minute by removing the name altogether and adding a text frame, but its not ideal as it has to be moved every time the layout changes.
A slightly better workaround, though only slightly, would be to put it in via Shift+X text, which can be dragged into that position in Engrave mode. That text will at least move vertically if the staff moves.
Thanks, that works much better. I did notice a few strange things with font sizes as I was playing around with it though… I used the ‘Instrument Change’ paragraph style and reduced the font size down to match the others, but each time I edited it the size in the dialog didn’t always match what I’d last left it at, and the displayed size of the text didn’t seem consistent with what I’d entered, so 10pt one time was bigger than 10pt the next.
Could I add wrappable instrument names to the feature request list? Both auto-wrapping based on a max width for the name column in score set-up (I’ve read in a previous thread that it already wraps if the column is more than half the page, so an option to control this would be great!), and manual wrapping with carriage returns would be useful - maybe {@newLine@} or similar, or a multiline dialog, or something much more sophisticated a-la the ‘SUGGESTION: Instrument names in score’ thread! Judging by the attention to detail everywhere else, I know which my money is on you choosing!
I’m only on the trial version so far (coming from Sibelius), but based on what I’ve seen so far, guess what’s on my Christmas list!
I agree that multi-line staff labels are needed, and we’ll discuss how best to accommodate that need.
I’m glad you’re generally finding things to like in Dorico!
Along with instrument names, being able to add newline characters (and perhaps other non-printing characters) to titles, subtitles, etc. would be very useful. \n or ^n are commonly used as “escape” sequences for newlines.
I second that - I just had a lengthy credit of four composers for a piece that was line-wrapped between the first and last name of the fourth composer. I solved it for now by resizing the frame that contains the composer credit, but it seems I have to do that for each part. OK in this case with only four parts. Not much fun for an entire orchestra 
Has the ability to have multi-line staff labels been added to Dorico 2? It is very important for choral music to be able to have Soprano/Alto and Tenor/Bass on the same staves.
Not yet, but it will be added soon – it can now be done for divisi labels, and we plan to retrofit the same functionality to the existing dialog for editing instrument names.
Any chance, that this will be added in the next update?
“Another notation app” allows newlines on most of its metadata fields, and I frequently added the Composer with dates on a newline. Dorico imports this from XML well, retaining the new line, though it can’t be seen the Project Info.
We hope to be able to include this in the next update, but it’s not yet done. If it doesn’t make it into the next update, I would expect it to make it into the following one.
This is fantastic news!
Thank you, Daniel. This was the answer I was hoping for.
Will there also be a possibilitiy to have an “Instrument name change” similar to “Note spacing change”? Working on a bigger publication with different instrumentations I only have two possibilities at the moment:
And to add to this: I would also like to have a “vertical spacing change” option for different flows. At the moment I have to do a lot of manual adjustments.
Using different instruments shouldn’t introduce any performance problems, and is the correct way for a staff label to change. I don’t anticipate us adding a feature to change staff labels independent of changing the instrument.
When combining instuments onto one system will be available, the whole thing will be a different game, I think. At the moment, the publication I am working on, has got 82 flows (playing scores for brass choirs). Because of the missing line breaks I did plan to add the numbers to the systems with text boxes. Now there seems to be a possibility to have line breaks soon, so life will be much easier.
The playing scores have 2-4 trumpet parts and 2-4 trombone parts and somtimes a tuba part. Depending on the music I have got different settings (just mentioning the trumpet parts now):
1 2 | 3 (| = new system)
1 3 | 2
1a 1b | 2
1 | 2a 2b
1a 1b | 2 3
and some other combinations. “1a 1b” e.g. are used, when there are only a few splits in the part.
This means, that I only have a maximum of 2 trumpet systems, but I would need about 10 trumpet players in Dorico to get all the combinations I need. (an a similar amount of players for the trombones as well). Therefore I asked for the instrument name change. I was afraid to use lot’s of instruments, because I was afraid, that Dorico will become very slow. The score is quite slow already when making changes to players.
It would be very helpful to know, if the label dialog for instruments will make it into the next update. In that case I would change the instruments, so that all labels will be possible without text frames. I probably can’t wait for another update, because the publication wil be printed in september.
You might find that making your brass players into section players (by adding a new section player and then dragging the existing instrument from the solo player to the new section player) and then using divisi to change the staff labels works well enough. That would allow you to create multi-line staff labels via the Edit Divisi Change dialog, and a divisi doesn’t actually have to change the number of staves. But using extra instruments should be fine, too: it will cause HALion to load more patches, but that’s about the extent of it.
We certainly hope to get the ability to make staff labels use the same rich text editor as the divisi dialog into the next update, but I can’t promise something that isn’t yet done.
O.k., I will try that. Is it true, that the vertical spacing between Divisi staves follow the settings for “Akkolade zu Akkolade” (with a brace)? Perhaps an individual setting would be good.
Yes, that’s the spacing value that is used.