one piano, two hands, four staves

Dorico
1

Hi. I have Dorico Elements 3.1.10. I would like to notate a piano piece that uses 4 staves (two treble, two bass). In the Dorico help guide in the section Notation Reference / Staves / Extra Staves the first paragraph writes “In Dorico Elements, you can add extra staves to any instrument, for example, to make complex contrapuntal music easier to read because it is spread out across more staves than usual for that instrument.”. It then shows a great Debussy example with three staves (attached). But following the example the guide goes on to write that “In Dorico Elements, you cannot add extra staves. However, extra staves are shown if you import or open a project that contains them.” that contradicts the first paragraph I think. I did look at Setup / Layout Options and couldn’t see how to add staves there. So my questions:

  1. Is this a true limitation of Elements?
  2. I thought Engraving mode was the main feature taken from Elements, so if I had Pro would I use Engraving mode to add the new staves?

Thanks.

Dorico3StaffExample.jpg
Dorico3StaffExample.jpg1468×680 162 KB

2

Yeah, the manual is a bit off here. That feature does not exist in Elements.

Try this template.
Piano 4 staff.zip (522 KB)

3

…and Add Staves would not be in Engrave mode, but in the context menu (right-clicking on the staff in Write mode).

It’s true Engrave mode is the most notable omission from Elements, but there are several things in Write mode that are Pro-only as well (divisi, cues, custom playing techniques, etc).

4

Thank you Craig and Dan. The 4 staff template loads perfectly! I even added it into my existing score where it changes for 2 to 4 staves.

5

Apologies for the error in the manual - I’d successfully added a sentence for the Elements/SE manuals that says you can’t add extra staves in those versions, but you might see signposts etc if you import a project from a Pro user who has added them; however, I had not successfully amended the introductory sentence. I’ve now done this, so when the manual is next updated this will be correct. Sorry again for the confusion!