Reordering Flows problem

I want to reorder flows in a file of 20 flows. When I do so, text frames don’t move, and music is often reformatted. Is there a way to move around flows keeping everything in each flow intact? THANKS!

If you’ve got page overrides in your layout, i.e. text frames and things that you’ve added manually, they are fixed to the particular page index in the layout rather than being tied to the music on those pages. You can use the “move pages” buttons in the Pages panel in Engrave mode to move those page overrides after having moved the flows.

Thanks! Yes, I have many text frame overrides. I arranged the flows in the order desired. Then when there were incorrect text frames on a page, I chose that page, then selected MOVE PAGES and then chose “before page” and put in the page where I want it to go, and the text goes there. HOWEVER, then there is a circle of frustration because when I keep doing this to fix other pages, things move around - even the ones I have previously fixed. I have searched the manual to find more detailed explanation as to exactly how to do this but I can’t find anything that talks about move pages. I must be missing some crucial step.

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I didn’t know about “move pages”, thanks.
Ideas about it for Dorico team:

  • add a possibility to label page overrides (like “3rd page of flow X”) so one does not get lost when reordering flows and then moving page overrides.
  • add a way to move a flow with its page overrides (although it probably can be done automatically only in layouts with “New flows: Always start new page” selected).

These could be useful. (and yeah, I know the recommended workflow in Dorico - page overrides should be at the very end of it, if at all.)

It’s good to know there’s a workaround for this, but honestly, this is one of the few areas in Dorico that is entirely wrong. If you attach an image, text, or music to a page, why or when wouldn’t want to be anything BUT attached to the page? If I’m attaching a text frame on a page, about the music on that page. It should, by default, move with the page. Or at least have an option to attach it to the page so it moves with it. This is one of the few areas where Finale’s software design is better: it allows you to anchor at least text boxes to either a measure or a page. Please implement something like that or better.

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Unfortunately the page doesn’t move; the music moves while the page stays where it is. That is not to say a lot of people would not be happy for the Dorico Team to find a convenient way for the page format to move with the music. It is something often requested and doubtless must be difficult to accomplish given the Dorico back end or no doubt the Dorico Team would have effected it already.

In the mean time, I find it easiest to create custom Page Templates for such complex pages so I can reassign the template to a new page if the music moves.

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Derrek, I’m interested in hearing about how you would do this. Would the “complex” pages include graphic and/or text templates? I’m still relatively new to Dorico, so I’m not clear on the procedure here.

As a solution, I would suggest adding the ability to attach manual text, graphics, and music frames specifically to regular music frames and systems. This would still be done in Engrave mode. That way, if Flows are reordered, the attached items will stay connected to the frames.

If I wanted text to change from flow to flow, I could put the text in the Other Information field of Project Info and use a token in the text field or I could duplicate the page template and change the text in the copy.

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Awesome. Great suggestion. Thanks!

+1 for the ability to rearrange flows without affecting the formatting within each of them. If all flows start on a new page, this seems like a natural workflow.