Selectively hide a stave

[rraby]

I’m starting to get to grips with layouts and the formatting of music. I have to say that Dorico produces beautifully presented notation, and any refinements are really a bonus.

In a Vocals part layout, I need to selectively hide the lower staff (from bar 156 in the excerpt below) and am wondering how best to achieve this. Apologies if the answer is obvious, this is the first time I’ve needed to do this. I’ve read a number of threads about selectively showing/hiding staves, but most are from a long time ago and no solution was suggested.

[Christian_R]

Hi @rraby, have a look at Manual Staff Visibility:

Hiding/Showing staves from system/frame breaks - Dorico Pro - 6.1

I would suggest to set first a “Reset All” Manual Staff Visibility on the next manually added system break (on the next system), then make your adjustments to the manually added system break that begins at bar 156 Double clicking on it, or choosing the first rest and right click>Staff>Manual Staff Visibility)

Edit: if you want to have a global automatic setting, instead of a “selective” one, follow the first suggestion by @Vadian, here below.

[rraby]

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction @Christian_R - much appreciated

[Vadian]

Basically there are two ways:

1. In Layout Options > Vertical Spacing hide empty staves either After first system or All systems and check the individual checkbox.

2. Use Manual Staff Visibility available in the context menu or menu Edit > Notations > Staff.
   Important: First apply a Reset at the system following the system you want to hide because manual visibility hides a staff regardless whether it contains music or not.

[charles_piano]

Just adding that if you need it in the middle of a system, it’s possible by using the “Remove Staff” feature.

And you can reset the hidden staff by choosing “Add staff”

[rraby]

Many thanks for this suggestion @charles_piano.

I’ve just tried what you propose, and the results are rather odd. If I click in the bottom staff at bar 156 and select Remove Staff, I am presented (in Write mode, Page view) with all of the staves held by the Singers instrument, although the one I asked to hide is indeed hidden.

I’m working on a musical, and have found that, for the most part, instrument labels and the formatting of the score work very well with all characters held by a single player. I have perhaps 20+ singers all held by the same player. Is why Remove Staff produces unpredictable results? Or perhaps I misunderstand how this function is intended to work?

[charles_piano]

Strange…! Anyway you have a working solution from @Christian_R & @Vadian.

I just tried to reproduce what you describe, and on my end it only happens if I select (also) the voice staff before asking to remove staff. Since Dorico has to display at least one staff of a multi-instrument player, if you remove the active one, all the other ones show up.

But if I select only the piano bottom staff I don’t get your issue. So, I’m not sure what’s happening on your end:

[rraby]

It’s a little curious… but as you say, there are other options.

[rraby]

This works like a dream @Vadian - thank you for another excellent suggestion