Token request

Dorico
#1

Hi,
I’ve been working a bit to find an ideal setup of tokens and have som questions/requests for the future:

  1. The token {@stafflabelsfull@} is the only one printing transpositions with the right symbols (flats/sharps) without manual editing. Would it be possible for a future version to get the “&” before the last instument when listing a couple of instruments? (In the same way as in e.g. {@layoutName@})

Alternatively get the right symbols without manual editing in {@stafflabelsfull@}

  1. Would it also be possible to get {@playerlist@} printing the right sharps/flats without manual editing of the player names?

  2. I’ve been a bit confused over the token {@playernames@}, and the confusion has to do with the name. As I see it it isn’t the names of the players, but rather a list of all instruments held by all the players. Am I right? Wouldn’t it be better calling it instrumentlist instead? (sorry for giving suggestions…)

Cheers
/ Mats

#2

If you edit the layout name to include the token e.g. {@flat@}, then the {@layoutName@} token will be resolved to include the flat sign as you expect, and the {@flat@} token will be replaced with a lower-case b in the Layouts panel and in exported filenames, so that you don’t end up with tokens showing up everywhere.

{@playerList@} returns the names of the players as defined in the Players panel in Setup mode, and although we don’t perform the same cosmetic clean-up for the display in the Players panel itself (i.e. “{@flat@}” will still appear there instead of “b”), this will allow the list of players to include the expected flat symbol.

We can’t in general do this automatically because player names can be edited manually by the user, and we cannot tell whether the user intends to write e.g. “Bb” or “B{@flat@}” without having the user explicitly tell us so, hence the need to use tokens.

#3

If you edit the layout name to include the token e.g. {@flat@}, then the {@layoutName@} token will be resolved to include the flat sign as you expect, and the {@flat@} token will be replaced with a lower-case b in the Layouts panel and in exported filenames, so that you don’t end up with tokens showing up everywhere.

This works of course well and with a macro in Metagrid it’s pretty quick, even though an automated way of doing it would’ve been more elegant and time saving.

{@playerList@} returns the names of the players as defined in the Players panel in Setup mode, and although we don’t perform the same cosmetic clean-up for the display in the Players panel itself (i.e. “{@flat@}” will still appear there instead of “b”), this will allow the list of players to include the expected flat symbol.

The problem when editing the Player name is that it won’t update anymore if you e.g. add or remove an instrument.

#4

It’s not so bad, is it? You add an instrument right there in the Players panel, you see the player name hasn’t updated, you update it. The work of a couple of seconds.

#5

Well, if you have to manually update a couple of instruments, also with the risk of miss spellings etc, it takes some time. To me the whole idea of tokens is to minimize the amount of manual adjustments. So, yes, it’s of course doable, but In comparison to how well thought out everything else is, this feels a bit overlooked. But I can live with that. :slight_smile:

#6

What about a token like {@flowInLayout@}, which is the number of the flow in this particular layout.
To elaborate: I was doing some lessons in Dorico, while at some point I decided to not include the first flow in the Layout anymore. But I wanted to keep it for later. The then first flow was still numbered as the second flow in the flow header.
Of course, I could’ve just moved it to the back, but it got me thinking, that there are indeed use cases for creating worksheets, where the same exercise (flow) can appear in different order in the layout, hence the use for such a token.

But maybe I am also just creating overly complex scenarios :wink:

#7

That token already exists, klafkid. From the Dorico 3 Version History:

New token. > A new token > {@flowInLayoutNumber@} > has been added, which resolves to the index of the flow in the layout, rather than its index in the overall list of flows, so the first flow included in the layout will be 1, the second flow in the layout will be 2, and so on.

#8

Aha, then I am sorry to have bothered you!

As people say: great minds think alike, but your minds definitely thought quicker :wink:

#9

Hi there!

Thanks for another great update!
I just found a problem when I try to add tokens to layout names on my german keyboard layout. On my Mac keyboard, {@…@} is created by pressing Opt+8 Opt+l … Opt+l Opt+9, but whenever I hit Opt+8 or Opt+9 in the input field of the layouts panel, the text input box closes. The only way to input tokens is to copy the token from somewhere else. Maybe there is something that you can do about it in a future update?

Thanks and all the best!

#10

You can add the token with a right click.

#11

Not in the Layouts panel, I suspect, there’s no context menu there. I’m not sure why the edit closes when you press that key combination, but I’ll try to look into it.