I also just fell victim to this and had to redo a bunch of work… it’s really not obvious that text frames could be linked in this way… maybe we could have a button “new from selection” for page templates (as in the techniques and noteheads editor) that simply duplicates the selection without creating links…
Another +1 to making this linkage less surprising (show some kind of unique identifier along the top of the frame, as with music frames? Or at least show that state within its properties?) and providing a way to unlink.
Unless I’m missing something obvious, pasting text back into the recreated frame loses rich text formatting (font sizes, bold, italic, etc.)? Just hit this issue when I needed some layout-specific tweaks to performance notes.
If Dorico allows us to duplicate an existing template, this solves the problem. Creating each page, head and music frame as the default template is time-consuming.
This is a major inconvenience, making the process of fine tuning a master page with different text frames much harder. It is really a big QoL issue. Hope is being considered for future versions. Specially in light of the multiple users identifying the same blocker.
No doubt the Development Team is aware of the situation and will address it when time allows. No doubt as well that it will be a surprise and just turn up in a program update one day.
I have found a workaround to unlink duplicate Master Pages (AKA Page Template?), so you can do as @dwlarson describes he would like it to work:
Identify the Master Page you would like to duplicate. Identify the Page Template Set (from now on “Main Set”) it belongs.
Go to the ‘Page Template Sets’ area (right panel, Engrave mode) and duplicate the Page Template Set that contains the Master Page you want to duplicate.
In the ‘Page Templates’ area, make sure the ‘Current Set’ is the Page Template Set you just duplicated (from now on “Duplicate Set”).
Identify the Master Page you want to duplicate (now in the Duplicate Set), and click ‘New Page Template’.
4.0 In the dialog box:
4.1 Name the new Master Page. Beware: The name you choose cannot exactly match any of the names in your Main Set.
4.2 In the ‘Based on:’ option, select the Master Page you would like to duplicate.
4.3 CRITICAL: In ‘Type’ select ‘Custom’
Go back to your initial Page Template Set and click ‘Import Page Template’.
5.0 In the dialog box:
5.1 Select the Duplicate Set (where your just duplicated Master Page is located)
5.2 Select your duplicated Master Page and click OK.
Success! In your Main Set, you now have 2 identical Master Pages that are not linked to each other
Notes regarding step #4:
The reason you cannot just skip this step (#4), and instead simply import into your Main Set, is because if you do that, you will be importing a ‘First’ or a ‘Default’ Master Page type. Since each Page Template Set can only have one of each, when you import directly Dorico immediately overwrites the existing ‘First’ or ‘Default’ Master Page, effectively not duplicating at all.
The reason you must name the duplicate Master Page differently, is because if you name it to something equal to a Master Page in your Main Set, Dorico will overwrite the Master Page, effectively not duplicating at all. This is true even if you are importing a ‘Custom’ Master Page into another ‘Custom’ Master Page (not a ‘First’ or a ‘Default’, which we know is overwritten immediately, regardless of the name).
** Even a single character difference is enough for Dorico not to overwrite the Master Page in your Main Set when you import.**
It’s fair to say this is a bit of a hassle. However it is far quicker than to recreate the Master Page manually.
Has this feature been looked into since 2020? The incapacity of either unlinking a page or frame or copypasting a frame is still a flagrant hindrance.
Two common use cases coexist: the need for linked stuff and the need to copy stuff for modification. In the context of computer softwares, “redo everything from scratch again and again” is not a valid solution. Play at least allow the basic function of copypasting a frame.
This is a case where Frame Style would be useful. Much like a paragraph style, if we could set all the necessary options in a frame then save it as a style to apply to other frames would be a huge step forward. They’d probably have to have separate Frame Style settings for music as opposed to text, but it should be doable.