I am working on a score where the composer has placed dashed vertical lines above and below the score to indicate phrasing (we think) to the conductor. The composer is dead so we can’t ask him. The person who has hired me would like me to place these lines in the score but not in the parts, since the composer put them there for a reason (they are not spaced out regularly throughout the movement.)
I can not find a way to do that other than creating a text block which has the “pipe” character with character returns to form the appearance of a vertical line. None of the vertical lines in the lines dialog will attach to barlines, nor do they seem to be adjustable in length.
Am I missing something or is what is shown in the jpg I have uploaded here not possible easily in Dorico? I’m using Dorico Pro version 6.latest.
Nope – those “coordination lines” (as the help says) can be placed “between any two staves.” I need to put the above the top staff and below the bottom staff. The lines I need don’t connect anything.
Thank you for the suggestion.
You can’t alt/opt+click to copy those lines AFAIK (you can in Write mode, see @asherber’s post below) but you can select multiple coordination lines and set those properties simultaneously.
I’d probably not do that until the very end of your process though. Perhaps others have better suggestions.
This is a really neat idea, and there are a few things you can do to simplify it.
First, with default settings in Engraving Options, a coordination line at the barline will take on the width of the barline, so for a coordination line between the top two staves you only need to worry about moving the top up, and for a coordination line between the bottom two staves, you only need to worry about moving the bottom down – and not by that much. For example, here’s a coordination line between the top two staves, with the top Y offset set to 10 spaces:
Second, you can use user scripts to add these lines, although you need to be in Engrave mode for them to work. Here’s one for above the system (start by selecting items at the first beat in the top two staves).
local app=DoApp.DoApp()
app:doCommand([[Edit.CreateCoordinationLine]])
app:doCommand([[UI.InvokePropertyChangeValue?Type=kCoordinationLineEndDy&Value=string: "10"]])
And here’s one for below the system (start by selecting items at the first beat in the bottom two staves).
local app=DoApp.DoApp()
app:doCommand([[Edit.CreateCoordinationLine]])
app:doCommand([[UI.InvokePropertyChangeValue?Type=kCoordinationLineStartDy&Value=string: "-10"]])
Edit: Oh, or of course you can add the coordination line from top to bottom in just one step; I was thinking of this in two steps because of the images in @Zalde’s post. Here’s the user script for this (after selecting items in the top and bottom staves).
local app=DoApp.DoApp()
app:doCommand([[Edit.CreateCoordinationLine]])
app:doCommand([[UI.InvokePropertyChangeValue?Type=kCoordinationLineEndDy&Value=string: "10"]])
app:doCommand([[UI.InvokePropertyChangeValue?Type=kCoordinationLineStartDy&Value=string: "-10"]])
Finally, you can Alt/Opt+click these lines to new positions (in Write mode) after you’ve created the first ones.
The problem I ran into (and solved) was that I was ending up with coordination lines running between all the sections of the system and not just above the top staff and below the bottom staff.
What I’ve done is to click a rest on the top staff, select Create Coordination Line, enter 10 for the top Y offset and 0 for the bottom Y offset, select Barline Alignment and be sure the word Barline is highlighted and I get a line that extends above the top staff only.
For the bottom staff (in my case it’s a single-line percussion staff – I’m not sure if that’s what makes this different) I have to ctrl-click an item on each of the bottom two staves (both single-line percussion staves) and then click Create Coordination line, enter 0 for the top Y offset, enter -10 for the bottom Y offset, select Barline Alignment and be sure the word Barline is highlighted to get a line that is only below the bottom staff.
I can use numbers larger than 10 if I want the lines longer above and below the system.
Thank you all for pointing me in the right direction for getting this done!
