If a hidden stave is showing in Play Mode because there a note on it, it’s possible to continue to write music on that stave right up until the end of the stave. However after that point you’re taken back to the start of the first page on the first flow.
Rather than switch to Galley Mode to continue (believe me, 44 flows and 180 pages in I think twice about it), would it be possible for Dorico to recognise that note entry is still in use and allow the entry to continue by unhiding the next stave?
Navigation is pretty good, my way through the flows is simply to use the slider at the bottom. I’ve learned how to zip around such a large file and how to minimise delays. Side note: it all seems to be a fair bit faster in Dorico 3. The big delay is switching between Galley view and Page view so I try to do what I can in one view before switching over to the other. I don’t manage it every time though…
It’s not a problem because Galley view enables you to write on hidden staves - one of its key functions IMO. My point was that if Play view is showing you part of a hidden stave and you start writing on it, it would be good if Dorico could recognise that note entry was continuing and unhide the next stave. For all I know it’s simply not possible, but I thought I’d ask the question.
It’s half a dozen mouse clicks at most in Setup mode.
I create “temporary” layouts all the time for working on subsets of flows and/or players, to stop the rest of the project getting in the way and slowing things down.
For example in a big orchestra score I’m working on a present I have layouts for woodwind, brass, percussion, chorus, keyboards, strings, etc and even smaller ones like “clarinet section” where they are useful.
David, as soon as you input a note that ends up at the start of the following system where the staff was previously unhidden, Dorico will automatically unhide the staff. Perhaps it gets confused about the order in which things happen, and it moves the view before the staff has been shown, so it ends up zipping back to the start of the flow, but the staff itself will have become unhidden. You can probably then go back to it by doing Ctrl+G and typing the bar number of the bar you have just got to, assuming you know it.
I should have persisted with it. The problem was that it took me back to the beginning of the first flow, and as that looked completely wrong, that’s where I stopped. If I continue the stave is opened, the note is entered and it takes me back to the original position in the score (albeit the screen layout on a widescreen monitor is different).
Except for the jumping around - which is easy enough to live with - that’s exactly what I was looking for. Thanks again.
My trick for quickly showing hidden staves is to add text to a visible staff, and then use “move to staff below” to move it to the hidden staff, which now becomes visible.
For the case you’re talking about, you could select the last visible measure and repeat it so that it makes the staff on the next page visible.