I usually work with multi staves. Quartet, ten piece to full band scores 16+ staves.
Is there a way of transferring common features from the top stave to all subsequent.
I'm thinking predominantly of things like time signature changes. Do I have to enter them manually on every stave?
You have to enter them on every stave. But it can be done with copy and paste. Goes pretty fast.
For the top staff, use it as a tempo staff and use it for all tempo indications and rehearsal symbols, then fill it with hidden rests and bar lines. Layer it into the part you want printed.
Printing Parts for an Ensemble (https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=2316.msg12873#msg12873)
I wrote a tool that may do what you want.
To install: download the attached lua file, open any file in NWC an drag and drop the lua file onto the NWC window.