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Topic: Bar Lines on Orchestral Scores (Read 2558 times) previous topic - next topic

Bar Lines on Orchestral Scores

Hi,  This question was asked late last year and as far as I
can see was never answered fully. I have a large orchestral
score and need to break the bar lines between the lowest
brass instrument and the highest string instrument; I think
this is the "industry standard". I have tried all
combinations of Styles with no luck. The large black line
at the start of each system is OK.

Re: Bar Lines on Orchestral Scores

Reply #1 –
The best you can do right now is to use piano staves for that purpose (Upper Grand to start and Lower Grand to finish).  Something like your request has been on the wish list for some time.
Since 1998

Re: Bar Lines on Orchestral Scores

Reply #2 –
You can get an approximation by doing this:

1.  In the Staff Properties dialog, under the General tab, make sure all your brass and string staves have "Orchestral" style.  (This will give an undesired vertical line connecting the brass to the strings.)
2.  Add a new staff (control-A).
3.  Move it so that it's between the brass and strings (shift-control-pageup).
4.  In the Staff Properties dialog, under the General tab, make the style "standard", and make the ending bar "open (hidden)".
5.  In the Staff Properties dialog, under the Visual tab, make sure the "Layer with next staff" box is checked.

The unwanted vertical lines should now have vanished.

All you need to do now is make sure you don't put anything visible on the new staff.  So either: leave it empty, or hide everything on it.  I find that if you don't have invisible clefs, key signatures and time signatures, the spacing on the screen changes strangely, but it doesn't make any difference to the print preview.

The draw-back to this method is that you don't get separate brass and string brackets.  There are lots of threads about how to import files into word processors and graphics programs, where you can add the brackets manually.

But it would be nice if there were an "Orchestral Group" style.
 

Re: Bar Lines on Orchestral Scores

Reply #3 –
Hi Ewan (and others).  Many thanks for the tip, it worked
fine. I went a few steps further and reduced the new staff
to zero lines and vertical size of "1" and now the printout
is great. I will work around the bracket problem but right
now this is the best I have ever had and it certainly should
now satisfy my conductor. Yes, an Orchestral Style would be
a really nice addition to this fine program. Thanks again.