Hiding stave

2004-10-01 01:33 am

Is there a way to really hide a stave?

When the properties are set to "never print" a stave if not hidden by layering it still shows up, joined to the one below and without notes.

I have been trying to get a little flexibilty in transcribing choral works and it would be useful to make the topmost stave disappear sometimes.

Re: Hiding stave

Reply #1 – 2004-10-01 05:39 am

I suspect you're not using the file/page setup/contents setting? It should only be visible and should only print if there's an x marked beside the staff name.

You will still hear it on playback unless you also mute it too (press M while you're in the edit window).

Re: Hiding stave

Reply #2 – 2004-10-02 03:54 am

That may suppress it throughout, but what about part of a work? Is it all or nothing? That has its uses.

The way it seem to work is the notes can be made invisible but the underlying stave still shows.

Re: Hiding stave

Reply #3 – 2004-10-02 06:57 am

I'm afraid it is indeed all or nothing. NWC doesn't have the capability to vary the number of staffs within the piece. In other words, if you have a part that is mostly unison and you have a few bars of divisi that you want to show on a separate staff, you can't do it within NWC.

I think you could possibly work around the limitation making two song files and printing both on the same sheet of paper. Try this:

In File 1, create 2 staffs (A and B). Set their styles to orchestral. Write the music out in both staffs, except where the part is divisi, put the top line on Staff A and the bottom line on Staff B. Copy the top line of only the divisi bars (from Staff A) to a new staff in a new file (File 2). In File 1, force a system break in the top staff on the bar line immediately before the divisi bar and on the bar line that ends the divisi section.

Change the staff properties of Staff A in File 1 so it is white. If the notes still show up, make them white too.

Now in File 2, you should have just one staff with just the notes from the upper divisi line.

In theory, you should be able to print File 1 and then File 2 on the same sheet of paper, and get your double staff only in the systems where the second line is needed.

I think it will be quite tricky - you'll need to experiment with margins and staff vertical sizes, but it might work.

I haven't tried it. If it does work, please let us know. If you find that it doesn't work but will after you've made a couple of extra tweaks, then let us know what you did.

Good luck. I hope it will meet your objective and not take too much time tinkering to make it work.