Hiding/Showing empty staves

You can hide/show empty staves differently in each layout in your project. For example, you can show all staves, including empty staves, in a full score layout for the conductor but hide empty staves in a full score layout intended for reference only.

Procedure

  1. In Setup mode, choose Setup > Layout Options.

    The Layout Options dialog opens.

  2. In the Layouts list, select the layouts in which you want to hide/show empty staves in one of the following ways:
    • Click Select All.

    • Click Select All Full Score Layouts.

    • Click Select All Part Layouts.

    • Click Select All Custom Score Layouts.

    • Ctrl/Cmd-click individual layouts.

    • Shift-click adjacent layouts.

    By default, the layout currently open in the music area is selected when you open the dialog.

  3. Select Vertical Spacing from the Category menu.
  4. In the Hide Empty Staves section, choose one of the following options for Hide empty staves:
    • After first system

    • All systems

    • Never

  5. Activate/Deactivate Allow individual staves of multi-staff instruments to be hidden.
  6. Optional: For Players excluded from Hide Empty Staves, activate the checkbox beside each instrument you want to be shown regardless of your choice for Hide empty staves.
  7. Click Apply, then Close.

Result

Empty staves in the selected layouts are hidden/shown according to your choice. If you activated Allow individual staves of multi-staff instruments to be hidden, any single empty staves in multi-staff instruments, such as piano or harp, can be hidden in the selected layouts.