Simpler control of breaking multimeasure rests
Currently, the only method of breaking a multirest seems to be to right-click a measure and check 'break at multirest'. This seems to need to be done for the measure in every part, which is a bit of a pain. It would be very useful if there was a new Multirest Break object that one could add over a measure to force a multirest break in every part. This can currently be achieved with a double bar line, but one doesn't necessarily want to litter their score with these.
Comments
Rehearsal marks also force a break, and I suppose you could make them invisible? But I'm curious why you want to force a break if there is nothing happening - usually, so you can show a double bar or rehearsal mark *is* the reason (key signatures and time signatures are handled automatically too of course).
As a player I find it a lot easier to count tacets if they clearly follow melodic sections, so say if I wanted a certain part to have a tacet over the first head then a hit in the fourth bar of the second head (say, after "you're going to rise up singing" in Summertime), I'll write it as -16- -3- instead of -19-. It's a contrived example but I'm sure you understand what I'm getting at. I don't see a lot of non-rhythm jazz parts so not sure if this is common there, but it's sometimes used for percussion parts in concert band music, and very welcome as a player.
A rehearsal mark does kind of address this use though, I'll have a look into that. :)
Really, this is what double bars are for. After all, it's not just the people with rests who like to see the sections of a tune delineated clearly. Consider a drum set part that is written as nothing but "ding ding-a ding ding-a ding" over and over and over - or just slashes. You need to see where the sections of the tune are at least as much as someone with rests, or you'd lost track of which of those identical-looking measures you were on.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with seeing double bars placed every 16 bars or so. Indeed, most fakebooks would have placed place them every 8 bars in that particular tune.
But sure, if for some reason you really don't want double bars, rehearsal marks will accomplish the same, and as nited, they can be made invisible. I generally include both. As a conductor, these help a lot when people get lost. I can make a larger conducting motion to say "here we are at a double bar/rehearsal mark", and everyone - not just those with rest - who is in doubt about where they are can synchronized. And if someone is *really* lost, I can give a hand signal for the actual letter of the rehearsal mark, or just shout it out ("letter J").