Hide empty staves = Instrument
Refer to #9922: Disable Hide Empty Staves option for scores with one staff. This is basically a request for grand staves to be made visible together. At some point in version 3 Instrument was added as an option for Hide when empty. It works if you have a note in one of the staves but if it is the only instrument available and is an empty staff, only the top staff set to instrument or auto is shown. If these are set to instrument then they should always show both staves if one is shown. Thoughts?
Comments
I would support an option for both (should have said in the linked issue, sorry).
In reply to I would support an option… by chen lung
If you set the staff to auto in a grand staff it would hide even with notes in the other staff. Setting it to instrument should keep both staves visible any time one is visible. This is how the option for both (or either) would work.
I agree. When "Hide When Empty" is set to "Instrument" for a grand staff, if one of its staves is visible then all of its staves should be visible. This should be true regardless of whether the instrument is alone in the score. The fact that this is not currently the case suggests there is a bug either in this feature, or the "Hide Empty Staves" feature, or both.
I had made a few screen copies before, planning to ask a question later, and I wonder if at least one of them is now useful in this discussion.
In the screen copy below, in measures 5 through 8, only one stave of the piano is visible. The other piano stave is empty. The label (Pno.) disappeared:
![PianoBarMissing-II.png]( "PianoBarMissing-II.png")
I had expected that either both staves of the piano are visible, or neither. That's why, when I first saw this, and for a short moment, I wondered if the stave of the singer and the one stave of the piano were the two staves of the piano. (No, they're not.)
I think I can do without the general setting "Hide When Empty" if I can select something like this per stave or per instrument.
Under "Staff Properties" I found "Do not hide if system is empty". I always get confused if there are two settings, at different locations in the menu, that do comparable things, but not exactly the same. That's why I don't mind to forget about the general "Hide When Empty" all together and to select the right option for "Hide when empty" per stave separately.
Most of all, I hope that this screen copy is a useful illustration.
In reply to I wonder if a few screen… by barencor
The disappearing label is a problem that has been fixed. I'm not sure which version is was fixed in but in the 3.5.1 I'm using it has been fixed and I seem to remember it being fixed in 3.5 also.
As for the entire instrument being hidden or nothing, this may make sense for a piano with 2 staves, but there are other situations where this is not the case. One example is the piano score I'm currently working on the has between 2 & 4 staves and I always want at least 2 staves visible. I also have been known to use multiple staves on one instrument for divisi string staves and I only want the additional staves visible when they have notes.
The point of all of this is that we need options. Hide empty staves in the style menu is the most common solution so the more advanced (or rarer) situation is accounted for in staff/part properties.
Also, the property in staff/part properties is "Hide when empty" and has a choice or Auto, Always, Never and Instrument.
In reply to The disappearing label is a… by mike320
Thank you for the extra information. Regarding the disappearing label, I was using version 3.4.2.
The disappearing label was first reported by me years ago: #30971: Instrument name of multi-stave entry doesn't appear with hide empty staves and if top staff is hidden
It was closed and another issue opened (don't know if it was fixed, but I'll go by the others here).
In reply to The disappearing label was… by chen lung
It got closed as a duplicate if #58091: Instrument name gone when switching order of staves with "Hide empty staves" enabled, which is still open