It may be that you have an intricate score that demands manual intervention on each frame; in which case, pure probably going about it the right way. I wonder if it’s possible to set the filter at the master page level - if so, that would then apply to every page that uses that master page (template).
On the other hand, it may be that you haven’t found the Hide Empty Staves solution within Layout Options, or that you’re not aware that each Layout can have a different selection of players shown.
What I am doing is a workbook for band players. I aim to create a seperate book for each transposing instrument - Concert, B flat, E flat, Bass clef etc.
I have made flows with all of the players/music and in engrave mode I have text frames alternating with music frames. I would like to be able to swap the player specific music out in all frames in one go, rather than selecting and changing each one at a time. In this way I can quickly change the booklet from Concert to B flat, E flat and bass clef and then print a copy out of each.
Does that make sense?
Hide empty staves will not work, perhaps setting the filter at the master page level is the ticket. I had not thought of that!
If I have all of the players in the music frames in engrave mode then I can deselect them as you said in setup mode and it works across the whole book!
Long term it strikes me that what you actually want is a “Copy Layout” feature - something that many of us want.
In the interim, hopefully you can make this work with what I’ve suggested.
To filter by frames, you have to either create a Local frame, or click on an existing Master frame (the first drop down selector), and choose Unlink. The frame will now be changed to a Local frame, where you can filter players, and/or flows.
The other way to get filtering is to edit the Master Page in Engrave Mode (by double-clicking on the Master Page “First” or “Default”) and select the filtering options.
I’m in total agreement with you on the “love” for Dorico!!!