backwards ties to hidden notes or chords

[mmike]

I am sure I've done this in the past, but simply can't remember how ...
I have 3 measures with tied whole note chords. I want to hide the chord in measure 1 and 3 and only see the chord in measure 2, including its backwards and forwards ties.
I can do it manually with slurs (cumbersome) and I've also done it by not hiding the note entries but only the noteheads, which looks correct on the screen (noteheads greyed out, ties visible), but the ties do not show in a print to pdf (neither with PDFCreator, nor with Finale PDF Export or graphics function).
What's the secret?

[Peter Thomsen]

What works for me, is still cumbersome, but less cumbersome than fiddling manually with slurs:
I hide the noteheads with shape expressions.
It takes some time to create the shape expressions, but you can use them again and again.

See the attached PDF file.

NB:
When you view the PDF file, you may see some “notehead residue” on the computer screen, bit do not worry!
The residue will not print, and it disappears when you zoom in on the screen.

[miker]

The only way I can come up with is to use JW Change to resize the notes to 0%, and, if there are any ledger lines, use JW Change to hide them. This still leaves a couple of pixel sized artifacts, but damme if I can see them unless I really get close. You may be able to cover them up by extending the ties just a bit.

[mmike]

Peter - this blanks out portions of the staff lines
Mike - I tried it and it works very well, looks good, clever thinking!
Thanks to both

[motet]

Instead of hiding the notes, change the noteheads to a blank (202). This may move some of the ties, in which case Utilities/Change/Ties/Outer placement = off seems to fix it. Printing works.

[miker]

Even better, motet!

[motet]

I did have to hide the ledger lines.

[mmike]

once again, great minds at work ....

[Peter Thomsen]

Peter - this blanks out portions of the staff lines …

I examined my attached PDF file again, and I can not see where portions of the staff lines are blanked out.

What are your steps when you find, that portions of the staff lines are blanked out?
Did you print my PDF file?
Did you view the PDF file on the computer screen? At what zoom percentage?

[mmike]

The blank spaces are there when viewing the file on the computer screen with Adobe Acrobat Reader, at any zoom (see below)

when printing the file on paper, the lines are all visible, no blank space

[Peter Thomsen]

The blank spaces are there when viewing the file on the computer screen with Adobe Acrobat Reader, at any zoom …

… when printing the file on paper, the lines are all visible, no blank space

That explains it.
The lines are all visible, with no blank space, on the computer screen with Apple Preview.

I always view PDF files in Preview, probably because I long time ago experienced a similar bug in Adobe Reader.

By the Way:
I can confirm that the blank spaces are there when viewing the file on the computer screen with Adobe Reader, at any zoom.