I've been looking for a way to eliminate the lines (not hyphens) that connect stickings from one note to another when using the Lyrics input method (I'm using Sibelius 7.1.2 on Windows 7). The closest I've gotten was in this forum topic:

https://www.tapspace.com/forums/index.php?topic=2979.0

The following post goes right up to the edge of solving the problem but takes a right turn exactly when I was hoping to see a solution!

[quote author=Bryan Harmsen link=topic=2979.msg15742#msg15742 date=1235405775]
I've also never had hyphens when skipping from one note to another. That's why I asked about the underlining.  By default, Sibelius adds what looks like an underscore for every note that is skipped with the spaced bar. It does this since in vocal music to notate the fact that a particular lyric should extend over multiple pitches.

You could use Percussion Stickings and avoid this entire problem with:
Create > Text > Other Staff Text > Percussion Stickings
[/quote]

I've tried the ";Percussion Stickings"; method but don't like it as much since it doesn't seem to have quite the flexibility as the Lyrics method -- i.e. being able to use <Backspace> when I blow it (happens frequently), etc. If anyone has found a way to use the spacebar to advance a few notes down the staff WITHOUT causing the underline to appear, please pass along the info; I'm at my wit's end!

Micah,

Like you, I have not found a way to avoid this. But I have a quick workaround. When you have sticked the note before you want to have a gap in your stickings, press ESC. This takes you out of the lyric editing mode. Then select that last lyric, copy it, select the next note you want sticked, and paste. This puts a sticking (not necessarily the correct one) under or over the note you want to start on. Then double-click this text to edit it to your desire, then press space and enter the next sticking.

Once you get in the habit of this it will go very quickly. You could of course just press ESC, go to your next note, and press CTRL+l, but the method I described preserves the vertical positioning of the sticking so that it remains consistent throughout the piece. I often stick battery parts below the staff and mallet parts above the staff (especially when writing for 4 mallets) so I use this method a lot. I also put stick heights in my battery music and use lyrics to get the job done.