I have no idea what I’ve done to my notation/engraving settings that the above examples are what are being considered the default in 12/8. These also still occur even if I explicitly set the meter as [3+3+3+3]/8.
The half notes appear whether I enter them as half notes, or as an eighth tied to a dotted-quarter (which, of course, is what I’d rather they appear as). I can force an eighth note duration and tie it to a dotted-quarter, of course, but after getting a slew of comments implying I must be an idiot in the Facebook group, I think I’ve clearly gotten something crossed in my notation settings somewhere such that they’re different from the default. (This occurs even if I open a new project and start from scratch.)
I ran into this issue not long ago, in 12/8, and I didn’t manage to solve it using the options, which is strange indeed!
Maybe I should have searched a bit more, but the only thing I found was that it works with an aggregate TS without dashed barline: 6/8:6/8
But you have to hide it (so only apply it from the second bar), because aggregates of this type (without a dashed barline) don’t allow to combine compatible aggregates (i.e. it will show up as 6/8+6/8, not as 12/8).
And it’s still not completely perfect, since you still need Force Duration to get a dotted whole note.
Edit: I should have searched more! This is the one:
