I don’t know what it is called, but I think selecting a time value in the lower left to select the grid resolution is a somewhat fiddly function. The window is very small and must be used frequently. On a laptop or tablet, it can be hard to see, and touch is not practical.
What about a toggle button by the note values that defaults the grid to the note selection? With toggle on, selecting a 1/16, for example, would set the grid to sixteenths.
The current function would still work and a user would not have to use this toggle function–it would be an alternate method.
Obviously, this it not critical, but I work in Dorico many hours every day and small workflow improvements make a big difference.
The toggle button would be somewhere in this area.
… and don’t forget that you can always advance the caret by any duration, even if it is smaller than the grid. So you don’t need to change the grid to enter a sixteenth rest, followed by a sixteenth note, for example (with the grid set to eighths).
Not exactly what you’re asking but you can already set key commands to change the rhythmic grid. I’ve set Ctrl+6 to change the grid to quarter notes, Ctrl+5 for eighths, etc. (Or perhaps they are the defaults, I’m not sure, but its easy to remember that way).
Edit: ninja’d by benwiggy, apparently they are my own key commands.
I agree with @Zalde. I’m using the shortcuts to move and “resize” notes/dynamics etc. all the time. I even created a shortcut to toggle between 8th and 16th grid.
And in a x/8 time signature with a lot of 16th and 32th notes I prefer 16th grid, and in a x/2 time signature with a lot of half and quarter notes I prefer quarter grid.
Yes, I can see that. I think I don’t generally need to resize by less than a 16th, or more than a couple of eighths, and I tend to just delete and re-enter if I need something very different. But I see the utility.
As @Zalde notes, I think a number of users have mapped Ctrl/Cmd+number to setting specific grid values (where number is the number for the equivalent rhythmic duration).
On a different thread today you were saying you needed to learn more about the insert modes.
Well this is actually just a corollary - what happens when you overwrite one duration with another (without using insert). You could repeat the exercise I suggested with insert turned on and see how the behaviour changes.
Changing A to B by dotting the first 1/8th was recommended as a fix for a specific situation; but it is such a highly useful trick that it is now my default method for entering figures with this pattern.
In orchestration, something that saves a minute or two will end up saving many hours through repetition.
I think the default is the Space bar to Advance the Caret by the current selected duration. (I have Numpad 0 assigned to this, which basically acts like Finale’s key for creating a rest.)
If you’re using Pitch Before Duration, then it might be more complex, as you can’t press a duration by itself.
