Good afternoon. I transferred from Finale - which I’ve used for 30 years - to Dorico after Finale announced its closing down. I must say that, as tech-savvy as I think myself to be, Dorico is the most user UNfriendly program I’ve experienced. I’m trying to compose a simple piano accompaniment to a vocal composition. Insert Notes works fine…until I want to edit a measure, then add, for example, a half note. Unlike Finale, Dorico thinks I’m ignorant and refuses to let me do so, because, for some reason, it thinks I need a whole note instead. Four times I go through this. I’m frankly about to return to Finale while it still works on my computer, because all I have to do in Finale is click and insert without the software thinking for me. Please, Dorico, DO something about this! I’ve arranged and composed for over 30 years, and NO computer tells me what I want! Thank you for your help.
Welcome to the forum.
Sorry you’re having trouble. Dorico’s note entry is different, certainly; but also very powerful and straightforward once you’ve learnt a few fundamentals. If you haven’t already, I’d watch the YouTube series of videos on Note Entry.
Can you give a bit more of an explanation of the exact problem that you’re having here?
Are you inserting a note in the middle of some other notes; or overwriting existing notes; or something else?
I can’t think of an instance when Dorico would add a whole note if you’re trying to enter a half note.
Dorico doesn’t tell you want you want – but it does do a lot for you, according to the rules in the various Options dialogs, which you can set as you want.
In addition to the info @benwiggy provided, I would suggest working through the First Steps Guide, which should help you find your way around Dorico. Here’s a link:
Hi Sherri,
Welcome to the forum.
Dorico works very differently from Finale and to start with you’ll bump up against this kind of thing! As Ben has said, it’s a different philosophy, and it takes a while to get used to it.
The only time I can think that Dorico would convert a half note to a whole note is if you were tying it to another half note. Otherwise I can’t think how it could happen,
The more you can say about exactly what you were doing, the more we can help.
AGREED!!! I have put off switching as long as possible. I miss Finale!!
As much as I thought I would never say this, I no longer miss Finale. I did at first but when I made conscious decision to let it go and to delve into the intricacies of Dorico, I never had the desire to go back. There are many things that contribute to this but I will share just one right now: playback using VST instruments. I continue to use the rich sounds from Garritan’s Personal Orchestra 5 and now I have a notation program that will actually interface correctly with Hauptwerk! Dorico does a great job in Playback using VST libraries of nearly any origin.
Oh, and welcome to the forum!
That’s one way to introduce yourself on the Dorico forum. 
Jesper
Thanks. I hope I’ll get there. I just gave up on the lead sheet I was trying to write in Dorico and went back to Finale just to have it done. Will clearly be devoting a great deal of time to this learning curve.
Maybe – but I am extremely frustrated and I don’t believe that I’m alone in this 
It might help to say what you find so difficult, so other ex-Finale users can assist.
Yes, there are many former Finale users who are having to learn a totally different way of notation. Thousands have done it, and you can too.
As @Janus says, share specific issues and you’ll get specific help.
There are plenty of videos out there, including series about Note Entry; and Jason Loffredo has done a set about going to Finale from Dorico.
Best is to start on Dorico with something that has not to be done. Or, at least, not to be done on a deadline. So that was good.
Do the things you have to do with Finale, it won’t disappear overnight, while learning Dorico.
Try to use Dorico the way it was intended, do not try to mimic the way you used working with Finale, since that way you are fighting Dorico.
Start with something simple, and ask around in the forum before you got frustrated, not after 
You’ll get there
No you are not alone in having to learn new software and the frustrating experience it is
We all have to do it, across many “genres” of software (whether we like it or not). One thing is certain, whatever new software you are learning, it cannot magically change into whatever you previously were using, (until perhaps, an AI faux interface can do it for us.)
“Learn” means we do the learning (not the software.) Unfortunately if you have no time currently to learn Dorico, we cannot do much about this for you unfortunately, however as you have seen, there are many here who are willing to help you (and it’s all free !) especially for a specific question so you can get it working and continue on.
If you search for Lead sheet here at the forum, there are many suggestions that might help gain an understanding, both of Dorico and creating a lead sheet.
Here is one:
one of which is this:
And search (but please do not get overwhelmed) for Finale here, as there are multiple discussions and URL references etc. on how to get comfortable with Dorico, again, it needs some dedicated time (probably a little, often, so there is less time to forget what you did in a previous session.)
Best wishes Sheri, and please feel free to ask here as you input and create the music. Just about everyone here has come from other notation software since Dorico is relatively new compared to the others, so we all know your frustration very well.
Sure – I know there many great helps and resources here, and I have learned several things, but so far, I have been unable to enter any notes in my lead sheet. When I try what the video says, nothing happens. By now, I’m wondering Dorico just wants me to update my MacBook before it will work. (I have intentionally not updated my MacBook so Finale would continue to work, but I think I have reached the end of that option )
Thanks so much – going through this and learning Dorico will be a major project next week!
Can you describe this in more detail? Are you just trying to start Note Entry? You should be able to just double-click on a bar; or select the rest and press Enter or Shift N.
Dorico 6 will run on Monterey (12) or later; Finale should be good on Monterey up to Sequoia (15).
Good evening. Since I last posted, I’m finding more frustrations with Dorico - but I’ll just reply to this one for now. 
I’m accustomed to looking up solutions to problems. So when I sought help on note entry from Dorico 6, frankly, I felt like I needed 20 minutes to read it. All I wanted to do was what I did in Finale: select my chosen note and click in the measure. The first time (and even this umpteenth time) with Dorico 6, I select a desired note, then click the measure - then have to return to the upper left-hand column five times to try and figure out why the whole note’s selected when I had wanted a quarter note. Finale also let me simply add or insert measures. It took ten minutes to figure out this in Dorico. In Finale I can space my staffs and measures evenly. But my doctoral program was easier than Dorico’s Help page: I type “repeat sign” in Search, and I get dozens of results on “one bar repeats,” “two bar repeats,” ”endings…” but nothing that looks like a simple repeat sign. In Finale, I could create band scores, brass ensembles, and elementary Orff compositions. But it’s obvious to me Dorico’s for elites and top professionals, only. Or to use a cooking analogy, Finale was Betty Crocker Cookbook to me - everything from how to carve a turkey to baking fresh bread. With Dorico you’d better have filet de sole and Pinot Noir as daily fare, or the creators tell you you can’t cook!
Anyway, thanks for letting me fuss. (Disclaimer: I was weaned on Finale since the mid 1990s, so of course, I’m not biased…
) ANY help y’all can offer me is MOST welcome.
Sincerely, Damsel in Distress
P.S.: At 61, I’ve composed and arranged music for nearly 40 years. So please, no comments about not trying “hard enough” or “Dorico isn’t Finale” - that last remarks GLARINGLY obvious!
You could choose these blue settings…
And you can click notes of the chosen duration onto the stave.
But that is not a very efficient way to enter notes.
So can Dorico. Select where to do it, then shift-B 4 will insert 4 measures. (You can also delete measures by using negative numbers)
Dorico will space according to the musical material and your Layout settings. Most of the time this gives a much better layout.
Sure - it’s a Repeat Barline (click the icon on the RH side that looks like a barline)
You can vent to your heart’s content here.
I have 6 years on you. Trust me, Dorico is a breeze compared to Finale!
As previously suggested in this post in this thread:
@asherber gave a link to the First steps guide, especially useful, if at the moment, you are trying to dive in and create a score as you are used to doing… and not getting very far. Many have gone through this guide, it starts off with the basics and some of it might already be familiar to you, because you have already played around with Dorico a little.