Hi all,
I’m starting a new position this autumn and will probably have a MacBook Pro as my work computer; that gives me the chance to try working with Dorico in a Mac environment.
For those of you who work in macOS, what helper apps would you recommend? In Windows 11 I’ve made good use of PowerToys and AutoHotKey, and I’ve also used Stream Deck a bit, though not in any essential way.
Grateful for any advice.
I use both with a KVM switch (Man Mini & Dell Desktop). Since I use the same keyboard for both, I have to remember that the Ctrl and Command keys (both exist on this keyboard) are different. So I have to remember which OS I’m on at the moment and which combination of keys does what! (I guess I could remap them on one system to match the other but only just thought of that now!)
Special characters (ASCII codes) that you could enter in Windows by pressing Alt+XXXX (where XXXX are NumPad numbers) are not possible by that method on a Mac.
The other difference that trips me up is scrolling with the mouse: Apple is opposite from Windows — it’s a frame of reference thing. One moves the cursor in the direction of the wheel movement, the other moves the “paper.”
Of course there are all the differences of “how do you do that in MacOS as opposed to Windows or where files and folders exist, etc., but you sort of get used to that since the apps and GUI aren’t quite the same.
If you’re going to use both, just be aware that they don’t share your preferences — you need to make sure your settings are in sync or you may end up scratching your head as to why things keep changing! This can happen easily when you click the star to “make default” on one but forget to set it on the other!
—Jim
P.s. Also be aware that Stream Deck “lives” separately on the hosting machine. Buttons created on one won’t automatically be ported to the other — you could end up with two completely different sets of buttons! (I use SD Mobile on a dedicated iPad instead of an actual SD hardware device.)
It should be possible on Mac to reverse that. Something called ‘natural scrolling’.
(Can’t find it right now on my dutch os)
It’s configurable on Windows as well, and in fact the out of the box default on Windows has been the same as on Mac for a while; the Windows 11 PCs I bought 3 years ago were configured that way.
Huh! I never changed mine (didn’t think to look!) — maybe my Win 11 desktop is older than I thought! 
If you ‘activate’ the U-keyboard, you can access it with FN and Alt, e.g. 2212 is the ‘minus sign’ (not n-dash), etc.
This page is rather good
as is
Perhaps there is some shortcut to Unicode codes in Dorico.
Thanks @Mats_Frendahl - I was in need of a decent reference.
There were a number of Alt+ASCII combinations that I used frequently enough that they were “under my fingers”; my point was that I (or anyone migrating to MacOS) would need to learn new ones! Again, thinking about this, I could probably set up my Stream Deck with pages that have the characters but are specific to the OS….
I switched about two years ago. Here are a few faves …
Rectangle Pro: Super useful to set up window shortcuts and pretty essential to me with a 2-monitor setup.
Audio HIjack: Handle any sort of audio routing and record any audio on your system.
CleanShot X: Screenshot and editing program.
What makes this better than the built-in screenshot (shift+cmd+4)?
I can recommend the products by https://rogueamoeba.com/ In particular I use Loopback, to easily decide where the Audio from Dorico (and Cubase, and every other app) should go (Headphones or Speakers). It is more convenient than changing the settings inside each software.
For monitoring MIDI signals, here a fine and free little app: snoize: MIDI Monitor
And I recommend https://cleanshot.com/ too!
-----It is miles away from the build in screenshot functionality: you can combine shots, apply backgrounds, add annotation of all kinds, blur part of the image, easily record gif or mp4 screen recordings, capturing the system audio with ease, etc etc…
