Alternative ways to enter the caret

I find that one of the most uncomfortable things for me to do as a long time Dorico user is trying to get the caret to enter via double-clicking. This applies for example when I would want to add dynamics to a bar where all that is in the bar is a whole note tied from the previous bar (a rather common situation in my experience actually).

As far as I know the only way to enter the caret to that bar is to double click somewhere on the empty space of the staff. However, this has always been very unreliable for me and often takes several tries to work. In fact in general, I have always found the double-clicking in any context in Dorico to be too unreliable for me to want to use it (even when testing this specifically in a controlled situation). This might be because of Doricoā€™s inherent lag or me clicking too slow or fast, but in testing I wasnā€™t able to find a consistent reason. Whatever the reason may be, I have therefore always used an alternate method (like enter) when possible.

My quick-fix feature request would be this: could you make it so that instead of double-clicking, one could hold down a command key and click once to apply the same function? This command could for example be ctrl + alt + shift + click (alt + shift does a similar thing in Cubase but that is taken in Dorico). Then if the user fails to get the caret to show up, they would immediately know that this was because they clicked in the wrong place and not because Dorico failed to detect their double click.

A more in-depth solution request goes like this: Holding down (for example) ctrl + alt + shift and clicking always summons the caret and never selects any notes or anything else. This one would truly be a game changer for me.

Kindly,
Touko

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Hi @Touko - there are luckily already alternative ways to activate the caret. You can also press Return, although that only shows the caret if a note or rest is selected; if a notation item like a dynamic is selected, Return opens the corresponding popover.

If thereā€™s nothing in a bar to select prior to pressing the key command, you can also show the caret in that bar on another staff and move it.

Once Iā€™ve entered note input, I find myself often using Ctrl-right arrow to navigate to the next downbeat.

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Too often, I find the opposite: I try to double-click between a bar line and the first note of the measure and find the cursor appears after the note, which involves quite a few ALT+Left Arrow presses when the note is tied to subsequent measures.

If I think ahead, I may type before the bar line or choose the note and use ENTER or SHIFT+N, but too often I do not catch myself in time.

I find the caret and its functionality excellent and I work very little with the right arrow ctrl.
I have to say that I have configured my streamdeck with double macro commands to be even faster.
This means that I have one action on a short press and another on a long press.
But I have no problem with the caret.

I also have no issues and find the current system works well. Just click something close to where you want and press enter. You can then nudge by the grid value with the arrow keys if you need more granular control.

I agree with the OP that there could be one more way to enter the caret - one which doesnā€™t involve having something selected or double clicking - perhaps if nothing was selected then shift+n changed your cursor symbol and allowed you to place the caret in the same way you place clefs etc?

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In Dorico 4 you will be able to start note input at the start of the bar nearest to the top left-hand corner of the screen by typing Shift+N or clicking on the new ā€œnote inputā€ tool in the left-hand toolbox with no selection. (This is already implemented in Dorico for iPad.)

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For completeness, Iā€˜ve made a similar request as OP here: [FR] Invoke caret by modifier + mouseclick - #15 by Romanos

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