Is that a common name for ⌘? I like it… 
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Thanks; I’m not surprised that there’s an obscure keychord to do that 
I don’t know how common, but it’s easier for me to remember than the differences among “shift”, “alt”, “option”, “control”, and “command”. Not to mention which of those corresponds to which icon.
So the way I use speedy entry is
- go to the note position on the staff
- enter the duration (say 4 for eighth note)
- the cursor moves to the next eighth note position. I use the ARROWS to move to the next note I want
- I hit a duration (say 4 again).
This is my exact process, and I am finding Dorico really difficult and slow. It works mostly OK for the instrument you are used to. So, if you are a violinist, you can perfectly write the treble clef. But if you are entering piano notes on the bass clef, probably it takes some extra brain to transcribe what you “usually” read as a D to F. And if you are a pianist this is not an issue, but then try transcribing a viola’s Alto Clef, and your brain starts to melt. Now move onto the non-concert pitch instruments and you are dead in the water.
So, Speed Entry was a godsend for those of us that can understand the music structure but are not experts in different clefs and instrument pitches. I am finding this the hardest part of Dorico. Everything else seems like an improvement, note entry without a piano keyboard is a nightmare… and it doesn’t help that both the “letter” keyboard and the MIDI keyboard are named the same, as every google search just yields MIDI keyboard entry techniques and not computer keyboard ones. 
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So tonight, I decided that I would force myself to enter a new piece using Dorico. I found many of the features to be better than Finale, sometimes much better.
But the note entry process is, in a word, horrible.
In Finale, I was able to have one hand on the arrow keys and the other on the number keys and fly through inputting music. I mean, fly.
Tonight, it took me about an hour to input 39 measures of one part. The amount of friction in this process is amazing – in a bad way.
It seems very obvious to me that the developers almost always do note input with a MIDI keyboard. That’s great for persons who have one and are proficient at it; I almost failed my piano proficiency exam in college.
Please, please, figure out a way to add change-pitch-with-arrow-keys to the input process. I realize that using that method is pitch-before-duration; perhaps it could be a toggle in Preferences?
Other than this shortcoming, I like everything else I’ve seen so far. But, until this changes, I’ll have to use Finale to get my actual work done.
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Welcome.
I don’t think that is true. I for one rarely use MIDI keyboard for note entry and have no problem at all entering notes quickly and accurately using QWERTY.
PLEASE FORGET FINALE!!!
Arrow keys in Dorico behave differently - they do not change pitches (and I hope they never will).
Dorico is very consistent in its use of the keyboard. Take some time to learn it and you will not be disappointed.
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Trust me, I am working on moving to Dorico. But even if I was brand new to note input, I would find this process extremely friction-filled. Because it is.
Tripling or quadrupling my entry time is just not acceptable.
As for “I hope they never will,” I’m sure that’s true for long-time users of the program. But as I said, it could be a toggle in the settings.
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Please explain.
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I think it really depends on what you are used to - as the great Carla Scaletti (inventor of Kyma) says, ‘intuitive’ means something you learned a long time ago. I engraved the Rite of Spring entirely with my laptop keyboard, no midi, and it worked fine. Hang in there - and in the meantime I’m sure the developers are working hard to improve Finale users’ experience.
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Using Speedy Entry, I keep one hand on the arrow keys and the other on the number keys. The hands never move, except if I decide to use Delete for rests as I go, which I can reach with my right little finger. (Depend on the number of rests; I have sometimes gone back and added the rests later.)
Note – because the hands never move, I don’t have to look at the keyboard. I can literally look at a line of music and touch-type it in. Arrow-number, arrow-number, right after each other. Entering a scale is lightning fast. No need to use enter, as the number key serves to enter the note.
In Dorico, it’s duration first, then pitch. So, I hit the number key I need – fine so far. But then I have to move my hands to find the note I want. And, if it’s not the closest version of that note, I have to remember to add whatever modifier key I need. The entire process for entering a single note is about three times as long as Speedy Entry, because of having to move the hands and find the right key (or keys) to hit.
There are many other things in Dorico that are MUCH faster and easier than in Finale. I’ve already found some, and loved them. However, as I said, the friction in the note-entry process is just too much.
Hope this helps.
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For the life of me, I can’t figure out why my fellow Dorico colleagues don’t understand how great Speedy-with-arrows was. Please, stop dismissing people who ask for it.
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It’s both a Preferences setting …
… and can easily be toggled with K
I virtually only use Pitch-first input, so I’m not toggling it very often, but it is quite simple to both set this as your preference and toggle it on the fly.
100%. BTW, are you aware that Dorico’s next update will have a “Speedy Entry-like” feature?
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Yes, I’m aware.
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I seem to be one of the few people who religiously used Speedy in Finale in the mode that let you use the computer keyboard as a 3 octave keyboard, as opposed to the arrow keys. You could just pick the note you want directly, instead of arrowing to it, as though you were using a MIDI keyboard.
In Dorico, I have gotten used to duration before pitch, since I find that there are some inconsistencies with pitch before duration. But instead of hunting and pecking for A-G, which I admit has never made sense to me, I remapped the Z-M keys to be a single octave; I think the only standard Dorico keys I had to remap were the voice shortcuts on V.
It seems to me that part of the preference for an input method has to do with how one conceptualizes the process. For me, when I started years ago, I wanted to mimic what I did when I copied music by hand: move my pen to a position on the staff, write in the type of note, then add a dot (if needed) and any accidental. Duration before pitch always struck me as more an analogue of physical engraving, where you would pick up a punch of a certain duration and then add the note on the staff, and my mind didn’t work that way. I find that my thinking is more flexible now, and these distinctions matter less to me.
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It has to be said that V and Shift V are very useful commands, so I hope you found something else for them.
Also: N and M are for moving cross-staff notes.
If you’re doing the One-note Samba, or Beethoven’s 7th, then getting the note on the page when you press a duration might well be efficient; but if you’re doing some Vivaldi, where it’s all semiquavers, then getting the note in when you press a pitch seems much more effective.
I only ever using Simple Entry (duration first) in Finale, because I could only enter rests in Speedy for several years before I discovered the “I don’t have a MIDI keyboard” switch. 
Yes, moved them somewhere else.
Yes, but not during note input, so there’s no conflict there.
Yes, this is an advantage.
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I have not seen it mentioned yet but you can hit Y and a grey note will appear that you can move around, no need to type a specific note or click
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But perhaps it could be an option? I do note entry quickly with my midi keyboard, but as a former long-time Finale user, I remember how fast Speedy Entry was using arrow keys, for when I was stuck without my keyboard.
Options others may appreciate are good, and don’t need to compromise the program.
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