I’m using Dorico for tests, exercises, games, etc. etc. a lot. While I already have lots of Finale files for this I’m trying to get everything into Dorico and getting to know it better.
So today I’m making Flash cards and want to align every note in the center of the bar. I can do it in Engrave mode manually but was wondering if there is a setting to do it automatically. Should that be a layout option? In regular scores there probably wouldn’t be a use for it…
Couldn’t find it in the manual or on the forum so please don’t k*ll me…
I just tried and this is pretty easy to set up to have it all automated so you don’t have to manually move notes.
Make sure you have your Page Template setup the way you want so you won’t have any overrides later on. Use the Default template for all pages.
In Layout Options / Players, set the rests not to show. In LO / Page Setup, set the page number to show on the first page. In LO / Note Spacing, set the “only justify final system” to 1% to make sure it will fill the frame. In LO / Staves and Systems, set the Casting Off to 1 bar per system.
In the first bar, input a time sig of 1/4, then Hide it in Properties.
In Notation Options / Barlines, set whatever default barline type you want. I used a double bar here, but it probably doesn’t really matter.
Input the quarter notes you want in each bar. (Obviously if you want half or whole notes, you just need to change the meter in step 3)
Now there will be a bit of trial and error. Once you have everything set up the way you want, in Engraving Options / Spacing Gaps adjust the “#2 Minimum gap after barline” setting so your notehead is in the middle of the bar. This obviously will be dependent on all your other settings, but here’s what I used:
After all that, I have 3x5 flash cards with no overrides or manual moving of notes:
/slightly out of topic
FWIW, it’s rather common practice in classical music to center whole notes on the bar, when it’s totally filling up that bar. I remember it was a feature request some years ago. It’s probably an abandoned practice because it would only appear when all instruments play that note that fills the bar— I genuinely wonder whether it’s centered or whether it’s the bar length that is so small that it looks centered… /slightly out of topic over
I have been forced to fake this single-note centering with manual spacing since Finale 1.0, 35 years ago. I first asked for it as a feature 20 years ago, in Sibelius days. So far Daniel has shown no interest.
I would advance one further argument in favor of this: The last time I saw Daniel in person, in November 2016 in New York for an early Dorico demo, he said Dorico aimed to set music more like traditional engraving practice, leaving aside the quirks in music software that have accumulated. I resisted complaining yet again about this one point, but it persists.
(And regarding the previous two posts, we see this in manuscripts as late as Chopin and Wagner. I’m not advocating that, when there are other beats in a bar.)
Sibelius at least never had a feature to centre notes in bars (or if it did, it was implemented after we stopped working on it, and that’s exactly the kind of thing that the new team would not have spent time on). So whatever method you would have been using in Sibelius to do it can be used in Dorico too, e.g. editing the spacing manually.
It was actually a third-party plug-in that was included at some point. Sibelius did have spacing issues, which was probably the main reason I began to look at Dorico. I was immediately struck by how nice the music characters are. I never liked the music fonts for Finale, Sibelius, Score, etc.; Dorico reminds me of the beautiful old publications from the days of real engravings!
To center a whole note: Make a 9/4 hidden time signature - enter two whole notes and a quarter note - hide the outer two notes. A little tweeking in engrave mode - use the “Voice column X offset” property in the Note Spacing box. Start with “-¾” spaces after you have set up your measure widths. Adjust the offset as needed to center the visible whole note. Copy to remaining measures - then go back and change the pitches as needed.
To center a quarter note: make a 9/16 time signature - enter two quarter notes and a sixteenth note - hide the outer two. Use the “Voice column X offset” property in the Note Spacing box. Adjust the offset as needed.
To center two whole notes: make a 13/4 time signature - enter three whole notes and a quarter note - hide the outer two. Adjust the “Voice column X offset” property with both of the visible whole notes selected.
