I do like the chord diagram function quite a bit. I do wish my favorite chord shapes would be sticky – and I think there is a way to make it so, but it’s a bit of a pfaff IIRC.
Look, I like Dorico. There are parts of it that could be better.
It definitely sounds like @Phil_Hinton is using a lot of manual overrides and is hence getting inconsistent results when adding new chord symbols without overrides – a problem that could be easily solved by setting a global standard beforehand. But it also seems like we won’t hear from him anytime soon. It’s easier to complain about things than actually looking for a solution because that requires effort people aren’t willing to invest because of their “deadlines”.
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I think chord symbols are not horrible since Dorico 6 – but there are still a lot of bugs. Some examples:
– Very often I can’t apply edits to all roots. Even my edit for the simple 7-Chord I had to do for all roots separately.
– When I edited a chord symbol and then click the asterisk for “save as standard” and then leave the editor window and then come back the edited symbol is gone. I have to leave the editor first, then come back and then set the asterisk.
– I edited a Db7#11 chord symbol. I can apply it to all roots – no idea why that works this time. It’s then called “all roots 7 (+alterations)”. I wonder what will happen when I try to create a Db7b13 – how will that be called? Ah, I can’t edit both of them, at least in the same piece of music. But I have to, because the behavior of b and # is strangely different in chord extensions … – I then closed the editor window and reopened it. The line still says “all roots 7 (+alterations)”, but the display shows a Db711 without #. In the sheet it’s still correct, so better don’t touch!
If you really want to edit chord symbols (and I have to, because the defaults are all not really usable for me) you have to deal with so many bugs that it’s really more than annoying. I hope that the developer team is working on that. But some of the bugs remain since v3.5 …
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We really need to see some images of what you are trying to do. What are you doing that isn’t possible to accomplish through Engraving Options? There are plenty of things that aren’t possible through those settings, but you really want to get as close as possible before tweaking anything manually. Without any images it’s impossible for any of us to offer any advice as to whether some combination of settings already exists to have them display as you want.
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Edits made in the Project Default Chord Symbol Appearances window are specific to that particular chord symbol, unless promoted to Apply to All Roots. Edits made in the Edit Chord Symbol Component window change the global definition of that component. These produce very different results so it’s obviously important to pay attention to where you are making the edit. If you have made a global change to one of the composite components (like csymAccidentalSharp or csymAccidentalFlat) then yes, the behavior of b and # will be different, but that’s because you made a global edit. You really don’t want to dive in and start making edits to the composites until after making all the Engraving Options edits.
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I really appreciate all of your responses to my ‘rant’. There have been some really helpful replies. I’m well aware that I am most likely the problem with this but, not being a completely stupid person, I’m still at a loss as to why there are so many choices and tweaks available. Some of the examples shown, especially by FredGUnn, are fabulous and I’d be more than happy to get this sort of result. However, I’m still at a loss to know how I’d get a result like the ‘Abersold/Baker’ example or even how I can install the fonts so Dorico will actually find those fonts. Any words of advice on that? Oh, and yes, I was horrendously frustrated when I wrote my initial rant. When you’re working under pressure of tight deadlines and wasting hours on something like this, t is really frustrating.
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Yes, I am well aware of the company history which is why I find it so hard to understand why it’s such a problem now.
Perhaps because everyone has their own opinion?
I’m a neutral (as I don’t need chord symbols very often), but I’m amazed at the passion with which some users defend their need for special requirements. So inevitably the attempt to satisfy those will complicate the process for everyone.
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It really isn’t, for most of us…
And since we still haven’t seen what you’re going for, or a project that isn’t to your liking, there’s really not much that anyone can do to help you, unfortunately.
Sincerely,
Benji
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The Indiana chord symbol preset will get you pretty close:
I would tweak the positioning of a few glyphs but that’s a one-click solution that gets you reasonably close to the Aebersold/Baker style.
The big caveat here is that if you’ve treated your chord symbol settings like Finale’s Chord Symbol Suffix Library where you go in and customize all your suffixes, then you’ve definitely approached this the wrong way and your file is likely a mess. That’s not how chord symbols work in Dorico. The Engraving Options / Chord Symbols settings won’t work as you might be expecting if you’ve already gone in and globally redefined all the glyphs. Do not manually customize anything with chord symbols in Dorico until after you’ve exhausted all the available Engraving Options.
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Thanks so much for this. Should I go into my chord symbol options and reset to factory setting? Makes me nervous, although I suspect I’ve done so much damage that it’s irrelevant now!!!
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It would be much more difficult for anyone to help you specifically unless you reset to factory 
Again, if you can post some visuals so we know what you are aiming for, this would help.
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Realize that one can always reset a copy of the file to factory and work from there.
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I’m not sure if that works for chord symbol appearance, though. The overrides you create under Library->Chord Symbols.
Jesper
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If you really want assistance the best thing is to do a Save As …, call it FILENAME for Forum, cut it down to 1 instrument and 1 bar of music, and post it here. We don’t need to see any of the music, just the chord symbol settings to see what’s been done and what the effects are.
In theory, doing a reset to Factory Settings in Library Manager for Engraving Options and Collections should effectively undo any manual changes to chord symbols:
In practice, sometimes chord symbol elements get written into your userlibrary.xml file and have to be manually chopped out, especially if you’ve edited the composites. (Recent thread here.) But that’s the exception. The best thing to do is post the cutdown version of file so we can see what’s been done, and ideally also an image of the way you’d like your chords to look.
EDIT: Oops, I lied. You also have to go in to Project Default Chord Symbol Appearances and either Delete (trash can) or Reset to Default (circular arrow) any chord customizations that remain there.
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WHAAAT!
Jesper
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20 days ago you started this thread
- and have not provided us with a project file yet.
I am sure you don’t want to waste the forum members’ time with guesswork and like to get fundamental help. A stripped-down version of one of your projects will be small enough to be posted here (just drag it into your reply window here).
You might not realise, by posting an example file, you not just get instant help, but you will enable all the visitors of this thread with similar issues to find a solution.
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I’d appreciate even a meager screenshot of what you want to achieve.
We can likely sort this out in 5 minutes.
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Thanks Fred. Really appreciate the help. It will be a couple of weeks before I can focus on this, I’m too slammed with deadlines to do anything else right now.
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