How do you set Dorico to leave chord symbols exclusively as written with no “interpretation” or reformatting?
(While doing so, where can I find the symbol\formatting system for ^=Maj-Triangle or sub\super-script?)
You can control how chords appear pretty comprehensively in Library > Engraving Options > Chord Symbols (for Pro; if you have Elements, those options are in a separate dialog)
You can’t change what you need to enter into the popover, but you can change what Dorico displays as a result.
There are further customization options available, if the default settings don’t suit your needs.
Thank you for your prompt reply!
I have gone through the Chord Symbols dialog in Pro repeatedly. There are indeed many options, however, they do not cover my own [idiosyncratic] preferences. I just want to be able to manually write the formats I want. Is “manual mode” not possible?
Can you give an example of what you’re trying to achieve?
I think the misunderstanding here, which I’ve seen other users have before, is that you think you are entering the chord symbol and Dorico is rendering it. Instead what you’re doing is entering something more like an ID code for the chord already in its database and it shows that chord. For instance, Dmaj7 might be chord 177 in the database, but if you had to enter the number 177 into the popover to get that chord it would be too hard to remember and not user friendly at all. So instead of giving them ID numbers to select them, they give them keywords that resemble the chord symbols they display. So that way you type Dmaj7 and that automatically adds a D major 7 chord.
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“As written…?” Lisan al-Gaïb!
Jokes aside:
And, there often are multiple ways to type in a chord symbols; examples: A° or Adim, Eø or Ehalfdim, C+7add11 or C+7(11) or Caug7add11 or Caug7(11), but how it is written/interpreted by Dorico depends on the settings.
I don’t think that @b0berto wants to be limited to the existing database of chord symbols. He wants to type in his own text into the chord popover, as well.
Ideally, Dorico could learn the special symbols that users want to use in the popovers and add them to its database. I would welcome that in other popovers.
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If you have really exhausted all the Engraving Options and Chord Symbol Appearances, you can always make a custom Paragraph Style and enter them as dumb text. That way you can be sure everything will stay eactly as written, for better or (quite likely) worse.
At day’s end, the only thing special about a “Chord Symbol” is the notation-software’s ability to transpose exclusively the Chord’s Root (and possibly “/Bass”) note. Every other extension/parentheses/alteration and formatting remains unchanged. So, I would think a pure “manual” mode would exist.
Of course “using dumb text” had crossed my mind, but as someone that primarily works in Jazz contexts, my chords usually need to transpose for different instruments depending on the part.
Thanks all for the responses.
Can you show an example of what you’d like to do that you can’t do in Dorico? It might be possible with a combination of existing Engraving Options, or possible with a doricolib file to redefine how certain suffixes appear, or might be possible to repurpose a quality not often used to be something else.
Dorico’s handling of chord symbols is completely different from Finale’s Chord Suffix Library, but still is very powerful and can accomplish most common nomenclature and appearances. If there’s something particularly unusual or unique you need to accomplish, post an image as an example and we’ll try to find a way to do it.
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