Having had two days with the program, I feel I am finally getting the hang of it. Details aside–like keyboard shortcuts and object selection quirks–the biggest help in learning how to use Dorico is in shifting my mindset from having to put things in already (nearly) perfect (which is how I would have to do it with Finale) to the concept of just putting in music. It seems so far that being able to manipulate things post-note input is one of the great advantages over other programs; utilizing that has greatly increased my note-typing.
The quality of the music font and layout is superb, one of my favorite aspects about Dorico. Finale always looked–well, like dentist waiting-room decor, very sterile.
Some things I do miss, however (I’ll try to avoid things already proposed in the pipeline):
–Easy selection, drag, and copy of notes, in particular of whole bars, something I was able to do easily in Finale with one click of a measure. I realize this probably works against the concept of “barless” entry of notes, and indeed is impossible without them, but once measures/bars are setup, it would be nice to be able somehow to select a whole measure with one click so it can either be dragged and copy/pasted, or just use keyboard shortcuts to copy.
–Staff manipulation: I did read in another post about this, so I’ll keep this short. But let’s say Dorico’s intuitive staff-fixing/placing system doesn’t work in a particular instance (as has happened to me), it would be nice to manually fix it. It may be a matter of fixing bugs and fine-tuning the code, but in an emergency or time-crunch, one doesn’t want to wait around for an update to fix it.
–Double flat/sharp shortcuts: maybe they already exist, but I couldn’t find or figure out any shortcut for double flats or sharps, and had to put them in manually from the key signature tab. It was an odd little disappointment.
–A much, much more comprehensive manual: Some things I was able to figure out (like using the shortcut commands for note entry when specifying what the beat is in tempo markings), some things I wasn’t, and the manual leaves much to be desired, especially for a brand new product that works differently from others.
That’s it for now. Thank you, again, for this wonderful product.