I don’t understand how Dorico handles copying and pasting. I want to copy an entire part from one document, including notes, chords, time signatures and repeats, and paste these into a part in a different document. I can’t seem to be able to select more than just the notes. I’ve seen people say to use the system track but I can’t seem to figure out how that works. I go to the system track an right click and select “filter” and scroll to “notes and chords” and nothing happens. I try to copy and paste and still I’m just getting notes. And I don’t see where I filter to get time signature and repeats. I’m happy to watch/read a relevant walkthrough if someone can point me to such a tutorial that is short and to the point.
I don’t understand why Dorico does allow me to just click on the things I want to copy and paste… why I need this awkward system track business.
Work on the Layout that shows only the part you want to copy.
Use the System Track to select what to copy (you highlight the bars, then need to click the little box at the end of the track to actually make the selection)…
Then copy (ctrl-C)/paste(ctrl-V) wherever you want.
Dorico only copies things that are selected. But many items may be hidden, so not selected. The system track overcomes this. You can also select some hidden items by showing their singposts (View>Signposts). If they are visible, they can also be selected.
As a new user (Finale refugee) I’m very confused with this - I simply want to copy and paste a few bars of a couple of staves with everything included - notes, time signatures, key etc. It seems to be a very simple request but apparently it’s very complicated?
The key point is that Dorico will only select items that are visible, and will only copy items that are selected. So if you have hidden items in your bars (for example, a hidden tuplet bracket), then you need to have signposts showing, so that Dorico can select the signposts (which represent the hidden items). At that point, you should be able to drag-select everything and then copy and paste.
@Janus describes an alternate method with the system track. The system track lets you select everything in what Finale called the “measure stack”, so if you only want to copy from one particular staff rather than the whole stack, you need to switch to a layout that only contains that staff, and do the copying from there. You can then paste into any layout, including the full score.
Thanks. That’s helpful but I’m still struggling to understand what is hidden about my time and key signatures…. I use many changes of key and time so this seems as if it’s going to add quite a lot of time to my workflow.
Do you actually have signposts for key and time signatures? Otherwise, there’s nothing hidden about them, and you just need to make sure that your selection includes them.
If you’re still having problems, you can post your project file here so someone can take a look and give you more specific advice.
One of the several things I miss about Finale is the ability to select an entire staff just by clicking in the empty space to the left of the beginning of that staff. Something like that would save a lot of time when copying an entire part to another instrument.
You probably know this, but adding a key command for Edit → Select to End of Flow works much the same way (one extra key sequence besides selecting the start of the staff).
I think that’s maybe what I wasn’t doing. One of the weird things when learning new software (in my experience) is that you struggle with something simple for hours (days!) and then suddenly it works and is never a problem again! I’m hoping that this is the case here…
I’m afraid I still haven’t managed to work out how to copy and paste all items including time signatures etc. I’ve tried using the system track and selecting the music itself but to no avail. I’m pretty sure I’ve got signposts enabled.
Your piece has 14 bars with music in them. If you want to copy all of those bars and duplicate them starting in bar 15:
Click on the system track over the first bar
Shift+click on the system track over bar 14
Click in the selection box at the right end of the system track
Press R
Alternatively, after the third step above, with everything selected, you can Alt/Opt+click in the Flute staff in bar 15. Or you can press Ctrl/Cmd+C to copy everything, then select bar 15 in the Flute and press Ctrl/Cmd+V to paste.
Thanks. I thought I’d done that (both ways) but it wasn’t taking the time sigs with it so everything came out in 4/4. I’m away from my desk atm but will try again later on. Tony.
