Hi,
I’m making the transition from Sibelius to Dorico and so far I really enjoy working in Dorico.
However, there are two things that constantly bugs me with the work flow.
Creating system breaks. Dorico seems to dictate that you first input all your music, notes, chords, lyrics, and so on, and then later you fix the layout of the score. I (and many others) don’t work that way. Instead we constantly and simultaneously input music and edit the layout as the bars and systems are created. For example, in jazz, pop and rock styles musical phrases are often in four bar periods, so when I’m done with four bar of notation I always create a system break so that the next phrase or period starts to the very left of the next system.
In Sibelius (and MuseScore) this action takes two moves: highlight the proper barline and hit the return key. In Dorico this is achieved with seven moves: hit cmd+3 to enter engrave mode, highlight the proper barline with a mouse click, hit shift+s to create the system break, and finally hit cmd+2 to return to write mode.
This might seem like a tiny issue, but when you constantly over and over have to perform this rather cumbersome dance on your keyboard it becomes pretty annoying.
Why can’t you perform the system break in write mode? What’s the benefit of having to do this only in engrave mode? Or am I missing something like an easy shortcut for this in write mode?
My second issue is naming rehearsal marks. As long as you create them in the standard A, B, C, D…-way there’s no problem. But if you want to use names like “intro”, “verse” and “pre-chorus” it get’s tricky. In Sibelius you first create a boxed text and then simply double-click the box and type in the name of the section. Same with MuseScore.
In Dorico the only way I’ve found is to highlight the rehearsal marker, type cmd+8, then under “rehearsal marks” tick the Index-box and then find the corresponding number to the letter you want (for example the letter “V” in “verse” is the number 22). I then have to tick the suffix box and type in the rest of the name (“erse” in the previous example).
Am I missing something here, because this is a really cumbersome process? Or does anyone have a simple workaround to easy enter rehearsal marks other than the standard A, B…?
Thanks in advance for any advice!
//Göran
Using a script, adding a break from write mode with a custom shortcut is easily obtainable.
See here:
You can create a Paragraph Style that resembles Rehersal Marks (bold font and with a border defined, for example) and then create, at the desired position, System Text using it (you can also assign a shortcut for creating system text with a particular paragraph style).
Thanks Christian, issue number 2 is solved. I created a custom Paragraph style and added a key command. Works great!!!
Trying to understand how to create a script now, but I can’t seem to find it anywhere in Dorico 5…
From what I’ve learned from the forum and a couple of YouTube clips I simply can’t create scripts in Dorico Elements 5. For example, in this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2hzeOHXYCg&t=1613s there is a “Script” menu to the right of the “Help” menu. That’s not there in my Dorico version. Well, I guess I have to get used to having to do my system breaks in engrave mode…
Thanks again, anyway!
Göran, something you will meet a lot in this forum: people will ask you “why”? (are you doing it this way).
The reason for this is not people being impolite - or are trying to convince you of a different way.
The reason is another one: because Dorico itself thinks like this. It is programmed on the base of semantics, everything Dorico notates has a meaning. Everything that means something can be mirrored as a graphical notation.
That is also why Write Mode and Engrave Mode is strictly separated.
It will need the brain to readjust to this, but it is possible
ps. Dorico SE does not have an Engrave Mode, that is why you will find System and Frame breaks in the Write Mode there. This gives you the opportunity to start Dorico in SE mode and do your first structural composing in that environment. Then relaunch Dorico in Pro “mode” when you are ready to do other Engraving to your composition.
Göran, you leave us confused. If you updated to Dorico Elements you will have used Dorico SE before.
In Dorico SE there is no Engrave Mode - so where did you have to switch to - as you described in your opening thread?
If you own a Dorico Pro license you can startup the application as “SE” or as “Elements” or as “Pro”:
Excuse me, I’m not being clear. I have used Elements 5 and now I’ve updated to Elements 6. But I had my concern solved here below. No Elements version supports the scripts, so I’m gonna have toggle to engrave mode every time I want to enter a system break.
I’m fairly sure that you can make system and frame breaks in Write mode if you’re willing to hand-hack your user key commands file, no scripts required. Dorico SE doesn’t include Engrave mode, but it allows the creation of system and frame breaks in Write mode via menu items on the Edit menu. Those menu items don’t appear in Dorico Elements or Dorico Pro because Engrave mode is included.
But if you edit your keycommands_en.json file such that the system/frame break commands are listed in the kMusicEditable context, they should work just fine. Perhaps another kind forumite can give you the detailed instructions necessary to make this edit.
