The right hand is an “allowable” exception to the rule about showing beat 3 as it’s a complete pattern throughout the bar. The left hand isn’t an “allowable” exception as the offbeat pattern doesn’t complete the bar, so you have to show beat 3. I agree the discrepancy is noticeable and not good, but I think the solution is to either manually change the RH with an override if you want to keep that option elsewhere, or change this Notation Option:
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Thanks. Allowable exceptions sounds a bit complicated. However I am surprised that within the same bar Dorico can take two different approaches to grouping.
I will try your suggested setting anyway.
By “allowable” I really meant “allowable” by common notation standards. The catch in your example is that Dorico is considering each staff separately rather than the Piano as a whole. I agree it would be nice if Dorico could consider both hands here. Here’s Clinton Roemer’s explanation from his book:
Your RH is rhythmically the same as the top example #5 which is fine as it’s a commonly used figure. Your LH matches the rhythm of the 4th bar at #6, which he calls “not as acceptable” and rewrites in #7.
Using the setting you suggest certainly aligns the LH and RH by making them both tied quavers. However the first setting only seems to revert the RH back to a crotchet leaving the LH as two tied quavers.
It’s not a big deal of course.
And thanks for that fuller explanation too. I see the issue now.
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Clearly there are differences of opinion and they vary by situation. If Dorico could provide a selectable default behavior in Preferences, and/or a simple way to override the default, we could all agree.
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Force Duration is the simple way to override.
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Thanks - that’s the answer to the OP.
Rather, it’s this Notations Options setting that works alongside the first one you’re showing [Notes starting at the start of the bar…] (cf. Screen capture below)…
NB : I am bringing this old thread up a bit because this has been the subject of many threads recently.
Thank you Derek_Williams. I didn’t have those options set. These look very promising, and now I have belt and braces.
Frankly @gps I don’t know what happened to you.
Especially because in the first two bars you get what you want. Thus there is no reason I can understand, why this doesn’t happen afterwards…
My first try:
OK.dorico (581.5 KB)
Alberto, your example show a minim on the second beat ; me, I was talking about a dotted quarter…That is this value who cause the problem and often need to use the « Force duration » key.
Certainly Obiwan, your discussion is clear, what I don’t understand is the first gps example, where there isn’t a single dot…
Ah… oui, oui. I understand. 
But the @gps example dates back to 2023 (fifteen months to be exact), and I’m afraid it’s a long way off now…
I alone am responsible for this rewinding of the thread.
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Hi was suprised to see this topic restarted, so I had to think why I raised the question in 2023.
At the time I was trialing Dorico SE and this does not have the same notation options as Elements and Pro. It was answered by @FredGUnn at the time.