As an arranger for mostly pop/rock music I write lead sheets for bands. I use the rehearsal marks Verse, Prechorus, Chorus, Interlude etc. a lot. For that I have this workaround: I create a rehearsal mark (shift A) with , for instance, Index 3 (C) and Prefix HORUS to create a ‘CHORUS’ mark. It would be such a lot easier and quicker if I could create my own set of labels here (there is plenty of room left in the properties bar ;)) In the Engraving Options I can create only one custom pre-and suffix.
I hoped you would have implemented this in Dorico 4 but that’s not the case. Is there another easier way to create this kind of marks which I’m overlooking?
Thanks for your reply, Derrek, but I’d still have to do a lot of formatting then, wouldn’t I?
It wouldn’t make thinks any quicker or is it possible to create some user presets there?
The other thing you can do is shift+x text, get it formatted how you want it, and then c&p or alt+click copy it to other spots and then just edit the text.
I have already pointed out in several posts and threads that there is still a lot of work to be done in Dorico for pop and rock arrangers. The community is very helpful and gives numerous tips and tricks, but these are always workarounds that require more or less work. But it remains the case that this programme still comes across as somewhat “classic”. Especially when it comes to such basic things as marking sections in pop & rock songs. I think my first post on this topic was at the beginning of 2018. I’ve been working with the same tricks as you (rehearsal marks) for a long time, but the suggestions with text or system text, while possible, create a lot of work in the final layout if you’re writing for bands and want to have these section-marks left-justified to the page margin, which would be state of the art. That’s why I’m a bit disappointed with the Dorico 4 Update, as great as it is in many areas.
Obviously you don’t quite understand how these sections are supposed to work in a modern arrangements. Actually, they should have the same functionality as rehearsal marks. It would help us a lot if we could format the actual rehearsal marks more freely and write in any text. Of course, I have also worked with text in borders. But that is not the solution and always requires a lot of manual fine-tuning in the end, and that in every single layout.
While I appreciate what you say about freely editing the text in rehearsal marks, I find I have less hassle creating system text in boxes for section titles than I do with rehearsal marks. And if you set up a shortcut for a custom paragraph style, they’re just as easy to add. And they’re always attached to a rhythmic position so move around nicely with the layouts. Lastly, the glory (for me) is that in the unusual event that one is mucking with the layout or spacing, you can tell it to not avoid collisions. (Which AFAIK, you can’t do with Rehearsal Marks.
And yes, I know that the text may not be left aligned like a proper rehearsal mark may be, but I never remember in the 25 years I’ve been reading pop, rock and jazz charts, being in any way worried about it…
Anyway, YMMV, just my 2 cents.
Hope you find a way to make things work for what you want.
As far as I understand it, with the properties panel, the slider shows that you’re overriding the preferences set in the notation, engraving or layout options and the check boxes show how you’re overriding them…
I think Daniel and the team have explained it far better than I on many occasions here…
Of course, there is nothing wrong with left-aligned text with borders. But the rehersal marks still offer decisive advantages. For example, they suppress the bar number if they are left-aligned. In addition, you can also select them easily with the left-right arrow when arranging, and then you don’t have to jump from text to text (which I use quite often in my scores). And since they should be aligned to the left of the page, you can also give the rehearsal marks a global offset of ca. -5. And hey, by now I know that the “V” for (V)erse has index 22 (suffix = erse). This way I am always sure that every layout is automatically formatted correctly, which is not the case when positioning the system text. And that, of course, is the most important reason. But you @YourMusic may of course use your solution, which I have discarded for myself over the years.
But unfortunately there is always a fly in the ointment. then @Toaster1974 is unfortunately right, because rehearsal marks still do mess up the spacing …
Sorry, because that was definitely not the intention, it must just be the problem, that my mother tongue is not English and I probably shortened the issue quite a bit.
