My Playing Techniques palette defaults to having the Common and Strings tab open, but I mostly engrave piano music. Is there a way to change the default to have only the Keyboard tab open? Or maybe there is a way to customize what shows in the Common tab?
I don’t think so I’m afraid.
Jesper
I also have often wished that the last open categories and position in the panel were what appeared when one opened Dorico.
You can move Playing Techniques from one category to another in the Playing Techniques Editor. However, it doesn’t always go as expected, as I discovered when trying to reorganize the Playing Techniques.
Okay. Thank you Jesele and John!
You might be better off using the shift-P popover. These days I very rarely even open the playing techniques panel.
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This is more of an issue for me when I have a tonality system with many dozens of accidentals, and I need to re-hide the middle panels every time I reopen a project in order to avoid scrolling between accidentals at the bottom and editing the tonality system at the top.
Yes, it would be nice if Dorico could remember the visibility of the panels or provide a lock option at each panel that prevents changing its state.
I do generally use keystrokes when possible, but for some reason, this comes up often enough to ask.
On the subject of keystrokes, I find myself constantly switching between Write mode and Engrave mode while engraving the music, because shortcuts (including Lua scripts) won’t work otherwise. I often wonder why those 2 modes aren’t divided into Note Input, Engraving, and Layout instead, although I might have read that Dorico is set up for a particular workflow of inputting notes and all elements before tweaking things. I’m slowly trying to get used to that workflow, but I’ve been doing this since the early '90s and my neural pathways are stubborn! LOL
You.
Not me and the people who would like to use the panel more efficiently.
That’s harsh.
I’m sorry if it came across as such…
But sometimes I get frustrated at the prescription of certain workflows, which to me at least comes across a little bit as patronizing.
I happen to want to use Dorico in a certain way sometimes, and trust me, I know my way around the program fairly well.
I guess the actual point is that your remark did nothing to further the issue at hand, but just tried to force another workflow instead of using your considerable knowledge of Dorico to think along with our feature request…
This has happened before on this forum, but this time I snapped back, again wasn’t meant to come across overly harsh… 
Cheers,
Benji
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OK I was presumptuous. But I do think that as users get more expert, their reliance on the panels diminishes. (Though @Mark_Johnson’s comment about working with different tonalities skewers my thought process with precision)
I definitely am a shortcut user. I think I might be trying too hard to stick to inputting elements in a way that would tag them with the correct XML, which is not necessary. So, I may have been creating custom keyboard techniques using the playing techniques panel. I went back to figure out why I was annoyed by it and couldn’t see why I would open it very often.
That being said, there are some things I still have to get used to in Dorico. It’s clear that a lot of thought was put into the structure of the program; however, I’m starting to think that piano music has certain particulars that still need to be implemented, and I’m figuring out some work-arounds in the meantime.
I’m happy to offer what I know from being Alfred Music’s lead piano engraver for 20 years, as well as, working with Kjos Music and Hal Leonard for the past 13 years. (Also, some Paul Revere awards 
)
Dorico has the uncanny ability to display both write and engrave mode windows at the same time! Using dual monitors, this becomes a rather magical experience…
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I did not know that! Thank you!
Agreed. I have been experimenting with several windows on two monitors for certain stages:
On the left monitor
- A Write Window with its Properties Panel closed and never used. This often at half screen to allow sources above.
On the right monitor:
2. An Engrave Window with its Properties Panel open. This window is at half screen to allow below:
-
A Write Window totally collapsed so only the Write Properties Panel is visiible.
-
Sometimes another window with only the Properties Panel exposed, dedicated to special areas of the panel, and held in position by typing say “fi” in the search box to keep the fingering section exposed.
I have set up some Lua scripts for the properties I need to alter often, but I may get another monitor, knowing I can work in both modes simultaneously, although I’m still curious if shortcuts will work globally even with two monitors. Currently, I just work off my Macbook Pro with the 16-inch screen.
This is genius. I do a lot of quick switching modes in order to get at a particular property that is not available in my current mode. It’s a quick dance but it’s still a dance. This would remove a pain point, if I had consistent access to my second monitor (my usual scenario is on my laptop away from my office).
I wonder if there’s a way for the team to give us access to all the properties in either mode. With great power would come great responsibility…
@gplumblee I would be lost without two large monitors in both Dorico and Finale. Don’t know about Lua scripts, but everything else seems to be normal with multiple monitors and windows in Dorico. There was an issue with the Engrave window changing back to a Write window on note input, but that was corrected in the most recent update.
Your background is very impressive, gplumblee. It would be great to see you over a notat.io, if you are not already a contributor.
@Coranglais16 Thank you very much! This system does, in effect, give one access to all properties in both modes. It is a way to creating the floating palettes not available in Dorico. One can also use other windows for Playing Technique open to exactly the area one is using most frequently.
Thank you for the link to notat.io. I am not a member. I just tried signing up, and it doesn’t like my email address, which is a hotmail address.