Don't find how to reproduce this (help)

Hello, I did this lead sheet a long time ago while trying Dorico on trial. Wanted to finish it, but now i’m a “official user”, i can’t succed to find how to make it the way i want. i see on the line below that i succeded to do it at sometimes (certainly by random), so any help ?

i’m coming from Sibelius, and the use of Dorico is really very difficult… (i have my hands injured, the 5.x version use more the mouse, but I still injury me a lot by using it as it’s all shortkeys based… not even talking about the workflow to learn which is so much counter productive and not easy… :frowning: so spending hours to search solutions in preferences or parameters, after a while, i give up because of pains.

Sometimes i regret my purchase…
and i’m offline most of the time, so it’s using only the official PDF manual… 1600 pages :frowning:

thanks for any help ! trying o replicate the part on the right of course

The best way to get the result that you’re after is to use Force Duration. This will allow you to enter a dotted minim without Dorico automatically tieing a minim to a crotchet.

Hi daniel, i know this feature, but didn’t succeded to make it working there ! i’ll re read the help ! thanks !!! all the best !

It depends on whether the dotted half or the tied note follows the settings as both notations appear in the music.

My suggestion is to make the proper setting in Notation Options > Note Grouping

Screenshot 2024-10-17 at 10.52.57

and delete Force Duration where tied notes are displayed.

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Ahh ! thanks ! i searched for this part in the preferences but didn’t found where it was, i’ll search again !! thank you !!

It should also be noted that forced duration might result in a different end result if you want to tie multiple notes depending on the ones you highlight when you press “t”. You have to experiment a bit. If you have three notes with different durations, one with a dot in the middle you might have to do the tie in two steps to avoid that the dotted note breaks up.

I also noticed that dotted notes often break up just after entry but when you enter a shorter note after them, they become dotted again.

All linked to the above mentioned settings of course, maybe also build in conventions based on the rythm perceived by Dorico. Is there no way to in the settings completely forbid Dorico to breakup a dotted note? That would really be helpful and avoid a lot of back and forth using forced duration which even if on often still breaks up a dotted note.

The trick with force duration is: The first of the notes you join must be forced. Then subsequent notes take on the forced attribute.

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thanks, in fact, all my preferences were already good, but was not understanding why it was not doing it.
I had to do many try to finally achieve what i wanted… and clearly i already forgot how i did it (yes it’s related to the force duration part… but …)
I don’t understand why it’s so hard to write what i want, and not having what dorico wants :frowning: … it’s really unnecessary complicated :frowning:

thanks to all of you.

You can input your music the way you like and Dorico will display it on its notation rules and engraving settings. These follow certain covenants, which you can change and adjust to your personal preferences. The aim is to get perfect, professional looking scores. You won’t get messy scores where things are notated wrong or differently from case to case.
It is a different software concept of what you are used to, but it makes sense to learn it.
I am ex Sibelius user, too.

the comment " it’s really unnecessary complicated" is not from me, but from a professionnal engraver, publisher and copyst for a well known full orchestra…

it’s a lot of frustration, because i hurt my hands by searching and finding how things work. I understand the concept, but i’m sure that an easier way would have been possible… several hours and days to find how to do a 2th note doted and linked to a 8th… :frowning:

it’s very frustrative.

We are still not too old to learn new things :slight_smile:
Dorico has to be learnt and understood, then it’s a joy to use. We have a lot of professional engravers here, too btw.

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Not me - I’m a professional computer programmer of 105 years! :joy:

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Pro 24 3.0 is far lol…

Not a pro engraver as well. lol… just a stupid broken kind of retired (forced ) pianist trying to do some good looking sheets with maybe the last software who will stay alive lol… so i prefer to have some difficulties now than the day the “other company” will close (like the 2nd other one did few weeks ago). but it’s not easy…

Someone told “i’m too old for these…” (lol)

Regarding the “difficulty” of having to force duration, here’s a demo: Enter a whole note in 4/4. With the rhythmic grid set to an eighth note, type Alt+right arrow to shift it several times. Watch how the notation changes dynamically.

Try that in Sibelius or Finale or MuseScore! [sarcastically]

When we are recopying existing music, of course all we want is to reproduce what we see. Dorico offers so many editing advantages that are invisible until you experiment with them a while.

I understand the concept, and there is a learning curve. I did a demo the other day… Did a copy of a Guitar Sheetmusic (Frank Gambale)… took me 5mn in Sibelius (and i’m not a pro user at all (but know one).
took me 30mn with musescore (first time i was trying it)

Dorico : after 4 hours i was still trying to find how to finish the first line …

I know , it’s just that… I’m someone who like intuitive software, and look at what you wrote. it’s frustrative, and i’m sure i’m not alone to tell that.

I love manuscripts and (loved, can’t do that anymore) writting with hands in front of my piano. Loved doing handwritten handgravins. music is “simple” in some way.

here, Dorico is not a music software… it’s like it has been think for programmers or dev…

Music is something very intuitive… but here i’m kind of in front of a wall… I’ll get it with time, but it’s the frustration and I maybe don’t not the healt for that.

When i talked about the lack of mouse use in Dorico to Daniel he aggreed (if i remember correctly) that maybe Dorico was not the right move for me…
We’ll see… thanks to everybody for each reply and help !