While the Dorico team is in the planning stages of 2.0, I’d like to add my requests for the next update, and they’re big ones for my line of work. In the interest of being more digestible than, say, the 95 Theses on the door at Wittenburg, I’m doing this one post at a time.
Frames. I love what one can do with Frames, but I’d like to see the process of using them streamlined a bit.
Frame Editing Shortcuts. I’d like to see a small tickbox/button added to the corner of each frame to allow quick access to editing, rather than having to activate Frames mode.
Layers. Make frames layered à la CSS layers, which would ease the implementation of watermark graphics, make covers easier to create on blank pages, and allow for:
Content Wrap! I’d love to be able to put a text block near a system and have Dorico justify and shorten systems to accommodate it. You’d be my heroes (Gosh, you’re already my heroes.)
Link Text Frames. Allow for text to flow from frame to frame in a named chain, as music already does.
Hide frame borders in Engrave, so that you can see your work as a preview without the distractions.
Frame drag: Sometimes, it can be really difficult to select and move the frame you want to, especially if frames are adjacent. Add a click-and-hold action which could either highlight a selected frame and dim/lock the others à la Isolation Mode in Illustrator, or allow you to drag the frame to a new page.
I’d love a lock frame option that would force spacing to remain the same. It’s really upsetting when you get things just how you want them and discover you forgot to add one little text item. You add it and BOOM. All your [vertical] spacing shifts even though no extra space was needed (but Dorico thought it was).
Another note on frames - it would be great if we could link graphics frames to notes. I have some fingering diagrams for extended techniques (microtones and multiphonics) that describe particular notes, and any time their orientation changes, all the alignment has to be done over again.
I think in this particular case, David, it would be better for these diagrams to be assigned to the notes as playing techniques instead of graphics, and in a future version of Dorico you will be able to define your own playing techniques, including using graphics instead of font characters if necessary.
A belated thank you, Daniel, for this excellent advice. And congrats to you and the whole team on the new releases.
Now with Dorico Pro 2, I can create glyph-type playing techniques, import graphics, edit them (much as I did with my custom accidentals in 1.2, though now with mouse support as well - thanks for that!), and the new support for microtonal playback means my custom tuning system is coming to life. Now I can even designate names for the fingering diagrams and insert them directly through the Playing Techniques popover. All this has revolutionized my workflow on this project. I am elated; I could kiss you.
The only remaining issue I’m having with the custom tuning system concerns transposition.
I can input G4 in a transposing score for the Horn in F and hear the proper concert C4 until I introduce the custom tonality system, at which point the playback jumps to concert G4.
Switching to Concert Pitch, the first pitch, written G4, drops to its proper sounding concert C4, while the rest of the pitches remain, matching playback, but different from what they ought to be.
This was true in 1.2 as well. Is this a known issue? Please let me know if I can be of any assistance.
I must confess I feel a little bad pointing to bugs when celebration is in order. So anyway, tremendous thanks and kudos to the whole team on the truly outstanding improvements. Bravo!
Thanks for getting back with me; again, sorry for the delay in my reply.
It appears that the issue had to do with being in either a custom or an atonal key signature; with the former, I had no luck, but once I created an atonal key signature, everything fell into line. I’ll send a simple project nonetheless.
A compatibility issue with midi keyboard input and the custom tuning systems appears also to have been addressed in the update - thanks for that!
I just posted on another thread about a new issue, and look forward to hearing from you on that front.
