At the risk of sounding anti-climactic given it’s been several months since the software was released, I’m very happy to say that I’ve just published the Dorico 3.5 manuals.
They’re not quite complete yet - I’ve got a couple of large additional features to add and a few more smaller improvements - but I think we can all agree that it’s a sizeable beast. I hope it’s useful to all Dorico 3.5 users, and that you get some enjoyment from all the additional pictures that have gone in.
One key bit of new functionality that’s come with the new manual framework that is worth noting: pages with multiple sections now have entries in the “on this page” list in the top right of the window (in the webhelp version). These are navigable (you can click on titles to jump to that section) and dynamic (the section you’re currently in gets underlined). Additionally, you can collapse individual sections on such pages. I’m a big fan, I hope others also enjoy this!
Here are links to the 3.5 manuals, each of which is available as online webhelp and a PDF:
I’m not seeing the “on this page” function you’re referring to - I’ve downloaded the manual as a PDF and am looking at it in Preview on a mac. It’s probably staring me in the face and I just can’t see it …
The new manual is almost double the size of the previous one. Is that largely down to the new pictures or have you strengthened existing material?
Ah, I think the “on this page” functionality is only available on the webhelp - try this topic for instance.
Actually, the 3.5 PDF is only around 165 pages longer than the 3.1 PDF. Do you mean a previous-previous version? The vast majority of this comes from documentation for new features in 3.5, but there are a few corners I went back to fill - separate steps for pick-up bars and changing the language before adding instruments are two examples.
I see, yes that’s probably from pictures mostly then! I like to include examples of each notation these days, and for guitar techniques there were quite a few for all the different variations and showing the handles of bends etc.
Interesting question @Menaggen. All Steinberg products have a dedicated version manual, so Dorico is no exception. Although it might not appear that way when you look at the separate manuals, internally we basically do write “one manual” (or at least can, depending on the level of differentiation that’s required within topics/chapters). The same system that allows us to publish the same texts as both the webhelp and a PDF also allows us to mark-up according to the different product variations, down to a very granular level if required.
So, I more or less do just that: I document things you can do in Dorico, and if it’s only possible in the Pro version, I mark up that topic so it only appears in the Pro manual. I can do this for individual bits of text, so for instance, some tips that you see in the Pro manual pointing you towards options dialogs (e.g. “You can change this by default in Engraving Options”) don’t appear in the Elements or SE manuals.
There are pros and cons to both approaches (one pro being that Elements users might more easily see that what they want to do is only available in the Pro version, so they know that’s at least an option; the negative being Elements/SE users might have large sections of documentation in their manual that is irrelevant to their version). The separate manual approach is the one the Steinberg manual team employs.
Currently, the manuals team are planning to start localisation early in the new year.
We’ll translate all the languages into which we translate the Dorico manual together, including French, in the new year as current plans stand. I wouldn’t be able to say when that would be done & ready to publish at the moment, but we would aim to publish translations as soon as we can.
