That’s kind. Thank you. Just that learning software is really difficult the older you get. And it is even harder when you’ve been using a programme as part of your creative practice for most of your creative life. (I am sorry to say that I am also autistic, so changing habits is really difficult for me.)
Well, like I said, if there’s something that isn’t quite clicking then reach out to us.
Oh, that’s incredibly reassuring. I think I un consciously read August 2024. Sorry. I will try to write to Finale tech support then as well, and maybe they can help. If that pressure is off, and I can start to learn Dorico as a a secondary focus, that is more manageable. You have in fact alleviated my distress considerably with this helpful bit of information. Thank you very much.
Please calm down, there is no reason to panic. Finale is till working (for Mac users even in Sequoia) so you don’t have to make a make-or-break transition.
I am/was in the same situation. I’m a 68 year old and a 32 year Finale user.
Yes, Dorico is quite complicated, but rather than thinking “I’m going to die” I was looking forward to get rid of a dinosaur with an ugly user interface in favor of a modern software with a huge amount of benefits.
Take the time to learn Dorico. Practice, practice, practice! Rewrite old projects, don’t hurry. I spent about 6 weeks to “speak” Dorico fluently and 2 more to write music at least as fast as in Finale. You will love the layout capabilities of Dorico and much more.
You have to work regularly, bit by bit.
It’s impossible to assimilate a new tool in a month!
In the meantime, as I said, Finale is still working perfectly and you can entrust your work to it.
You guys are really helpful. Thank you. How do I reach out?
I think I still approach musical input in a very graphic way, as when I learnt composition originally I learnt hand copying (one of the last generations to learn that). I use finale that way: I just click where I want to put the note, and put it there with the mouse. I know Finale itself allowed more process-type methods; but I stuck with the more graphical approach as that fit with my original way in. Dorico looks entirely process driven: you have to position something in a measure via a code, hit loads more codes etc. I just want to click the dynamic I want and manually drag it to where I want, as that’s how I did it with a pen! It might be a crazy way of using any software, but Finale allowed that and so I stuck with that approach and made it work and got great results.
Okay, thank you. I am prone to panic. Sorry. It’s been a relief to learn that there is still tech support for Finale. I had misunderstood that it was turned off, and that was why I panicked. I thought I had to learn everything immediately. I now realise that’s not the case.
Hey, it could be worse: at least you’re not a drummer.
My son is actually an outstanding dummer. He never panics. Probably because everyone has to follow him whether they like it or not.
Here is that Finale to Dorico session again.
The chapter about mouse input is at 13:30. It may answer your questions:
“Dummer” in German is “a stupid person”
Hi @camdenreeves , I’ve been contacting them about a month ago. Finale on my laptop just stopped working all of the sudden. They answered in a few days time, and solved my issue. So not as quick as Dorico team and forum, but still alive and polite and helpfull.
Hey! You can actually work well with the mouse in Dorico. There are settings that let you load up the cursor with a score item and then you just click where you want it. The “code based” popover workflow surely isn’t for everyone!
@camdenreeves yet another.
There are resources out there to help and this forum is super friendly as you have discovered, many coming from Finale.
However you do actually have to have time to learn new software and regularly play with it (small projects would be more manageable) so you do not forget what you have learnt, doing a small bit then leaving it a week or month does not help in recall or learning as you would know anyway.
If you have a holiday period or down time, then that might be a good time to learn some basics so you can ease into it. Once you start though, as I said, best to try to keep going with it, very regularly, practice just one or two things again and again to make the memory to learn/retain.
Best wishes, we are all here to help you transition.
Sorry—I meant to reply to the same person to whom you also replied.
Same here; 30 yrs with Finale, and looking at age 67 in the rearview mirror. It’s been a struggle. The terminology is often so different from
Finale that I didn’t know what to search for, and the amount of advice available online can be overwhelming. Several weeks in, I’m just starting to feel like I can manage with basic tasks. I finished the commission in progress with Finale a few weeks ago; it just wasn’t possible for me to complete it with Dorico by deadline. Now I can focus on learning Dorico without that pressure. I feel like I wrapped up the piece just in the nick of time, as Finale is getting pretty squirrely. Part of the upper audio has begun randomly dropping out in spots during playback. Despite experiencing tremendous frustration with Dorico for several weeks, I’m finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and there’s a lot to like about Dorico. Far less “tweaking” the formatting, and the way it handles cues is brilliant, Having said that, as a handbell composer, I miss the macro in Finale to create a Bells Needed Chart. I found the Udemy course with Luke Carlson helpful, and I learned that searching in Google is usually easier than trying to find what I need in the Dorico manual. I’m also using Notation Express profile with a stream deck, which has decreased the need to memorize so many key combinations. Since I don’t have anything with a hard deadline now, I’ve exported the just-completed project to Dorico for practice with formatting. I could really use help with that, though. I emailed a request for a “Switch Session” 2 weeks ago Friday. I included the requested information to book a 60-minute session, along with a score sample. I haven’t heard a peep so far. Any idea how long it might take to get a response?
Hi @camdenreeves, to make this, first go into Dorico Preferences/Note Input and Editing, and enable this preference:
Then, in your score, in Write mode, click on the dynamics icon on the panel on the right, and click one desired dynamic: the mouse will be loaded with it and you can stamp it in at the desired place in your score:
If you enabled also the checkmark to allow multiple items to be loaded, the mouse will remain loaded with that dynamic, until you click on another dynamic, or another item in other panels, or click ESC (escape).
You should still be OK. John Barron has mentioned that @Lillie_Harris has added all sorts of common metadata of terms that Finale users are likely to be searching for, so even if you use your familiar terms, the documentation should still be yielding useful results. And if there are terms that you are searching for and not working, let Lillie know, so she can add that metadata too.
If you search in Google, be sure you get the most recent manual that is tailored to the version of Dorico you are using.
Since older manuals have been around longer, they have more clicks and therefore a tendency to appear higher on the list than the current version. Dorico is working on ways to address that; just keep an eye out.
Cathy, by responding via email, your whole email signature became part of the post, including your contact info. You might want to log in and scrape this data so bots don’t spam you.