I’m currently using Trial version of Dorico Elements. What happens when it expires? Will I be given the option to purchase or should I purchase before it expires? Will the paid version have to be installed over the trial version? Sorry if this is rather a trivial question!!
My guess is that the trial version is the real version and all you will add will be a valid license to use it “forever” (of course, your computers will change and eventually, if you never update, it won’t work anymore because of all the os updates, etc…)
BTW, I don’t understand why you did not try Dorico Pro — you can access Pro, Elements and SE simply by keeping some keys pressed when you launch Dorico Pro so you could have tried all tiers.
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I think if your budget doesn’t extend to Dorico Pro – which is, after all, considerably more expensive than Dorico Elements – it makes sense to try out Dorico Elements.
If you decide to buy Dorico Elements, you will receive a Download Access Code (DAC) from our online shop. You enter this into Steinberg Download Assistant, which will associate your license with your Steinberg ID account. Finally, you run Steinberg Activation Manager and refresh your licenses, so that your permanent Dorico Elements license becomes available there.
Thanks for replying so quickly. That’s great. Thank you. I’ll definitely be buying Elements- was just wondering if it’ll confuse things if I purchased it before trial finishes! Tbh, Elements more than meets my needs - I did consider going for Pro but as I only ever use it for quartet arrangements it didn’t seem necessary. Thanks again.
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Buying Elements before the trial ends will not confuse anything. I bought Dorico Pro after using the trial for only a week or so. I decided to take advantage of the current sale on top of the Finale cross grade. Just follow Daniel’s instructions above and your currently installed trial will be converted to a fully licensed product! Elements is a great value since they upgraded the capability (24 staves, and added some basic engrave mode functions). If you have any problems there always seems to be more than a couple folks from the Dorico team jumping in to help, not to mention the rest of the very helpful Dorico community. (Another reason to join team Dorico!).
Many thanks for your help. I’ll buy it today!!
Ah well………I bought Dorico Pro!!! I was so impressed with Elements so I treated myself! Thanks Daniel for you guidance as to how to buy it whilst in trial. Worked perfectly!!!
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You probably won’t regret it 
Congrats!! I am excited for you! I think you made a great choice. Even though you say you usually only work on quartet stuff you will appreciate the extra functionality of D4 Pro, especially the engraver options. If you have used another notation app there is a lot that’s different in Dorico, (but better IMHO), so I recommend you start binge watching tutorials and having fun. Again congrats. 
Ok. The engraving bit is pretty new to me so I’ll start binge watching tonight!!! Sibelius uninstalled today btw
You may want to re-install Sibelius and export one of your existing scores to an XML file and import it into Dorico. You can use the process of tweaking the newly imported XML score in Dorico as a self tutorial. If you are on a subscription then you may want to export all your old scores into XML before your subscription ends. I have Finale and will keep it around for legacy purposes.
Already done!!! They imported quite well actually.
Nice!