I continue to have difficulties selecting notes with the mouse in Dorico. In the following example, I need to select the A in the alto voice by using the stem since I can’t be sure what I am getting if I select the note head, since it says Multiple Selection in the Lower Zone:
However, if it is not exactly in the middle of the stem but off by a miserly smidgen but still within or touching the stem, I have “missed” and select all five notes in the alto:
A trick I learned from one of John Barron’s tutorials on Youtube is to hold Alt+Shift while clicking. It lets you toggle through overlapping items, so try that while clicking the notehead in this case. It also works for text frames or any overlapping item for that matter. That was a game changer for me.
However, I am still puzzled as to why there is so little tolerance given in selecting the stem of a note, and so much tolerance in selecting the notes in a measure. Only at a large zoom percentage does one become aware of what is going on with the position of the cursor. At a normal size it seems random, sometimes the single note is selected, sometimes the entire beamed group.
John in this kind of situations one can have more success by selecting both (or everything) and then (with the cmd-key pressed) deselect what one doesn’t need.
Yeah I run into that a lot as well. There was a topic on marquee selection recently, there is a (seeming) randomness there as well as to which items are included in a selection.
Would be nice if mouse selection could become more accurate/predictable.
That is an interesting thread on marquee selection @Zalde. I notice that stems were mentioned.
A some point I am going to do a side by side comparison of mouse selection in Dorico and Finale and post it at Notat.io. The only problem I recall having in Finale is with the large area of selection on the inner side of slurs that often get in the way of selecting other items.
In comparing selection in Finale and Dorico, I realized that Finale’s Selection Tool is less capable and for that reason only seems to be less problematic. On the whole Dorico selection is far superior.
However, the staff selection area is narrower in Finale:
The stem selection issue mentioned above is worse as the zoom level increases, as if the selection area around the stem does not widen with the zoom level.
I have also realized that Finale selection seems easier at times because selection boxes appear only on items that belong to each of the different tools. This makes it possible to select with the mouse items of different types that are very close together.
If a a finger number is close to or overlaps one of the control points of a slur in Dorico as in the following example, it is very hard to select the finger number without using the arrow keys.
This couldn’t happen in Finale even when using the selection tool (which allows universal selection of most items like Dorico) because slur must be selected for the control points to be active and it is impossible to move the number without deactivating the slur:
I really do think that Select More is one of Dorico’s most overlooked features, particularly when it comes to selecting a custom passage worth of whatevers:
Select a fingering at the start of your desired passage
Cmd/Ctrl-click another fingering at the end of the desired passage.
Cmd/Ctrl-Shift-A to grab all of the fingerings between the existing selected fingerings.
Thank you for the illustration of @Zalde’s suggestion and advice, @Christian_R
However, part of the issue is that in situations of this type, one doesn’t know in advance if the problem will arise and when one will be forced to lasso a fingering or use some other method. And if one doesn’t want to use one of those methods continually, or spend energy trying to predict when to use them, one winds up selecting both elements, clicking again to void the selection, then possibly trying again, and finally lassoing or option-shift clicking or using the arrow keys. etc.
In Finale there is no doubt or complication. You just select the fingering. It always works and one is spared an unnecessary expenditure of energy. Of course, this has to do with the basic design of Finale in separating the elements in the way it does. I have no idea if this is possible in Dorico.
@pianoleo You are absolutely right. I underuse (as in never) Select More and could in cases where I have groups to edit. Thanks for reminding me. However, I am often selecting single fingerings to edit and that is when the issue above arises. So I don’t think that Select More would help.
You might find it helpful to set Engrave > Show Handles > Always. This will cause the handles for e.g. slurs to always appear when you’re in Engrave mode, which will give you a clue as to whether a click is likely to end up selecting a slur rather than a fingering.
Thank you, @dspreadbury! The solution was staring me right in the face! In fact, I probably don’t need the alternate selection approaches at all unless the items are completely superimposed.
It is not as visually distracting as I thought it might be and helps me with slur shaping; even the very small slurs. This will be very helpful.
