Hello, I am new to Dorico and I am trying to create a dotted quarter note but every time I do Dorico shows a quarter note tied to an eighth note. Every time I hit the Dotted Notes button in the menu it toggles between just a quarter note and a quarter note tied to an eighth note, not a dotted quarter note. What am I doing wrong? Thanks for any help anyone can give me.
Welcome to the forum.
Dorico makes intelligent decisions based on the context surrounding the note, rules determined by Notation Options > Note Grouping etc. You can fiddle with the rules yourself or you can turn on Force Duration before you enter the note. If your dotted quarter is followed by an eighth note, there’s a high likelihood that as soon as you enter the eighth note the previous note will sort itself out.
Don’t worry about how it appears when you enter the notes. Notice how it changes according to what is following… If the result does not suit you, check the Notation options (cld/ctrl-shift-N)>note grouping to choose the option you need. That’s a very interesting feature of Dorico.
If you don’t want to use Dorico with its strengths, you still can disable this with force duration (o) before entering the notes (but you should try the “proper” way if I may)
[Edit] Leo, you’re faster… But at least we’re on the same path 
Hello and thank you both very much for your quick and excellent replies. Marc, I agree with you that it is a very interesting feature. I have to say that I’m falling for Dorico in a big way especially coming from the competition. Working in Dorico seems like it’s going to be a very fun and creative experience. One thing I really like about a program like Dorico is how you can learn so much about reading and writing music even to advance levels. It really is fun!. Thank you both again and I’m sure I’ll be back at least to visit. All the best to you both!
Greg