Engrave mode cosmetic FR

Dorico
1

Hey there,

I was thinking about some not “necessary” but yet useful bonus improvements in the Engrave mode for those of us who also use Dorico for instructional material :

  • being able to have round corners for text frames with borders
  • being able to change the border color and background color of those frames
  • being able to edit text frames by pressing Enter : the reason is, when sometimes there’s a text frame within a text frame (like currently for instance the page numbers in the top flow title frame) when we double click Dorico doesn’t get we’re clicking on the smallest one but instead activates editing in the biggest one ; so for now I have to first move the smallest frame outside the biggest one, then edit, then move it back to its original position => it would save a lot of actions
  • being able to duplicate text frames and image frames
  • being able to move frames from a page to another (for now they are bound to their original page)
  • maybe being able to display a grid so that we could align/position frames in a quicker way ?
  • maybe I’m alone in this situation, but could we swap or at least have an option in the preferences to “validate” (not sure of the correct english term) the text frames by pressing Enter rather than Esc ? Usually in most mediums or softwares pressing Enter confirms the action, and pressing Shift + Enter sends the text to the next line ; right now when pressing Enter it creates a new line and we have to press Esc when we’re done to set/confirm/validate (I’m sure there’s a more correct term haha) the text, maybe it’s just me but it feels weird…
  • being able to set an image or color/gradient as the whole background on pages

And the classic requests already already made but for the sake of it :

  • having a magnetic layout to avoid having to calculate the positions of the left/right/top/bottom anchors
  • keeping the formatting when copying/pasting text

That pretty much covers it, I’m sure some other things would come up but those would be quite great to have.

Thanks !

1 Like
2

You can

3

You can also press Cmd+Return

1 Like
4

I’m on Dorico 4 and I’ve tried multiple times, not working (maybe it was added on 5 or my version needs a bug fix ?)

5

you can have rounded text boxes with staff or system text (yes but not on text frames)

you can change border color and background color in text frames (in properties)

you can navigate between frames selection with the arrow keys, and then press enter to edit. First deactivate the handles pressing the tab key.

6

Not quite the same, but close:

2 Likes
7

I’m on Dorico 4 too.

I actually have it set as the first action in a few macros too. I click the frame border, or navigate to the correct frame and then press it.

One thing to remember is the frame has to be selected and not the handles on a frame (just as if you wanted to drag the whole frame).

8

I’m on Dorico 4 and none of those appear in the properties panel, either they were added in 5 or something’s wrong with my version ?

9

thanks for the link !
Not the easiest and intuitive way but at least glad to know there’s a way !

10

I agree.

11

I am on Dorico 5, don’t remember when they were added, but this.options are definitely there :slight_smile:

12

Here is this too (for entering and exiting text frames):

(Yes, it’s a Dorico 5 link but it still applies)

1 Like
13

Ok I get why it didn’t work for me, I did select a handle rather than the sides of the frame, now I’ve tried and it works, I feel stupid haha

14

Join the club!

15

Seconding this! I frequently write for narrator with ensemble. When they are in-score (text along a “narrator” staff) I like borders with rounded corners, to make it look different. But when there is a larger chunk of narrator text without music, and I have to use a text frame - there’s no round corners option.

16

If you use a paragraph style in a text frame that’s set to be bordered, you can select other border styles there.

1 Like