Export custom playing techniques

Dorico
1

How do I export custom playing techniques (fingerings with graphics) and import it to another Dorico file?

2

If you click the star icon at the lower left for each one, they are saved as default. You have to reload if you have other files open for them to appear. You can also use the Library->Library Manager.

Jesper

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3

I know that for future projects but how do I get the fingerings (playing techniques) in old projects?

4

You can use the Library Manager for that.

Open the old project. Make sure the recent one (with the new custom playing techniques) is not open. Open the Library Manager (Library > Library Manager). In the Compare To section (top right), drag your recent project (or open it by clicking Dorico Project).

Then the Library Manager will show you the differences between the two projects.

In the left column, under Collections, find Playing Techniques. You can import them all at once by clicking the ≠ sign next to Playing Techniques in the column, or one by one in the main area of the dialog.

Press Apply, your custom PT should now show up iin the old project.

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5

You can use the Library Manager to Import various kind of settings between projects.
(@charles_piano was faster)

6

Did you try to open an old project after saving them as default? Shouldn’t make any difference. Works here. I just opened a doc created in Dorico 1 and all my new default PTs were there.

Jesper

7

Thank you @jesele, interesting. The custom Paragraph Styles as well, apparently. Don’t know why, I was thinking that the “save as default” function was only working for further projects!

8

It’s saved on the computer, so any file you open should have access.

Jesper

9

It sounds logical, thank you.

But, unless I’m mistaken, it’s not that clear in the manual:

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10

Certainly not, did you try yourself @charles_piano

Jesper

11

Yes I did. With Paragraph Styles because it’s easier for me to have chronological references about custom PS than about custom PT — but indeed, they appear in files created before they were saved as default.

12

Good, so it’s not just on my Mac.

Jesper

13

I haven’t tested this out thoroughly, but I think there may be a few things at play here.

If you define a brand new playing technique or paragraph style and save it as default, it should be available for use when you open other existing projects.

If you have saved a new custom playing technique or paragraph style as default and used it in multiple projects, and then you edit the item in one project and save the new definition as default, I think (have not fully tested) that the new default appearance will not be inherited by the projects which already use the item, since the initial appearance has already been saved in those projects and is not overridden by the new default appearance. This should be the same as changing a default in one of the Options dialogs – the new default is used by new projects, but older projects continue to use the older default which was incorporated in the project file.

IOW, there’s a difference between Dorico telling a project “Hey, here’s a new user-defined default item that you don’t know about” and “Oh, I see you know about this one already; carry on with what you already have.”

14

It sounds reasonable. I wanted to test this myself to be sure and I haven’t had the time — a retrospective behaviour could be dangerous if it happened systematically!

15

Thanks a lot! I didn’t know that. This makes live a bit easier​:blush: