As described previously in this thread, you can assign a key command to a custom paragraph style if you hit the “saves as default” star. Library → Paragraph styles.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to have it below the staff by default, but you can quickly put it below the staff by pressing F (flip).
Thanks; looks like I should refresh myself on keyboard shortcuts.
Or: Shift+X, Ctrl+I (to set italic), text input, Ctrl+Enter (to end input), F (to flip to below staff)
You could also define your own Expressive Text paragraph style and then assign your own key command to it (Shift+E, or something else). You’ll still have to manually flip to below the staff; there’s currently no way to do that automatically.
Okay, so setting the font style first is the way. Now you mention it, that is normally what you’d expect in any software, so that’s good.
If you’re putting the same expressive text in multiple parts at the same location (or close to the same location), you can create the text once, then select the text object and just Alt+click on the other places where you’d like it to go, to duplicate it.
I suspect Sibelius’ definition of expression text is semantically vague. Is it just a dynamic change or something else? It certainly does not playback correctly in Sibelius - it just appears at a specific location.
Most italicized “expressions” like cantabile or dolce or en dehors or espressivo can very easily be entered in Dorico as a prefix/suffix to dynamics and hiding the dynamic mark. Once created, these in turn can be copied wherever you want them. They playback correctly.
As an ex-Sibelius user the Dorico solution is far superior.
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