At the risk of once again being assailed for my Finale work flow, I would like to see Transpose added to the right click menu in Write mode. When copying parts between instruments of different ranges (e.g., one treble and one bass), pasting tends to result in the notation being in the incorrect octave. Having the ability to simply right click to open the Transpose dialogue would be convenient. Alternatively, coding Dorico to copy to another instrument in the correct octave for that instrument would eliminate the request for adding Transpose to the right click popup menu. Thank you for considering this.
How is copying, for example, an E6 from a flute part to a cello part and resulting in E6 an incorrect octave? This is exactly what I would expect, always the real octave (it compensates for transposing instruments of course).
Whatâs the corrent octave for the cello? E4, E3 or E2?
The Transpose dialog is most useful when one wants intervals below an 8va. Transposing a pitch or sequence by octave can be easily done with ctrl + alt + down arrow/up arrow (cmd for Mac? I hate Mac)
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The workflow is actually the same. The corresponding transposing shortcuts are
(on PC â = CTRL, â„ = ALT and ⧠= SHIFT)
| Function | Finale | Dorico |
|---|---|---|
| Diatonic step down | 6 | â„â |
| Diatonic step up | 7 | â„â |
| Chromatic step down | - | â§â„â |
| Chromatic step up | + | â§â„â |
| Octave down | 8 | â„ââ |
| Octave up | 9 | â„ââ |
I seem to remember that there was âsome debateâ on the Finale forums about whether âRespect Instrument Ranges When Copyingâ was a good thing or not.
The key shortcuts have been listed above, but Iâd caution that if you change things by diatonic steps, then you lose accidentals.
You can also Transpose using the Shift I tool. Just type t8 to transpose up an octave; t-8 for down an octave. tp5 is up a perfect fifth; tm2 a minor second.
OK, it might be six keys or so, but itâs easy to remember, and still only takes about 2 seconds.
The Shift I transform tool is extremely powerful.
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Thereâs no need. You can use shift-I for most transpose operations (though it wonât affect key signatures).
âIâ of shift-I stands for âintervalâ.
If you never use it, you will never remember it. Shift-I is probably the most useful of all the popovers, and well worth getting to know.
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It operates on existing notes only!!
Beware of making assumptions. Shift-I does absolutely nothing like the note mover tool.
You have to have notes selected for it to work on. As said, initially it was just a method of adding intervals to existing notes (hence I), but it incorporated all the transform and mapping functions.
Woah! Havenât gotten around to this one yet, would be very useful! It makes me wonder if a future implementation could be possible to add notes based on chords? Say youâve got a Bb in an Abmin chord and you want to voice down, you could say âAb: b7, 5, 4, m3â or something like that. Or even making a selection of notes and saying âfollow written chord symbolsâ and harmonize based on those scale degrees." Maybe a little overboard, not sure if it would be better than just adding the note names? Cool thinking about different ideas.
@Kevin_Eland, I highly recommend printing and having at hand or putting on a second monitor/device pp. 4â5 of the
Popovers in Dorico
https://www.steinberg.help/v/u/dorico_5_1_popovers_en.pdf
guide and trying out all of the amazing things one can do with Shift + i. Youâll be glad you did! (Of course, the entire guideâs a gem.)
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Thanks for the advice but Iâm going to abstain from any future discussions on this forum
Woah! I checked out that guide when I first started, but wasnât quite ready to absorb anything past basics. Iâll have to revisit this now!
Iâm trying to look, is there a way to âadd scale degree belowâ rather than âadd interval belowâ? I see all the scale degree options but not seeing that specifically. Nonetheless, this looks amazing!
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Ugh, this would have been so helpful to know for my last (first!) score, which had contrabassoon, basses, and a bass oboe (all of which donât enter the score at the octave you play them on a midi keyboard).
Oh well, I know it now! Very powerful.
Appreciate your perspective but I donât appreciate âI hate Macâ, @Sergei_Mozart. Who cares what you hate or donât hate?
Anyway, I suppose it takes an classically trained organist like me to understand that what is within the range of a flute is not necessarily in the range of a bassoon (Iâm not using cello because, theoretically, the range of the cello could conceivably include part of the flute range). One would expect to copy something within the range of one instrument would place it into the range of the copied to instrument the best it could with out of range pitches marked as usual by the Dorico.
I will add that learning all these key presses is a little overwhelming coming from the âFâ program.
@Vadian These certainly are a help but I like to see the options in the Transpose popup. That is why I was asking for a simple addition to the right-click menu. It doesnât hurt anyone and it may help some of us.
I only said âI hate Macâ because I canât seem to remember the Mac hotkeys, I always get confused. Youâre right, no one cares what I hate or donât hate, that wasnât the point either.
Slowly, but steady 
Well, the loudest and most obnoxious seem to be the ones that are heard. This is probably why on both the Finale and the Steinberg forums that folks of different mindset (i.e. diversity) are mocked and assailed as being something less than intelligent - shame to all who do that because it stifles creativity on so very many levels. (and I am not saying that you, @benwiggy do that).
So maybe thereâs room for a setting to allow or disallow respecting instrument ranges when copyingâŠ
@Kevin_Eland I am dismayed that I did not see your perspectives before you deleted them. It sounds like you were bullied a bit. I have found that to be the case frequently when I, a Finale ârefugeeâ, post something here. Rather than just be helpful by giving suggestions, a fair number of users have a need to be ugly as sin to others - not a friendly environment. Nevertheless, I will continue to interact regardless of their waysâŠ