Feature Request for Dorico 6 - True Full-Document Search (and Replace)

I’d like to shoehorn this feature request in here while there’s time for Dorico 6 requests (I’m guessing that the cutoff is coming soon, but I don’t know). I’ve made mention of it before, but it’s been kind of blown off, saying that “filters can do it” or something to the like. I’ve tried filters, but I’ve never had the luck I’ve needed with them.

What I’m talking about is a true, targeted, full-document search feature. I would like to have the ability to hit the equivalent of Ctrl-F in Microsoft Word and have a Search Box pop up (or a Navigation Sidebar appear as in Office 365). There, you’d be able to have an assisted search term entry done (you’d need the assist for things like double-sharps and non-text items - think the Character Map’s search feature here). Once you hit Enter to do the search, Dorico would search the ENTIRE document that you’re working on (unless you’d highlighted an area) and would go to the first instance of the searched-for item it found (say, the first double-sharp of any kind in an 800+ bar-long symphony). You could then work on that item or ignore it, then move on to the next item, just as in Word, until you reached the end of the document, et cetera, so forth, and so on. A corresponding “replace” feature would also be appreciated.

Please don’t tell me that you can do this currently with filters, because unless I’ve missed something, you can’t, at least not as easily as I’ve laid out here. Dorico needs to be a world-class program, and as such, it needs this kind of basic search-and-replace functionality. [last line removed - shouldn’t have been put in here in the first place - sorry]

Thank you for your help.

4 Likes
  1. Yes, agree.
  2. This has been requested before, and is certainly on their list.
  3. We have no way of knowing
    • how close they are to releasing a next version
    • how long they would need to develop a given feature
1 Like

Firstly, I agree with you and Mark that this would be a handy and valuable addition. I can think of three types of search (/replace) use:

  1. Informational (Ex.: return every instance of X [playing technique; Roman-numeral text pattern; etc. in this set-of-exercises project so I can build an index. I suppose the current workaround would be to export text as CSV file to be pared down, but this could be “slicker.”)
  2. Navigational (i.e., “take me to the next occurrence of X.” This would be in essence a sort of Jump to… — like the current Jump Bar, but not tied to rhythmic location.) ((Does this already exist and I’m just ignorant?))
  3. Editorial (replace X with Y)

(Of course, some of the kinds of things accomplished by search/replace in the word processor analogy you bring up are already native; changing the appearance of every X by adjusting elements under the Libraries menu or in various Options dialogues, for instance.)


I do want, though — at the risk of overstepping and/or generating unintended “bad blood” — to go out on a limb and comment on your statement:

One of the things I, and I imagine others, value about this forum beyond the incredible collective wisdom we all so generously offer is the friendly tone and respect shown. I value the fact that the Dorico team is willing — and, I believe, genuinely glad — to listen to our ideas for possible improvements/additions, but I think it’s better for all if we stick to “I’d love to see…” and “Please consider adding…” kinds of statements. I worry that if we users go beyond that to issuing what sound like directives, we’ll squander the good will, open communication, and general “good vibes” that make this forum so great.

(I’m also considering @dspreadbury’s oft-stated thoughts:)

Again, I offer this as a friendly plea and not in anger or confrontation. And I look forward to your continued contributions, @leejackson!

Best,

Judd

6 Likes

I agree, and I apologize for overstepping my bounds. I was tired and at the end of a long session. I didn’t mean to come off the wrong way. Thank you for giving me the right course here. I needed it.

6 Likes

Interesting thoughts – actually a few months ago I made a similar suggestion to borrow the concept from “find & replace” as used in word processing software to be used especially for “searching” notes more quickly and precisely than the filters, as well as could be used for finding/replacing anything you want - dynamics, playing techniques, ornaments, instruments (acting as the filter view - you could search ‘trumpet 2’ and it would take you right to the staff without having to scroll - basically similar to Cubase which has a search filter popup similar to that).

2 Likes

I think this could be great.

Rather than build a complex system of ‘aliases´ as per Cubase (or at one stage, Finale) i.e. dynamic copies of phrases that all update when one is updated, it would be lovely just to be able to select some notes and find out where they are repeated in a flow. Perhaps transposed copies too.

1 Like

This has been requested before, and I agree that it would be a valuable suite of features. It would be a lot of work to implement in full generality, and presents a lot of user interface challenges, particularly in the area of how to specify what the found material should be replaced with.

The work on the next major version of Dorico is well-advanced at this point, and I can say that a comprehensive set of features for find and replace is not in our plans. But it’s definitely something that we would like to add in future versions.

The truth is that as Dorico itself matures and has such a rich set of functionality, it takes more and more work to implement new features, because each new feature has to be considered in the light of every feature that has been implemented before it. The surface area of the software is much bigger than it was even five years ago, and we really feel that when working on large features that touch many other parts of the program. And with several members of the team not working directly on Dorico itself at the moment, we are stretched thinner than we ever have been. We have also devoted at least some of our efforts to continuing to issue fixes and improvements to Dorico 5, and every one of those changes represents time that we are not spending on building new features for the next version.

Don’t worry, though: we have some great things in the works. But we don’t have capacity to spare, so we have to be very selective in what we work on. And we know that inevitably some groups of users within our incredibly broad and diverse user base will be disappointed with what comes out the other end. I will continue to preach what I always do: this isn’t the last release of the software, so hang on for the next one.

22 Likes