Feature Request: Visual Guide Lines via Double-Clicking the Ruler

Hi Dorico Team,

​I am a long-time Finale user who recently switched to Dorico. While I am incredibly impressed with Dorico’s automated engraving and modern workflow, there is one specific productivity feature from my previous experience that I believe would be a game-changer for Dorico.

​Proposed Feature: Ruler-based Guide Lines (Horizontal & Vertical)

​In professional engraving, we often need to align lyrics, system text, and other markings across multiple bars or staves with absolute visual precision. I propose a feature where double-clicking on the top or side ruler creates a persistent guide line.

​How it works: Double-clicking the horizontal ruler creates a vertical guide; double-clicking the vertical ruler creates a horizontal guide.

​Benefit: These guides would provide a visual “anchor” for manual adjustments, allowing users to align objects perfectly across different staves or pages without relying solely on coordinates or grid snapping.

​Why it’s needed: While Dorico’s automatic collision avoidance is industry-leading, high-end professional engraving still requires intuitive manual alignment tools. This “Ruler Guide” system would bridge that gap and provide a more tactile, efficient workflow for layout adjustments in Engrave Mode.

​I believe this feature would be a massive addition to the toolkit for both transitioning Finale users and the existing Dorico community.

​Thank you for your continuous effort in making Dorico the best notation software available!

​(Note: This post was prepared with the assistance of Gemini to ensure clear communication of my feedback.)

7 Likes

Didn’t @dan_kreider have a project not too long ago which he created using a grid?

I would absolutely love these sorts of custom guide lines. It’s been requested before (by me, I think).

The link above was a FR the team implemented, which has been a great help as well.

3 Likes

I would add “Guideline for ‘middle’ in grand staff”, as Dorico does not always have perfect middle alignment of hairpins and dynamics. It is quite tedious to correct these imperfections. Naturally, an improved “middle placement function” would be best, but in the meantime, automatic guides would help a lot.

1 Like

While waiting for (Godot and) guide lines in Dorico, consider a third party screen ruler.

For Windows users there is the (PowerToys) screen ruler.

For Mac users: PixelStick from Plum Amazing.