I am seriously losing heart. I have been working on an SATB vocal arrangement imported via XML. I’d assumed I could copy lyrics from one voice part to another but that’s a really cumbersome process that risks changing the notes as well as adding the lyrics to the second voice. So I thought I’d try condensing. That did’t work either, it did condense the two vocal staves (S & A) on to one staff but it moved the lyrics above the staff and as there are 3 verses that is a real mess. Another undo.
And after a few minutes in any project everything just freezes and I can’t type in any new notes at all. I’ve felt from the start that my installation hasn’t worked right, having had the trial version and then upgraded via the Finale Crossgrade offer - am I just being paranoid?
Sorry to hear about your struggles, Anne! Don’t lose heart, this will all be fixable.
Firstly, you say you’re copying lyrics: are these for voices sharing a stave, or have you already got a separate stave for each voice part?
Secondly, before you copy, what have you got selected – the whole staff (including notes, dynamics, slurs etc) or just the lyrics?
Here’s some information about filters in Dorico – once you’ve selected the first staff that you want to copy lyrics from, you should filter for lyrics, so that you’re only copying & pasting lyrics to other staves (and not the first staff’s notes)
If you’re not sure how best to proceed, feel free to share either your original XML or Dorico project files here in this thread, and someone will take a look.
As for your performance issues, could you share some more information about your computer system (what OS is it running)? Have you tried quitting Dorico entirely, including making sure the VST engine has also closed, and restarting?
Hi Lillie
I started with separate staves for S A T & B. Lyrics are initially only on soprano line, I want to copy them to alto line as the rhythms are identical, just harmonised. I tried a normal windows type Select all, copy & paste but even though only lyrics are highlighted the notes copy to the alto staff too. I tried copying to staff below too and the same thing happened (ie notes were copied as well as lyrics) My Grandfather’s Clock.mxl (20.6 KB)
I checked all the help sources and the repeat lyric pasting would be such a pain so thought condensing would work instead. Screenshots attached showing pre and post condensing results. (Incidentally the alto line has been added post xml import, there was only melody on sop line. Apart from the chorus which was complete for all parts.)
So far as the program generally is concerned I regularly have to close a project and exit the program to get it to let me back in. It’s just never felt as if my installation has worked properly.
Selecting the top Soprano staff, filtering for lyrics, then copying and pasting works as expected for me, opening your project here.
It’s odd that you didn’t think the notes were selected, but it sounds like they were still (especially if you used a fairly generic “select all” function, but didn’t then filter for lyrics).
Some of the rhythms are different, but you can just move lyrics rhythmically in Write mode as needed just for the ones that are different.
Here’s your project with the lyrics copied and some reformatting.
I’m not the best authority for technical issues though, so I’ll leave someone else to chime in with suggestions. If you’re able to get diagnostic or crash log files, that might be helpful, though. Dorico should generate a diagnostics file to your desktop if the application crashes.
Lillie that’s amazing, thank you so much. I did filter for lyrics which is why I got so frustrated!
The program hasn’t ever fully crashed so I don’t have any diagnostic files to share - I’ve just always had to close it manually and reopen the file to start working again.
Thank you again so much.
You can do Help>Create Diagnostic Report and upload here the zip file that appears on your desktop. It contains much more info than just crash reports.
