I’ve tried three different manual sources regarding the final step in creating a text frame for a paragraph I need to enter. After the beginning steps of Engrave/frame/text-frame selection the sources say variously, (1) “Make the frame where you need it,” (2) “drag the frame” to where you want it, and (3) “click the page.” #1 must have been a joke, #2 seems the most logical but I can’t get anything to drag anywhere, and #3 didn’t do anything (I’m assuming they mean click the page where you want the frame to go). All I need to learn is that last step of getting the frame I’ve selected over to the page. I even know the steps after that step…it’s just that one step. Any guidance appreciated.
Was the official manual one of those sources?
Just tried the procedure described there without a problem.
Maybe I’m missing your needs?
That was one of the sources I actually quoted: the click and drag one. Perhaps I’m clicking on and trying to drag the wrong thing, but I’ve tried clicking on everything in the left size. Nothing would drag or even show signs of having been clicked. What should I be trying to drag?
You should be dragging on the page where you want the frame to be. You’re not dragging the frame to the page, you’re drawing how big you want the frame to be.
Hi @Hilton_Jones, maybe a visual explanation can be helpful? Here a short video for you:
And one can also set frame size and location numerically from the Properties panel.
That was very, very helpful. The technical writer of the documentation leaves out so many details that make all the difference. For instance, the missing information is “click on the page where you want it but do not release, dragging immediately to create frame of desired size” would have made all the difference. Note that the narrator on the video actually stresses not releasing after the click. Thank you for the video!
Glad it helped, @Hilton_Jones. Everybody is different and sometimes a visual guide is the most direct way to learn (I remember the nice books with all the pictures for each step, by Scott Kelby, when I learned Photoshop and Lightroom; and the many videos on Kelbytraining, now KelbyOne…). But the Dorico Manual (which is tremendously well written in my opinion) is a very good and searchable reference (especially if you use the online version of it), that complements perfectly the video tutorials.
In defense of @Lillie_Harris, the writer of the documentation, I would say that the concept of dragging in the whole computer world already implies that you need to keep the mouse button pressed. And as a reinforcement of this, just after, it is written “When your release the mouse…”:
This is actually me 
It’s unforunate you didn’t realized that the click and drag in procedure step 3 is the common name for that action.
Click and drag in the music area to input the selected frame type
If all that common computer UI actions has to be explained in every topic, I’m afraid the manual would be unreadable.
Instead of the words “click and drag” one could use “press and drag”.
The words “press and drag” might be clearer to the user.
With experienced users I would just use “drag”.
I don’t think so. Press what? Click implies the mouse button (or equivalent input device). I think it’s formulated clearly as it is.
But I’d also like to say that the confusion of the OP is understandable. We all come with different backgrounds. (My first experience with computers was reading the two brick-sized manuals that came with my parents’ first computer back in the beginning of the 90s from cover to cover. Things like that don’t exist any more, and we’re all just expected to know how things work.)
I think if you’d rewrite the use of common computer terms in the manual with newly invented ones, you create more confusion than it solves.
In the manual you see
Select individual notes/items in the music area in any of the following ways:
- Click a single note/item.
Would you change that to “press a single note/item” too?
and reading just a bit further
“Result
When you release the mouse, the type of frame you chose is input on the page.”
No, I understand click and drag but for some reason I kept thinking it meant to click and drag something from the lefthand column of frame options on to the target page. IObviously that didn’t work! But as soon as I saw Chrisitan_R’s video I saw my mistake.