I’m a quadriplegic and my fingers do not work. I can hit one key with each hand. I’ve been using Finale since 1999 and am finding that some of the features on Dorico are not as handicap accessible due to the 3 key commands. I’m wondering if anyone else has dealt with this and maybe scouting ideas on workarounds.
There was a feature on Finale, in the mass edit tool, that allowed you to select a portion of a beat from a longer note and drag that to any other part of the score without affecting the original note selected for multiple parts at once. To go even further, the note dropped in could be placed at any beat of the new bar without changing what happens before and after the pasted note. Additionally, you were also able to select a portion of a beat within a longer note, and delete that beat to turn it into a rest, and it would not affect the beats before or after. This tool is vital to accommodating my process for writing with my handicap.
Being able to drag notes and use more mouse reliant commands was what has allowed me to continue writing music. Without them I’m finding it hard to know how to continue doing so.Thank you for your consideration.
Other commands that I am having trouble with are:
Moving notes chromatically
Shortcuts into engrave, layout, and notation mode
Getting in and out of continuous scroll mode
Moving notes in octaves
This requires an extra purchase, but have you looked at Stream Deck? It seems like exactly the sort of use case where this would excel.
I used to use it religiously and opted for the key commands instead, but as you say… many of them are multi-press.
WIth Stream Deck, you could easily create single-button commands for moving notes chromatically and all the other things you mentioned. I wager quite a few folks here have nicely-designed icons they’d be willing to share.
Here’s a screenshot showing some of mine. You’re welcome to use them, here.
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I’m thinking about this a bit more. Dorico excels at some of these things, actually. I would have one folder for literally moving around a selected note that acts as your “starter”:
- R to repeat the note
- Opt-up/down to move the note diatonically
- Shift-Opt-up/down to move chromatically
- Shift-Opt-L/R to lengthen/shorten by the grid unit
- 4, 5, 6, 7, and period for the most common note values
- Shift-I, 3 - adds a note a 3rd above the selected note. You could perhaps do a few iterations of this… maybe 3, -3, 4, -4.
I think these commands alone would give you a lot of power. I’m sure there are others that would be helpful. You could probably get by with just a regular 15-button Stream Deck.
Best of luck!
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Stream Deck also has a “mobile” version you can use on an iPhone or - better yet - iPad! It’s cheaper than buying a physical Stream Deck if you already have a phone or tablet. I have my iPad setup as an additional source to make input easier. There are similar apps that can also be helpful.
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