First steps and a few questions.

[LAE]

Hello,

at last finding some time to spend learning Dorico, entering a Bach cantata. I have some first questions, there will probably be more. Could not find any threads adressing this.

1. Write mode, caret active. I can not enter the grid from the end of an empty bar with cursor keys. When I press left arrow, the caret will jump to previous entry which is not always desirable, especially if there are many empty bars… I would prefer left arrow to do the same as right arrow (unless I press a modifier key) - move one note to the left. Am I missing something?

2. When I copy lyrics, the positioning is not updated for the rhythm of the new part. For instance, a one syllable word that spans two quarters will keep its alignment when copied to a half note. Also, sometimes when I write a syllable where it starts and then exits the lyric mode, it does not automatically put lyrics extenders. That would be nice too.

3. Already discussed, but flip enharmonic on the fly without exiting note entry mode would be good. As far as I can tell, there is no way to do just that.

4. In write mode without caret active, navigating with the cursor keys is a bit unpredictable. Whenever the window scrolls, the orange selection thing goes crazy. Bug?

5. I think it would be great to be able to move view one bar at a time with for instance SHIFT+HOME/END. If there already is a way, please enlighten me.

6. I was changing some layout options, and suddenly the lyrics had lost some hyphens. I could not find any way of repairing this than typing the lyrics again. Is this a bug or did I do something?

Anyway I am really enjoying this. It is a bit hard to get used to a new way of doing practically everything, but the time I saved on layout today doing a choir arrangement was worth it all. I come mainly from Finale, but have some experience with Sibelius and Lilypond as well.

Thanks,
LAE.

[dspreadbury]

@LAE

-Write mode, caret active. I can not enter the grid from the end of an empty bar with cursor keys. When I press left arrow, the caret will jump to previous entry which is not always desirable, especially if there are many empty bars… I would prefer left arrow to do the same as right arrow (unless I press a modifier key) - move one note to the left. Am I missing something?

This sounds like a bug to me, though it’s not one I know about or have seen. Can you reproduce this in a new, small project? Does it seem to matter whether you’re in galley view or in page view? If you could attach a project in which you can reproduce this at will that would be helpful for us in investigating it.

@LAE

When I copy lyrics, the positioning is not updated for the rhythm of the new part. For instance, a one syllable word that spans two quarters will keep its alignment when copied to a half note. Also, sometimes when I write a syllable where it starts and then exits the lyric mode, it does not automatically put lyrics extenders. That would be nice too.

Dorico will only create a lyric extender line if you explicitly specify the duration of the lyric by hitting Space after you type it in: only lyrics with a specific duration will show such a line.

I agree that it would be super cool if Dorico could automatically jiggle lyrics around when you paste them to another staff such that they recognise changes in rhythm, but that’s quite a hard problem to solve, and the program isn’t currently designed to do that.

@LAE

Already discussed, but flip enharmonic on the fly without exiting note entry mode would be good. As far as I can tell, there is no way to do just that.

After you input a note, it is still selected even if you don’t leave note input, so you should be able to type Alt+= or Alt± at that point to respell that note enharmonically without first leaving note input.

@LAE

In write mode without caret active, navigating with the cursor keys is a bit unpredictable. Whenever the window scrolls, the orange selection thing goes crazy. Bug?

You’ll need to be more specific, and provide a reproducible example, for us to be able to look into this. As discussed elsewhere on the forum, navigation with the arrow keys is graphical in nature rather than e.g. specifically following the notes in the current voice, which has the advantage of allowing you to navigate to every item in the layout with only the four arrow keys, but the slight disadvantage of meaning that you are occasionally surprised at what the program selects when it chooses something other than what you thought it would choose.

@LAE

I think it would be great to be able to move view one bar at a time with for instance SHIFT+HOME/END. If there already is a way, please enlighten me.

There is currently no way of doing this, but we’ll think about how we might be able to add this in future.

@LAE

I was changing some layout options, and suddenly the lyrics had lost some hyphens. I could not find any way of repairing this than typing the lyrics again. Is this a bug or did I do something?

Again, this isn’t a bug that I’m aware of. Even if you change the note spacing values in Layout Options, Dorico will still not allow the music to become spaced so tightly that hyphens will disappear. If you can come up with a reproducible case then I would be very pleased to look into it further.

[LAE]

Thanks for your answer.

1. It is reproducable in any new document for me, no matter if it is in page or galley view. It is like this: If there is music in bar 1 and 3, I will be able to cursor left step by step into bar 2. If there is music in bar 1 but in no other bars, I cannot go to bar 3 and cursor left to the last 8th in bar 2, because the caret will jump all the way to the last note entry. Can’t you reproduce this?

2. Ok, I see. However, I think this is a bit problematic, as it does not only concern copying but also when I change in the part with the lyric. Let’s say that I have entered two quarters, c-b, with the lyric “Ah!”, there will be an extender line after the Ah! and the syllable will be justified to the right. If I now change my mind and delete the second note b, the syllable will stay in its position with the extender line intact. The only way to get it right is to reinput it. Right? I guess entering lyrics should wait until the final stage of the process then.

3. Thanks, that is completely right! I realize that I have to change the shortcuts to work better with my Swedish keyboard…

4. See attached file. (Galley view) The only thing I do, is to press cursor left repeatedly.

5. Ok.

6. I did not succeed in reproducing this, when I do I will send you a file.
   

   

[dspreadbury]

Thanks for the further details about the caret navigation problem. I can indeed reproduce this and we will take a look as soon as we can.