Force Note Duration

Dorico
#1

Lillie, in the new manual, could you please spell out any letters or numbers that could be confused, to help us poor mortals?

At the moment I am stumped, while trying to change duplets into triplets in an imported XML file. On this page:

:house:Write modeNote inputSelecting note/rest durationsForcing the duration of notes/rests

of the 3.1.10 user manual, it says:“Press O to activate Force Duration.”

Is that Shift-letter"O", lower-case-letter"O", zero? None of these work for me, so I suppose it must mean something else. Could you please also let me know?

It may be that Force Duration is the wrong tool for what I want to do, but I would still like to know how to invoke it.

Many thanks

Fergus

#2

It is just the lower-case letter o.

Imported XML files can contain all sorts of non-default ‘forced’ behaviours, depending on the XML import settings in Application preferences.

#3

o
If the keypress is not working to produce Force Duration, are you using a non-English keyboard setting?

https://steinberg.help/dorico_pro/v3/en/dorico/topics/write_mode/write_mode_note_input/write_mode_duration_forcing_t.html?hl=forced%2Cduration describes what Force Duration is designed to do.

#4

Sorry you’re having difficulties! The key commands in the manual always use upper-case letters, as they appear on most keyboards. You don’t need to press anything else. If a modifier key is required, that’s included explicitly (e.g. Shift-L to open the lyrics popover).

#5

Thank you everyone. I appreciate the help. I am still on Mojave, and almost the only reason that I haven’t updated my OS is that Finale 2014.5 has an import scan function, so I can quickly import a sheet of music or tiff file into Finale - I then export it as XML and open in Dorico. It is a bit long-winded, and full of mistakes, but still quicker for me than typing it in. I haven’t (yet) set up a midi keyboard to play it in, which I think would be quicker still.
I suppose I could upgrade MusiTek’s SmartScore, but I’m too mean!

#6

One other idea: if you’re ever unsure about a key command (or maybe it’s not documented in the manual!) you can search for all the key commands in the project in the Preferences dialog > Key Commands. There’s also an interactive key commands map that shows you key commands on a keyboard, and lets you see how the modifier keys add/change possible commands.