Force Size/Length

Is there a way to force a hairpin crescendo, or similar elements, to be a specific size and place, outside of engrave? As it is, it seems only to allow me to place it exactly where the notes are, when I often want it to be maybe not exactly there (especially for longer notes where I may want it to fall somewhere in the middle). Is there a way to do this? I know engrave allows some of this, but that seems like it should be an unnecessary step, especially when it still won’t display properly in write mode. Thanks.

You can move and lengthen/shorten hairpins to positions other than noteheads in Write mode, and I would strongly recommend doing so rather than moving them graphically in Engrave mode, if you intend them to start/end at those positions in time.

See here for moving and here for lengthening/shortening. The rhythmic grid selector is in the status bar (or on the iPad, it’s in the secondary toolbar).

You can also input hairpins during note input/using the caret to control exactly where they start and stop.