… but I’d love to see it expanded to include a “When opening an existing project” option as well. If I’m working on something with Locally set, the odds are not very good that I’ll either remember to switch back to Global before closing the project, or remember that I had previously been working Locally whenever I open the project again. If there was a way for all projects, new and existing, to always open with Globally set, that would be helpful for me anyway. Thanks for considering!
There are some properties that I always want to set locally, because they specifically affect a particular layout , e.g. slurs and lyric hyphens over system breaks. Similarly, there are other things that I always want to be global.
There’s no guarantee that either state is what I want for my next edit; and it’s just something I have to keep an eye on.
I’ve often found myself wanting to have a mini Global/Local status pop-up that floated on top of everything, with eye-catching colors. I make so many errors in forgetting to switch.
Not quite what you’re asking for, but Global and Local can be keybound. Then you at least have a deterministic way to get to the mode you want,… without having to think about it.
Anytime I open a file I’d like it to be Global, without having to think about it. If I need to make Local adjustments, then I’ll switch, but if I’m opening an existing project it’s often because I have an idea in my head that I need to get down, and I don’t want additional steps or routines getting in the way before writing. If anytime I open a project it could just be Global, then it would be completely consistent and predictable, and it wouldn’t matter if I had switched to Local to fix Dorico’s breath mark positioning the night before at 2am before going to bed. Obviously if others want Last Used that could continue to be an option too. I personally would never use the current “Last Used” implementation if there was an option to always open in Global.
I’d want Last Used (which I believe I currently get, not only in existing projects but in existing windows). If I’m formatting parts then I certainly don’t want Dorico to switch it to global every time I reopen the project.
That brings up another request, LOL: When I’m formatting parts I typically am doing repetitive work such as layout on all the parts. I wish Dorico would let me set a fixed view percentage and NOT change it when going navigating from part to part. The view percentage I used to adjust a tie yesterday when I last viewed that part is completely irrelevant to my current task at hand. I have a shortcut to Fit to Page Height obviously, but this is still faster in Finale where I can set the View and not have that additional step every time I navigate to another part.
I’m not sure how to make it clearer, but I’ll try:
Sometimes I’m editing things with the properties panel open, but I forget to look down. At other times I may not even have the panel open. As a result, I have often moved, say, a rehearsal mark (Engrave Mode, obviously) on a part, only to realize that I had left Global turned on, so then I have to go fix it back in the score.
A small “floating” mini-window that could always stay on top of other screen windows but be user-positioned, with a (user-definable?) color-coded indictor and “Local” or “Global” displayed would definitely help prevent these (“senior?”) moments.
I use two monitors so I often have the portrait monitor in Engrave and the landscape monitor in Write. Often I don’t have the Properties panel open in at least one of them so I mess this up often as well. I don’t think I would want a floating mini-window but an overlay tint could be useful. If I could specify a slight color tint to the page when Local was active, that could possibly prevent errors too.
Yeah, I doubt I’d do any better looking left or right than I do looking down!
Naturally I’m imagining this as a feature that could be engaged — or not — as well as positioned by the user. Certainly wouldn’t want to suggest that Steinberg should foist a feature that might just annoy some. But I will say that it has been the one serious and consistent sticking point in my workflow.
Green for global and lime for local?
I’m only half joking - I love the idea of a tint to something based on property scope, given properties can be set (e.g. offsets) without the panel being open.
Love the “Local Lime,” @pianoleo ! How about “Global Guava?”
In all seriousness, common color vision deficiencies would obviously have to be taken into account. This is one reason user-defined colors could be really useful.
Ahhgg! My primary complaint as a Finale newcomer! It’s so disheartening to know you’ve been accidentally editing part layouts Globally.
I would love to see the Locally/Globally indicator, maybe even the control itself, OUTSIDE the properties panel. Like in all that unused apace in the center top of the screen (between the Modes and Playback controls.
