I know this has come up before but just another request to allow us to shift lyrics to the right or left - not graphically but shifting the notes the syllables are assigned to. Unless I’m missing something, making an error while typing means I have to go back and redo everything from the point of the error. Also, when changing a vocal line, sometimes the lyrics don’t line up exactly with the newly inputted notes and it would save a lot of time to adjust. Thanks!
You can edit the existing syllables in the Edit Lyrics dialog. As long as you don’t change the number of syllables. If there’s a syllable I don’t want, I put a placeholder “QWE” and then delete it afterwards. I very rarely have to delete the whole thing.
At worst, you can copy the lyrics, edit in a text editor, then paste back.
You can move them by the current grid duration left and right with Alt Left/Right.
Thanks! Those things are helpful and I’m sure there are people who appreciate being able to move lyrics by the grid and therefore onto rests as needed. Perhaps we could have a shortcut like shift-alt left/right that moves them by notes. Dorico does a great job when inputting to know which notes to advance to. It would be nice to move around lyrics with that same algorithm!
I believe the issue is that lyrics are actually attached to rhythmic positions, not to notes, even though Dorico uses notes to determine the initial positions.
What might not be obvious at first sight (or from Ben’s post) but will save you a massive amount of time is the fact that if you paste a (properly hyphenated) line of lyrics into the Shift-L popover, it will in fact snap the syllables to the written rhythm. So if your lyrics have fallen one syllable out of sync you can just select the offending line, cut, Shift-L on the right note, then paste-paste-paste them back into place. (Use the spacebar for melismas.)
Yep, that method, especially with Jucio’s hyphenator helps for assigning things. It’s still not a great way to re-assign things it helps!
I feel your pain. Once thing I really do not like is when I am pasting all the lyrics through the lyrics popover and I miss one note… I wish cmd-Z would allow me to go back in time in the Dorico file as well as in the clipboard, so that I could go back, correct my initial mistake and go on with pasting. Unfortunately, this seems too complicated under the hood, so we have to cope with it and correct things using another way
This is meant as a compliment to the Dorico team - lots of other things were complicated about what Dorico has done already. I know there’s always a list of things that are wanted for refinement, improvement and additional features but it seems like something being complicated hasn’t stopped the team before.