Lots of amazing things in Dorico 5! My music life has been made so much easier yet again. Love this program!!! - Was wondering if “frame notation” is still in the works. I didn’t see it as part of the Dorico 5 features. Unless I missed something
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Frame notation is not part of the 5.0 release, no.
I think frame/box/aleatoric notation is the only thing on my wishlist that Dorico really can’t do at all right now. I have lots of wishes that would make things easier, more intuitive, more convenient, etc. but this is functionality that really can’t even be properly achieved with workarounds. (I’m aware of the workaround involving combining modified lines, and I’ve tried it, and… it just doesn’t really work, unfortunately.) I can’t wait until Dorico can do boxes that anchor properly to notes.
I really hope it’s not trivially easy to implement boxes, but the project is being held up by the obviously complex issues of playback or other concerns. I know the Dorico team likes to do things right or not at all, and I appreciate that, but it would make me so happy just to have the box, even devoid of any other functionality. With a box that would stay put with the notes it’s anchored to, I could jerry-rig the rest and be content. Until then, there’s music I just can’t write in Dorico, which is a pity.
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ooof - I hear ya. I’ve just been dealing with the workarounds – But yea I would gladly take the box with no extra frills - playback etc… just a plan box. It would save me so much time. Everything else is rockin - but I have got to have that box! – they can save the playback scheme for the box for some other version
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This is the most recent post I have found on this topic. Is there any progress? Is there any way to make these boxes in a simple way in Dorico? Thank you!
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unfortunately not that I have found. Really hoping they can get this function in.
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Dorico 5 doesn’t include any built-in features for producing these kinds of frames, but rest assured that we know this is important to many users.
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Thank you very much, it would be much helpful!
The only way I found is to use empty text frames with visible borders. But you have to manually input this in score and parts.
You can also create Shift-X text boxes with spaces in it and give them a border - this has the advantage of moving with the music … but of course the have to be positioned carefully.
Another possibility was described here:
And then there is the aleBoxes font by Dan.
Of course, when Dorico developers find time to include a proper solution that will become much easier.
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Hi all, I’m about to upgrade to Dorico 6—super excited! Does anyone know if frame notation or aleatoric box notation has been added in this version?
Not yet. The workarounds created in v5 do work the same.
aww bummer - it seems like a helpful thing to add. There’s a lot of other cool stuff - still wish we had that box though! lol
Forum etiquette asks us to refrain from suggesting that changes might be “small”. Neither you, nor I, really know how difficult changes are.
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thats true. thanks for that. Well hopefully someday we’ll have it.