Global and Local - Moving Markings in Parts and Score

Dorico
1

Hello All

I’m afraid that despite a bunch of reading I still don’t grasp what Dorico means by “Global” and “Local” properties. I came up against this gap after creating a score with the rehearsal numbers, performance directions, etc. where I want them. Then I went in to the first part to clean it up, only to see all the markings I moved in the parts applied to the score, which was now a mess. I read a number of posts on this topic and the manual, but still can’t understand how to prevent this.

A real basic question to start is: what do “Global” and “Local” mean, and can they apply to the same elements in a score? As in can a rehearsal letter be “Global” and “Local”, or is it one or the other at the point of entry? Or do these terms refer to actions made on a marking after it is entered, as in one puts in a rehearsal letter, then sets the property to “Global” to adjust it across all layouts, or “Local” to just move it on the Layout in which one is working? I’ve had trouble parsing this from the manual and forum as the definitions tend to use words that refer back to other elements of Dorico that I don’t yet grasp rather than plain language. So I’m sure my questions are on the dumb side here, but I’m not grasping the key concepts behind “Global” and “Local”, including when and where they apply, how you can tell which elements on a score are “Global” or “Local”.

So perhaps one of the wise ones out there can help me by letting me know where I’m going wrong in my workflow.

My first step is to plug all the markings into my score, tweaking them as needed in the Engrave window in the score. As I understand it, this is all “Global” properties, as I have the markings in the score that I intend to be transferred to the parts. At the moment, I’ve got my score looking just as I want it.

Then I open a layout/part. Is the concept here that I should select a marking (say rehearsal letter A, which looks good on the score but could be better-positioned in the part), select “Set local properties: Locally” in the properties window, and then forge ahead with the micro adjustments? And if so, do I have to do the same process for every marking that I plugged into the score that needs adjusting in the parts?

As a further point of confusion, I don’t understand the concept behind “Set local properties: locally or globally”. “Local” is used twice here to refer to - I assume - different things. What are the two different things?

Sorry that I’m just not getting this; I know it’s covered in the manual, but I can’t find my way towards understanding when I read the entries. I’m hoping for some gentle education here so I can get my scores and parts looking readable.

Thanks as always.

2

Yes. That’s the idea.

3

There are 2 types of Properties: Local, and Global.

Global properties always affect all layouts. Generally these are fundamental facets of an item, like whether a harmonic is “artificial” or “natural”. You cannot make a Global property only affect one layout, without affecting all layouts.

Local properties have the ability to affect the current layout only. Generally these are more subjective facets of an item, such as a crescendo appearing as a hairpin < or as text (the underlying musical instruction of “get louder” is the same, but for spacing reasons, you may want the narrower text version in the score without stopping you being able to use a hairpin in the part)

However, sometimes you’ll want a change you’ve made by way of a local property to appear the same in all layouts. To save you doing this manually in every layout one-by-one, you have the ability to transfer the state of local properties to other layouts. You can do this in 2 ways:

  1. Before changing the property, by using the “Locally/Globally” toggle to say, “subsequent changes I make involving properties should be treated as if they are Global properties”
  2. After changing the property, by propagating properties to say, “duplicate the status of all properties on my selected items, so that however they look/are positioned etc in this layout is how they appear in all layouts”
4

Ok, thanks all. I still don’t really get it, but these ideas give me a path to figuring it out.

I guess what I don’t understand is if there are some things that should nearly always be plugged in as “global” - like cautionary accidentals - and other things that should be plugged in as “local”, such as performance directions. And from there, how it is that you make sure the element you are putting in is categorized as one or the other while composing.

I’ll keep at it, and I’m sure it will become clear, as most things do in time in Dorico.

Thanks again.

5

It’s not elements that are categorized as global or local, it’s properties of elements.

You don’t have a choice as to whether properties are defined as global or local; that’s determined by the dev team. You can see which properties are which by selecting an item, opening the bottom Properties panel, and toggling the second Show filter between Local Only and Global Only.

And then for properties which are defined as Local, you have a choice between changing them locally or globally.

I think a common workflow is to go through the score with Set Local Properties Globally to adjust things that you’re going to want to be the same in all layouts. (In my experience, these are mostly properties that are visible in Write mode.) Then when you’re doing more detailed layout in Engrave mode – like repositioning an item – change this to Set Local Properties Locally, so that when you move the item in one layout, it doesn’t move in the others.