I’ve just finished my first typesetting job that I’ve done in Dorico: some string quartet arrangements for a synth pop band. I have to say I’m pretty sold on it. The whole process was easy and hassle free, and Dorico’s intelligent and dynamic approaches to spacing meant there was far less moving individual items around than I would have had in Finale or Sibelius. Plus being able to import/export flows was really handy. And of course the music looked great.
One thing I noticed: am I right that group/ungroup dynamics doesn’t seem to work while in Engrave mode? I found I had to keep switching back to write mode in order to ungroup it, so I could adjust the position of an individual dynamic.
I actually had a feature suggestion for how the grouped dynamics might work. Often one might want to move an individual dynamic without moving the others, but not necessarily decouple it completely from the group.
It would be good if one could hold down a key and move the individual dynamic without moving the other. If I then move the dynamic without pressing the key, they’d all move as normal.
The alternative might be to do it the other way round (holding down a key moves them all, whereas not doing so moves only the single dynamics). That would work just as well.
Yes, since Engrave Mode is where one is supposed to adjust appearance, having a means to adjust a single expression without returning to Write Mode to ungroup seems consistent with the Dorico philosophy.
Yes, it was the one single thing I found was slowing me down a little when working (admittedly in the midst of a whole lot of things that sped the process up for me) - having to change mode to write and then back to engrave in order to move dynamics. Be great to get a solution.
TBH I’m so used to ctrl-3 and ctrl-2 that I’m fine with having to change modes.
I actually remapped the mode changes to alt-2 and alt-3 because I switch so much. It’s a small thing, but I found it a less awkward key combination to use my thumb. I don’t even think about it any more.
The whole purpose of grouping the dynamics is so that they align. So, in theory, you shouldn’t be grouping in the particular dynamics that you know can’t line up with the others. I’d add this to the small list of things that I think should be available in both modes. Grouping/ungrouping dynamics doesn’t actually change “content” properly speaking, just how the program thinks about said content. I think you should be able to do that in either mode.