Measure 4, 2nd beat should be a half note, not 2 quarter notes tied together. How do I make it a half note? I noticed this happens when the half note is after the two eighth notes.
Watching the Dawn.dorico (417.1 KB)
You can either change beaming in engraving options or use force duration if you really want a halfnote.
Modern engraving theory says that two tied quarters is correct.
No you are not. Look carefully at the definitions. All relate to notes starting on a beat. Your tied quavers all start on an off beat.
If you really want crotchet (which I would not advise) you will have to use force duration.
I agree, a quarter note here would really obfuscate the rhythm.
You can retrofit these by selecting the tied notes, then pressing O, 5, 6.
Thank you to you both. I was hoping this could be done without doing it manually. I’m aware it does obfuscate the rhythm, members of this forum seem very keen on following convention. In vocal music it’s cleaner to have one note per syllable, so I’m going for this approach.
Cheers.
That’s not a binding convention, and especially not if it presents a rhythm that is difficult to follow. Sorry, quarter notes here are not a good idea. But that’s not the point of the post, so I’ll desist.
Yes, I’m aware, but this is my choice for this project. This is just a fun tune for myself and a few friends, and we all know this tune aurally quite well, this is just to make our practice a bit more streamlined. Thanks again for your help.
Select the tied note, and press O, 5, 6. (Make sure Insert mode is off.)
Oh, and while we’re on conventions, “Help - less - ly” is more intelligible. 
Nothing would stop you entering a time signature of [3+2+3]/8 (with the brackets) for the unconventional measures (and hiding it) but you would still have either to change the time signature of the “Harlequin” measures or use Forced Duration there.
A good point as well! Seems the straight answer is that I’d need to do most of the work manually, so I may end up just letting Dorico do its thing. I thought maybe there was some kind of way to “simplify at all costs” kind of toggle.
To be clear, I’m not looking for this thread to be a debate on notation conventions and ethics haha! I was just confused that turning on every toggle didn’t seem to have the effect I was looking for. As Janus said, I hadn’t looked carefully enough at the definitions.
Thanks as always to this great community for your help. We learn more every day!
Alex
Hi, having an issue with this as well. I’m using Dorico Pro 6.6. I’ve changed the notation options to display a half note instead of two quarter notes. The notes I’ve highlighted are set to force durations, but they are still displaying as tied quarter notes. Not sure what else to try. Thank you for your help.
Force Duration fixes the notes, either to how you enter them, or how they are when you apply it.
Changing Notation Options won’t affect notes with Force Duration on.
Try turning off Force Duration, and see if that fixes it. If not: turn FD back on, and then press 7 to make them half-notes.
thanks, Benwiggy. Actually I redid the layout and split the system at that point. Now it needs to be two quarter notes.