I’m Thinking of buying a Magic Keyboard for use in Dorico iOS. I’ve been a Finale user for 15 years and am hoping to become just as comfortable and productive with Dorico for iOS.
Do users feel the Magic Keyboard would contribute significantly to that?
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
I have tried Dorico on my iPad completely without additional keyboard. It works, but there are some small limitations of functionality at the moment. I don’t know, wether these will be tackled in future updates.
I personally noticed two areas:
- Dorico on iPad has no built in button to call the Jump Bar. For certain special functions you would need the Jump Bar, f.e. to Split a Flow. There is no menu place for it so far. Basically with the Jump Bar you can access all of Dorico’s functions.
- When inputting Figured Bass: the built in iOS keyboard has no arrow buttons, so you can’t proceed (bass)note by (bass)note. Instead you have to select every bass note separately - if you are inputting figured bass which does not fall onto the time signature pattern.
These are two limitations I noticed and they might not be important for you. I guess if you only work Dorico on your iPad, a keyboard might also speed up your workflow.
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I’d say yes. Dorico for desktop was designed to be ‘keyboard heavy’. Most of the functions are quickest and easiest as key presses.
The iPad version is modified from the desktop version sufficiently to work with a finger, but as k_b says, there are some functions that you need a keyboard for. (This may be fixed in time, of course.)
You’ll certainly be faster with a keyboard. You could even plug in a cheap mouse, too!
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