How to create a pickup bar (or measure)

Dorico
21

Or simply set the caret just before the last beat and type Shift-B |] Enter to put the final barline there.

1 Like
22

Thanks PjotrB!

23

Or simply set the caret at the last beat and type shift-B -1h enter

So many ways!

2 Likes
24

The linked page is immensely frustrating:

Because pick-up bars are linked to the number of notes/rests in the music, in Dorico Pro they are linked to time signatures and so you must input pick-up bars as part of time signatures.

Okay, that’s all fine and reasonable, but the page doesn’t tell me how to do it. What is the correct incantation to input a pick-up bar as part of the time signature?

Note that none of the replies on this page seem to answer this, either. (One person suggested 2/2+1, but that doesn’t seem to actually work.)

Incidentally, regarding the musician/programmer distinction – I’m a programmer. I totally understand and find quite intuitive the relationship between the time signature and a pick-up bar, but none of that is useful if the documentation doesn’t tell me somewhere what the correct input is.

25

I did figure it out.

Documenting for the next person who finds this page:

  • 4/4,1: Time signature of 4/4, quarter note pick-up
  • 2/2,0.5: Time signature of 2/2, quarter note pick-up
  • 2/2,1: Time signature of 2/2, half note pick-up

As the examples hopefully explain, the X in the ,X portion of the time signature are the number of beats related to the denominator.

26

  1. This is an old thread and a very old link (Dorico 3.5 is now Dorico 5.1)

  2. The linked page that you referred to is about pick-up bars. You’ll notice at the bottom of that page that there are two related link - Inputting pick-up bars with the popover and Inputting pick-up bars with the panel - that describe how to enter them.

For the next person who finds this thread:

27

While I obviously understand your feedback, our documentation is structured using distinct topics: exact step-by-step instructions are therefore separated from more generalised reference material.

As Dan has already replied, you should find that if a page includes a passing reference to something you “can” do, but doesn’t expand further in that sentence/paragraph, there’ll be a link to more guided instructions of what you need to do at the bottom of the page.

Topics that include step-by-step instructions have active verbs in their titles: like “inputting”, “changing”, or “hiding/showing”.

For reference material (and in the context of popovers, a more comprehensive table of entries) see here: