How to make Notation Express work with different language versions

In case you’re thinking about buying Notation Express in order to speed up your Dorico workflow with a StreamDeck keypad, but have been deterred because you’re using a different language version than English, French, or German, I have created a quick-and-dirty mini-tutorial video on how to localize Notation Express to a new language. The process is shown for the German Windows version, but it should be very similar for other languages and also for MacOS.

The video can be found here: How to localize Notation Express for Dorico - YouTube

I hope it is somewhat helpful, but if I have glossed over some details you’re still stuck on, feel free to leave a comment there (or here), and I will try to help solve any problems. All in all, it’s not a difficult process (you don’t need any special tools for the initial “translation”, just perseverance). Updating a profile for a new Dorico version is a bit more involved since you’ll need to dig into the configuration files if you don’t want to redo everything from scratch, but this can also be done rather easily with a file diff/merge utility like BeyondCompare, UltraCompare or a free tool like KDiff or WinMerge. This is also demonstrated in the video.

The (unofficial) French and German translations, done by Marc Larcher and me, respectively, can be found here (you need a license for the English version in order to be able to download them):
NE for StreamDeck German
NE for StreamDeck XL German
NE for StreamDeck French
NE for StreamDeck XL French

If you find any errors in the German version, please let me know.

Cheers,
Tim

(Disclaimer, since there are some people on this forum who seem to be wondering about these things: I’m not affiliated with Notation Central in any way, and I bought my Notation Express profile like everybody else. I did get a discount on the XL version for providing the translations)

Very nice work, Tim!
I would like to have feedback from fellow French users too, if something is broken…
And just like Tim, I paid for my Notation Express sets :wink:

Tim, thank you again for the German versions. Very helpful for me!!! I hope the Video doesn’t mean, that we have to the next version for ourselves! :slight_smile:

Hi Heipet!
Tim has been clear that it’s intended for the users of other languages than English, German and French.

Hi Marc, I tried qualify my comment as “not serious” by adding a smiley.

Hi Tim,
just found out, that the playback buttons for fast forward and rewind (Playback submenu) are not working (in both profiles). Fixed it myself, but wanted to let you know, as you requested.

Heiko

Hi Heiko,

thanks! Apparently, F7/F9 are not wired to rew/ff in the German version of Dorico. Interesting. There was a similar problem with F8 for Play, but I must have missed those two :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Tim

Dear Tim,

thanks for your helpful work! Is there a chance to get a german Notation Express XL version for Mac?
Cheers,
Mark.

I don’t own a Mac, unfortunately, so I can’t really help much here, but the process I outlined in the video should generally work on a Mac as well. I don’t remember how much time I had to spend on the first version, but I think that this is something you can do on a rainy afternoon :slight_smile:

My post is now obsolete - the new version of Notation Express for Dorico 4, released today, works independently of your OS or the language Dorico is set to. It is also much faster than before since it utilizes the API that Dorico 4 provides instead of having to simulate keystrokes for shortcuts and popovers. Yay!

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Thanks for confirming that it’s faster. I noted that but wasn’t sure it was real — former version was not that slow, but this one feels snappier.

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It definitely feels snappier to me too.