While in Write mode I select from the menu: Write >> Transpose . . . to access the Transpose dialog. However, I am unable to move the piece a half step - a minor second - because “minor” isn’t included in the dropdown. Yet, I can choose a minor 3rd easily.
Someone on the forum mentioned a solution to this very problem - but I wasn’t able to follow how they achieved setting a minor second in the Transpose dialog.
I’m using Dorico 6
What key is it in? What key do you want to transpose to?
Could you not transpose up a major seventh, then up a major second - then simply an octave down?
Well, in Dorico 5 it depends on what key you’re in to begin with as to whether you can transpose up or down a minor second or not. I suspect it’s the same in Dorico 6. Let’s say you’re in the key of B major and you want to transpose up a minor second. No problem. The resulting key would be C major, and you can easily do that. But if you want to transpose down by a minor second, the choice is unavailable, because there’s no such key as A-sharp major. There is of course such a thing as B-flat major, but that’s not a second. It’s an augmented unison. Likewise, if you’re in the key of A-flat major, you can easily transpose down a minor second to G major. But you can’t transpose up a minor second, because that would be B double-flat major, and there’s no such thing. (So Dorico won’t let you try.) You can of course transpose up to A major, but again, that’s not a second of any description. It’s an augmented unison again.
The point being, of course, that keys (and their intervals) are named for the names of the notes involved. Not for the pitches. Dorico takes away impossible choices.
This other very recent thread might offer additional insight:
Regarding the issue described in my first post: I noticed there was a minor 2 going down, but not up - so I shifted up major 2nd then down a minor 2nd. The issue seems related to Dorico searching for a key signature to match a given shift. Of course you can shift anything up or down by any integer number of semitones AND there will always exist a key signature for that. But, maybe there was a spelling constraint tripping up Dorico. Not sure. I’d have to go back and re-create the issue. I’m still kind of new to Dorico.
In Finale I transposed pieces by changing the key signature - all notes and chords shifted appropriately. I could try the same in Dorico to see if that yields the same results.
What keys were you trying to transpose from/to?
Dorico does not work that way. That was Finale’s approach.
Actually, that’s what the “calculate interval” part of the transpose dialog does for you! Enter the existing key and the one you want to go to and press apply. The interval to transpose is populated with the correct interval and you can press “ok” in the bottom right corner to accept and apply. 
It’s probably an augmented unison, instead of a minor second 
Use that interval calculator (as was suggested before) and you should be all set!
I have to admit: I think I kinda slightly prefer version 1. …-ish. 
Obviously the absurd example of transposing it down a diminished second — for which no “real” key signature exists, BTW — is meant in Well-Natured Jest, but it does point at the occasional friction between semitone-oriented transposition and a diatonic key signature system at the outer limits.
(It also put me through some paces in “breaking” and hacking around notational norms! 
A great way to practice a few extended techniques in Dorico.)
The Ill-Tempered Clavier
