I am REALLY struggling to align dynamics in Dorico Pro 4. Unless I input dynamics sequentially, which is not always what I need to/can do, “Group Dynamics” or “Align Dynamics” in engrave mode don’t work at all.
In the screenshot there’s the result of Align Dynamics in a passage. I’ve tried adjusting a number of parameters in Layout Options>Vertical Spacing with no success. The only option seem to be manual adjustment in engrave mode which is an insanely slow workflow for a 75+ pages score. Maybe this is something that was improved in D5? If yes I’d upgrade in an instant.
How did you create those dynamics?
It should be sufficient just to select the whole note; press Shift D, and in the popover type pp<f
However, even if I select the whole note, press Shift D and add the pp; then select the eighth note, add the f; and then select the whole note again and add < , then everything lines up automatically.
Well yeas, that’s the whole problem: no problem if I input the dynamics as I said. But if they are the result of copy paste, which is what I absolutely need in this project, group/align doesn’t work
Did you use “Duplicate to Staff Above/Below”, or did you Alt-click, or something else?
If you copied the dynamics to exactly the same grid position, then they should be identical; but if they are not exactly right, then you may get alignment problems.
I saw your post on FB. I find this strange, as grouping seems to always work with me… Could you provide an example file where we could reproduce that problem?.
Someone on Facebook suggested the following, which seems to have helped:
You may want to try deleting any position changes to the dynamics in the properties panel first. For example when you select the dynamics in measure 44 some properties should be set for those positions like x = something and y = something. I reset those to zero or default then align dynamics fresh once more. That works for me when things aren’t going well visually and it appears nothing is happening.
Yes, that’s good advice. “Aligning” in Dorico will probably make dynamics align from their default position, so if their are manual changes involved, they will be kept and the result will not be aligned.
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Don’t forget that using ‘Group Dynamics’ lines them up, and does a pretty good job usually. At least when entering them, iIcan’t comment about copy/paste/duplicating etc.
Are we sure the dynamics are all on the same staff? If this is just a one-off, retyping it in might be the simplest solution.
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