Importing MusicXML from Finale

I run Dorico Pro under Windows 10/11 and want to import a piece from Finale. The music has three movements (flows) and in Finale they are seperated simply by some extra space in the document. I created an XML file of the whole piece hoping I could import this into a blank new project with three empty flows predefined in my Dorico setup.
I tried to keep things simple by not changing any of the import preferences in Dorico. In spite of testing various import options the entire music with three movements was imported into a new flow at the end of my project (after the third flow). Multibar rests were presented as a collection of single bars - perhaps a limitation of the MusicXML language.
On the positive side the import appeared to match my expectations having very few errors so I decided to copy/paste each movement into its respective predefined flow and edit them from there. This did not work very well. For example, the music contains many time signature changes but these were not included in my efforts to Copy/Paste so bars quickly fell out of sync with ties over barlines etc.
There are two questions here:

  1. Was my strategy for importing into a project with three flows wrong and how should I correct this?
  2. Why did my select, copy/paste not include all the details included in the imported XML file? (fourth flow).
    John McWilliam (jsmcwilliam@gmail.com)

(Remove your email address from your post)

When you import any file (xml, midi, or even dorico flows from another project) into an existing project, they will arrive as a new Flow at the end (as you have discovered).

Multi-bar rests are (by default) turned off in your Full Score layout, but enabled in all the Parts layouts. You can change this in Layout Options>Players>Bars and multi-bar rests.

Once your xml is imported, the easiest way to create the three flows is to use Write>Split flow. Just select the barline where you want the split to be made.

Certainly copy/paste is not the simplest strategy. In Dorico only what is explicitly selected is copied. To copy system objects (time signatures, key signatures, tempos etc.), it’s best to use the System Track the faint grey bar that toggles on/off with Alt-T.

Hope this helps.

1 Like

Thank you for your quick response. As a new user of Dorico this helps my learning curve enormously.
John