First, of course Dorico is a great software…
Still, I would really appreciate to have the possibility to override any changes in behavior made in an update or new version. Namely :
entering playing techniques in a row will replace the precedent one instead of adding them. This is a bug that’s been reported for quite a while but has not been fixed in the last updates;
the new behavior of automatically repeating playing techniques that are attributes and not directions makes a hell of a mess in the score. It makes the “continuation” functionalities useless. Constantly hiding and showing them is not practical while working and goes against Dorico’s basic idea of separating writing and engraving;
I would really appreciate if we could chose to import or not the shortcuts linked with new functionalities. Nearly every update implies a check-up on hundred of custom shortcuts.
If I get any of these wrong and solutions exist, thanks for sharing!
When you invoke the Shift+P popover when you already have a playing technique selected, Dorico interprets that as editing the existing playing technique, not inputting a new one. Try hitting Tab to move the selection to the note at that rhythmic position before you type Shift+P again, and Dorico will then add the new playing technique.
I’m not sure what you mean about the second issue: is the problem that you’re selecting a continuous range of notes, using the popover to specify a playing technique, and then finding that you end up with one playing technique on every note/chord, rather than a single playing technique with a continuation line?
If so, this is again the intended behaviour, and in general it seems to have been well-received since it was introduced as part of the new features for multiple item creation in Dorico 5.0. We could perhaps look at the playing technique you’re inputting and see whether it is defined to use a continuation line rather than “repeat the signs”, and then input a single playing technique with duration rather than one playing technique per note/chord?
Regarding key commands, I’m not sure how best we can handle that. In general, if you have an existing shortcut that clashes with a default one, your user one will be preferred, except in the specific case that the new factory shortcut is in a different “context” to your shortcut. We very seldom add new factory key commands, so this feels like not a particularly big problem?
For me the issue is that if you make a selection and apply Pizz, Dorico will revert to Nat./Ord. at the end without any indication of where that end is, once you have clicked away. There is no option (that I can find) to have a continuation line by default.
And that’s ignoring the long-standing convention that pizz should never have a continuation line but must be rescinded with an arco!
Yes, I know I can apply pizz to a single note and will behave properly (as a direction), but it’s all too easy to have two notes selected by mistake…
If I’m not misremembering, the old Dorico 3(?) behaviour was preferable.
For inputting playing techniques, you’re right : exiting the proper Dorico way with tab works alright. The problem is that the behavior changed along the way and it results in having to modify all the shortcuts on stream deck and other gadgets…;
For the repetition of playing technique : repeating the symbol of attribute playing techniques is normally good practice, but it’s not always the case, namely because I use a lot of them for expression maps purpose that shouldn’t appear in the final score. Anyway, the continuation possibilities should override the default setting, which is actually not the case (see pics);
For the new shortcuts : a simple paragraph in the history version clearly pointing out the new shortcuts would then be really appreciated.
