When I learned Final around 1990, there were massive printed manuals. I read them and learned everything I could, and this type of learning about the structure of the software from the ground up was what made me a master at Finale.
How can I do the same with Dorico?
Right now my approach with Dorico is a bandaid - look up each thing I need to do as I get stuck. But this is a much less efficient process than starting from scratch and reading an entire manual. When I look at the “manual” online, it is not exactly thorough. It says things like “insert a frame break and then. . . some other step” but doesn’t explain what a frame break is. I spend too much time tracking threads and cross-examining pages in the manual to get anywhere.
If I want to understand the complete nomenclature and architecture in Dorico, how do I do that?
The manual is (or at least tries to be) comprehensive, but its structure means that sometimes you need to look on another page for a fuller explanation of something. Usually, that page is nearby or linked at the bottom.
For example, here’s the page that explains what frame breaks are:
For a step-by-step introduction, I’d recommend our First Steps guide: it’s a tutorial that takes you through creating a piano piece followed by an excerpt of a blues song, and explains lots of key information and philosophy along the way.
(If I may say so though,
doesn’t sound like a direct quote from the manual: if you’re using an AI generator that “paraphrases” the manual, take care because they can hallucinate answers that aren’t accurate.)
I’d suggest you head to the Dorico Youtube channel, where there are a huge number of quick guides and introductions, as well as lengthy ‘sessions’ exploring particular features.
When I load the Help pages from Dorico’s Help menu, the first section after the Introduction is “Dorico Concepts”, which covers a lot of the ‘nomenclature and architecture’.
Also read as many posts here on the forum as you can. (I know, an almost impossible task to read them all, especially since Finale alumni have joined, who have many questions, and the message count has more than doubled.) Before there was a manual, many of those who now exhibit the most expertise helping others learned the program by sharing on the forum and by experimenting with the software to see what it could do.
Both Groove3 and MacProVideo have video training courses. I bought both and found them extremely helpful; however, they do not cover deep topics and complex features. They are great for a solid foundation, but I recommend Dorico documentation and videos for the more sophisticated features.
I totally agree with you. It is extraordinary that there isn’t some form of manual. There are lots of videos, it is true, but often they are about earlier versions of Dorico, so some form of indication on each video intro page would at least help to find the information on a current version of Dorico.
Unlink Lillee, I would not recommend the First Start at the beginning of your Dorico experience - it could be very useful later on, but again it does not deal with the newer options added since it was written.
In Short : come on Dorico, give us a beginners manual, with additions in some form of supplement when so much is changed. I agree that the updates has these, but they are not referred to anywhere else.
There are also some great tutorials and videos online. The first steps guide is exactly that, it starts from a place of no knowledge and works through most, if not all of the major concepts and paradigms of how Dorico works.
For me, the level of documentation and help available for Dorico is far superior to any other software I’ve learned.
The Dorico Operation Manual very much exists, and can be accessed by choosing Help > Dorico Help from within the software, or via your web browser here:
PDF versions of both the Operation Manual and the First Steps are available.
You may also be interested in this book by Darren Jones:
It hasn’t (yet) been updated for Dorico 5 (and Darren is currently dealing with a serious illness, so it’s unlikely to be updated very soon), but it is nevertheless a useful resource.
