Is there a read-only mode?

Dorico
1

Hi :wave:t3:
I’ve been using Dorico for practicing violin on my iPad. After transcribing on my desktop, I transfer the music to my iPad and use it on the stand to test out what I’ve written. However, while I’m using the iPad to turn pages or zoom in on the score, I have to be extremely cautious to avoid accidentally altering the notation. Although I still want to be able to select notes and hear playback, it would be a lot less stressful if there was a “read-only” mode available to prevent unintended changes to the score.

Does anyone know if such a feature exists in Dorico, or if there’s a workaround to achieve this?

Thanks in advance for any assistance!

2

How about this?

3 Likes
3

Yes, Dorico for iPad does have a Read mode. You can even draw annotations to your score, if you have an Apple Pencil!

Alternatively, you could export to PDF and view in something like ForScore.

(Ninja’d by Lillie!)

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Indeed, Read mode is fantastic.

However, what would be even more ideal for me is the ability to play the score with the playhead following, all while in read mode (or even write mode, with writing capabilities locked or prevented).

This feature would be incredibly beneficial for rehearsals. I understand that this may not be the primary purpose of Dorico, but it would certainly be a valuable addition to its capabilities, considering that all the necessary features seem to already exist in some form.

Is there a way to emulate this functionality?

Regarding the Apple Pencil, benwiggy, this sounds super cool. Is this feature documented somewhere?

Additionally, I’m open to exporting the score to another software that is more focused on playback rather than notation. Would an app like Forescore fulfill this requirement? (I’m hesitant about Musescore due to my misalignment with their ethical values.)

Thanks so much for chiming in and helping

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Not yet, as the iPad manual has been a little neglected recently, but it will be updated in the near future.

Perhaps playing back in Engrave mode would be preferable to Write mode? You wouldn’t be able to use galley view, but you would be prevented from making edits such as changing the pitch of notes or deleting them.

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Engrave Mode is like a mystical zone for me yet :sweat_smile:
I did not really understand its purpose yet TBH but I am willing to document myself
I guess this mode is not available for my present license (Dorico Elements), right ?
Is there a way to try it before upgrading to make sure it fist my need ?

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Is it possible for the free iPad version to open large scores created with Dorico Pro in Read mode? (I.e. scores that use features and numbers of players/staves not available on the free iPad version?)

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Larger scores can open in read-only mode.

1 Like
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Not if you own the license. iPad scores are not limited in players.

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@lucas_r_r

What you say is true, but that wasn’t the question.

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You’re right. Didn’t read properly. My apologies!

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Indeed, you are right
Derrek
I thought about it, bu I though making my score larger only for that would be kind of overkill .
I mays first explore if I find a more elegant way of achieving my goal.

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As of Dorico 4, Elements has access to Engrave mode (although not to the extent of frame and page template editing, which are still Pro-only features).

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btw, how to enter read-only mode if I use Dorico desktop(win/mac) ?, or this is still not supported currently?

I remember in sibelius I just need to click a checkbox to enter read only mode.

thanks~

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You can use Print mode as a ‘read-only’ mode, I suppose.

1 Like
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hahahaha! sounds interesting, but what if I want to play the music?, I need to enter the play mode, and then switch to print mode.

Sometimes I double click the screen, and then I find that I changed some notes accidentally. So I want read-only mode

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One can switch to Setup mode and still play the file using the playback controls in the toolbar and follow the playback cursor with little danger of changing notes.

3 Likes
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Thinking a bit about this, I’ll make a case for considering as a feature-request the addition to desktop Dorico of Read Mode as a new sixth one, albeit framed more as proofreading than music-reading for performance.

For my eyes and brains (such as they are…) I find that a necessary part of my proofreading process when I’m nearing the print/share stage is to export to PDF and open everything up in Mac OS Preview in fullscreen mode with two pages showing. As with removing any and all other visual elements from the screen while typing in a minimalistic writing app, it’s that absence of even a single sidebar or menu bar that helps me see and pick the nits in my music.

My approach works perfectly well as is, of course, and isn’t too awfully cumbersome, but it would be kinda slick workflow-wise if it could happen right in Dorico.

2 Likes
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Yes, I can relate. Removing distractions really helps proofreading. It’s Murphy’s Law: seconds after I finish printing a nice bundle of music, thinking, even knowing it’s absolutely perfect, I see a blatant, embarrassing error. Sigh…

2 Likes
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Generally speaking, there are a lot of apps that contain these read-only mode by design.
In these apps you can close a project or leave the app without saving. The ‘old -fashioned’ way of working, but luckily it still exists.
If Dorico-For-Ipad would also work in this way, without autosave, the problem (for XII and many others) would not exist.

Groet, Marien