Hi all. I’m just wondering if keyboard shorcuts can be created for custom Playing Techniques e.g. can I assign Alt + S to enter my customised “Saxes” playing techniques text entry? Is this sort of thing possible with Dorico?
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You can do it with a macro program for example Keyboard Maestro on Mac.
It can perform sequences of actions like in your case pressing ⇧P, entering the technique and pressing return.
Ok. So there’s no way to so it natively in Dorico and I have to look at external solutions. That’s all I really need to know.
I honestly think this is a real shortcoming with Dorico because users should be able to quickly assign pre-configured expressions and/or text to shortcuts, rather than needing to open menus, find the right entry, select it, click in the score etc. This is so crazily inefficient and slow.
Regardless, I really appreciate you replying. Thanks man!
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Custom Playing Techniques can be invoked using the shift-P popover. When you created them you gave them a popover name.
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You can speed up your workflow by assigning a popover text to your custom playing technique. Say, you’d give it the ‘sx’ command, all you need to do is shift-PsxEnter. That’s pretty fast.
Edit: Janus beat me… At least, we agree!
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I agree with @Maddcow that Dorico is not efficient in entering some things.
For example, in Finale one can assign single-key commands to dynamics. Then one selects the Expressions Tool once, and enters dynamics on selected notes with single key commands that one can arrange in one comfortable position on the keyboard.
In Dorico, one has to invoke the Dynamics popover and over for each note. And the key commands are all over the keyboard. The F for forte is close to the Shift-D; that’s nice. The P for piano is way over on the other side of the keyboard, not nice. One should at least be able to change the popover key commands for dynamics to one’s preference. Is there a way to do that within Dorico?
Or one can go back and forth, back and forth to the dynamics palette. Which is what I do when entering many dynamics.
I just went on line looking into this subject. Check out: Entering dynamics and articulations efficiently
It looks interesting.
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Thanks guys, I appreciate the replies. The popover method still isn’t nearly as quick as what I was asking about i.e. selecting a note/notes and pressing a keyboard shortcut. My thought is that if it’s possible to assign keyboard shortcuts to articulations, why can’t this be done with any expression? It doesn’t make sense to me and after searching the forum today, I’ve seen that a number of others users would also like this functionality and the tremendous boost in efficiency it brings.
Yes, but you need always the mouse to place a dynamic in Finale. Dorico on the other hand is keyboard-based.
For me the ultimate performance boost is Stream Deck with the Notation Express Dorico profile, this is the dynamics page
In conjunction with Keyboard Maestro you can do (almost) anything with one button press. I created custom buttons for triplets and double dotted notes
Guys, this isn’t a Dorico vs Finale argument. Plus, not everyone has - or wants to use - a Stream Deck. If I’m on a plane or in a car doing charts on my MacBook, there’s no way I can use a Stream Deck but it’d make an absolute world of difference if keystrokes could be assigned a lot more freely than with articulations only, as they currently are.
I just wanted to ask the devs if they can look at providing users with the ability to assign keystrokes to all elements in tool palettes and not just for articulations. Having an arbitrary differentiation between articulations and every other musical element is just crazy inefficient.
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Please don’t double post….
The popovers have many advantages, more than I think disadvantages. You also can create macros with external apps achieving what you want.
Your argument also isn’t new and has been hurt.
I am sure the devs think every day about how to make the program experience better, but the popovers are already a very genius invention to this regard.
You can select multiple notes at once, either by drag-selecting (for notes in consecutive staves, for example) or by ctrl-clicking.
If you’re applying dynamics to the first note in a measure, you don’t even need to be careful about selecting the notes; just select the entire measure(s) and Dorico will apply the dynamic to the first note in each. This can be very helpful if some instruments in a measure start on beat 1 and others start later in the bar.
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Thanks @Vadian This could be where I am missing something I need to know about Dorico. I generally have my left hand on the computer keyboard and my right hand on the mouse.
Assuming that one is inserting nothing but dynamics as a separate pass throughout the music. How does one move from note to note without using the mouse?
You are using the caret and the popover.
Enter note entry, enter dynamic, move further with the arrow keys, enter dynamic, press space to extend gradual dynamics, end them, move with arrow keys to other staves, do it in multiple staves simultaneously … all possible without a mouse in sequence.
I rarely need the mouse in dorico at all, and I think many Finale users‘ request come from this habit.
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Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean. How did I double post?
Thanks, klafkid. I have tried that, but I find it much more efficient to use the mouse than the arrow keys. I can jump over wide areas instantly with the mouse.
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100% (i.e. the ability to jump over wide areas instantly with the mouse)
That’s another good example how different the workflows in Finale and Dorico are. As everything can be accomplished with the keyboard you can enter dynamics and articulations along with the music as “one-pass”.
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I suspect that @klafkid was talking about entering dynamics within a confined region (several measures, staves, etc.), where you can use the keyboard to get around without moving your hand to the mouse. Yes, if you’re navigating to a different place in the document, the mouse is useful.
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You created two topics about the same request, as pointed out by my link.
Um, no. This topic was my initial question; the other is a feature request that directly followed from the answers received in this topic. The feature request is also clearly specified in the title and the tag.