Hiya! First of all, thanks for great software. I love working with Dorico.
Yay!
So, my feature request is about lyrics. Currently the text box handling is quite primitive. If I want to display three verses of text below the flow, I will create three text boxes. Then I will paste in the lyrics. Then I will spend a lot of time micromanaging the frames and trying to make them align. It would be great to just have a layout “preset” to choose from: insert text box consisting of: one column, two columns, three columns… of text, possibly even neatly numbering/custom pre-texting the different verses before the column text automatically.
Also: the text boxes don’t align text very easily. Even if I create two identical text boxes, it flows the text differently depending on the text inside the two boxes, so the beginning line is vertically in a seemingly random position that doesn’t seem to care about the box size and location. How inconvenient. It’s possible I also don’t entirely understand how the algo chooses the line up the texts. But if I need to line them up, I need to micromanage and try to align them. That is so annoying. I’m dreaming of the type of graphic ease which happens for example in Canva, where you align the text and the software gives you different help-grid-lines that snap neatly into place with different graphic elements, for example other text boxes…
If we go further, you could just paste text which contains all the lyrics in columns, and Dorico would automagically make a graphic suggestion… Ok, request over. Thanks again!
Can you provide a bit more context on why you are putting lyrics at the end of the flow? Is this for a multiverse song where only a few verses are entered as typical lyrics and the remainder as text at the end of the flow?
So, there are some tools in Engrave mode to manipulate text boxes.
If you select the Frames tool and the frame of interest, you can assign a width, a height and you can also make all text top align. You can also specify exact placement on the page.
Unfortunately, this has to be repeated for each frame in order to create the desired properties as I cannot find a way to select more than one frame at a time (maybe someone else can chime in on this). In order to select the width setting, one must “unlock” the side constraint and the similar would need to occur for height by unlocking the top or bottom constraint. So until the development team maybe more fully addresses your wish, this can be used as workaround to achieve what you want.
I really appreciate you taking the time to help me with this. I’m happy the top align -setting will aid in aligning the text boxes. That said, knowing what is possible with modern design tools, the tool is as of yet, a child. A very entertaining child but a little bit of a difficult one. I have to draw the box, select the setting individually for each box, then work with it. The software could do this by itself and for example
a) resize or offer to resize (or automatically resize and offer to undo resize) a box where text don’t fit
b) offer cues to perfectly graphically align boxes
c) make elements avoid overlap (which the magnetic reactions attempt to and usually do achieve in the engraving side
d) have graphically convenient presets available
etc. GUI overhauls for the graphical side of things.
This sort of thing has been requested before. When the grid and rulers were added in v6, it was a step in the right direction, but of course some proper aligning tools and magnetism would be a big help.
Also annoying (Dorico team, please note): I’m trying to select a text box. It does not select. I remember I need to switch to the right tool (the frames tool). Now I am able to select. Except, the clicking doesn’t work, because I’m maybe one pixel off in my clicking. So I reclick. Still doesn’t select. I try again. But that was too fast, and now I’m in Write mode, because double clicking moves you to Write mode. Now I select Engrave mode again… etc. Very annoying.
I suspect that most of us understand this frustration and do not disagree with you. We also have to remember that compared to some other notation software, Dorico is still relatively new and still has an opportunity to improve.
I tried the CMD-Click on my Mac that @asherber and oddly, it worked once, did not work the second time and is working now - very odd. Same for drag to select. I’m probably doing/not doing something that caused the odd behavior…
So, with some luck, I think we will see the ability to better manipulate frames in future updates. In the meantime, you can probably use the workarounds to achieve what you desire.
Just an FYI that one can turn that “double click to Write mode” function off in Preferences → Note Input and Editing. I leave it engaged and just chastise myself when I double click when I intended to single click on Engrave mode… It seems like maybe an ALT-Click or CMD/CTRL-Click option for moving to Write mode would be better for those of us who have clicky fingers!
This is only part of what you’re after, but it may help.
When you have created one text frame you can copy it, including on the same page.
Search in Dorico Help for “Copying frames” (I’m away from home so can’t send a link at the moment.). In a nutshell… in Engrave mode you select the text box you want to copy, in Pages click on the page you want to copy it to, which can be the same page, right click and choose “Copy selected frames to selected page”.
There are a couple of things to note about the procedure.
Firstly, if you’re copying to the same page the copied frame overlays the original exactly so that you cannot see it! However the new frame is still selected so you can move it directly as long as you don’t click anywhere else before doing so. If you use Ctrl-Alt-right arrow (I’m on Windows) you’ll see it appear! I use this for creating side by side verse blocks.
Secondly, unfortunately it creates a page override with the downsides of that.
