I’m new to Dorico, and have come over from Finale. It’s a bumpy ride learning how to drive this thing, so far.
My problem is this. I have a lot of hymns and choir pieces that I am working with that I did in Finale. But opening the MXL file, the lyrics are all jammed on top of each other and I can’t read the text. I’m not seeing anything in the library options about how to resolve this. I care more about reading the text than I do the note spacing. What am I missing? Thanks.
We really need to see the file, or at the very least a screenshot, to see what’s going on.
But you could try “Reset Layout”, under Engrave > Format Music Frames. Or even delete the Layout in Setup mode and create a new Score Layout. That will remove anything that is preventing Dorico from doing what it wants to do, because it’s trying to follow the instructions in the XML file, which may not work.
How can I send a file so that the curious public doesn’t see it? Send me an email.
In nearly ten years of reading virtually every message posted here, I have never seen a complaint that a file posted here has been appropriated or misused.
If privacy is absolutely important, one can attach the file to a private message to an individual.
If someone plans to make money from the music, a free copy of the file might result in loss of sales. It would be impossible to know whether potential customers were gleaning files here instead.
O Wondrous Joy.dorico (1.9 MB)
Here’s what I’m talking about. Since I have many of these to go through and it will be frustrating to move every single note, is there a way to set options so that the lyrics don’t jam?
You have forced Dorico to put too much music in too little horizontal space.
Look at the percentage of these systems in engrave mode.
If that’s over 100% it’s a sign Dorico can’t use its prefered layout.
See the reply of @benwiggy
If you go to Engrave Mode, you will instantly see the problem:
Your systems are locked with System Breaks, and the systems are well over 100% full.
In short, there’s just too much to fit on each line.
Reduce the Staff Size; lose the abbreviated Staff Labels; change the margins. You’ve also got an “empty” Flow Heading, which is taking up some vertical space.
Here’s my solution. The only oddity is “Through” in verse 3 of bar 9, which is crashing into the next word for some reason. It required a bit of Note Spacing adjustment.
O Wondrous Joy.dorico (1.8 MB)
When looking in write mode while selecting that syllable, I see some small circle sign before the word, don’t know what that is
Deleting the word, and re-entering solves it too, didn’t use Note Spacing adjustment
If you select the lyric and press Opt/Alt-left arrow, it will probably re-position to the correct note.
Though typically, words that start a melisma are left aligned with the first note.
The little circle is an anchor or handle, used to show the alignment point.
Ok. This is helpful. I’m trying to figure out exactly how to do what you say. I am brand new at this and stumbling around here. Can you explain it to someone mostly unfamiliar with how to do things? Especially Ben Wiggy’s suggestions where he screen shotted one of the lines of my jumbled text.
I did find the “Reset Layout” feature and used it. I’d like my music to be on one page.
Also, I have a bunch of these just like this. Is there a feature that can simply set all of these to add the settings I want coming from MXL files so I don’t have to do them all individually, or is this something I’m just going to have to slog through?
Normally, Dorico uses the Layout Options to set out the score – and you can usually get a near perfect result from suitable options (plus the addition of a few System Breaks, and adjusting things like Note Spacing to suit.)
However, an XML may contain layout information at odds with Dorico’s own settings, in which case, Dorico will follow the XML file, but this makes it difficult to control because Dorico’s options are no longer in control – it’s all manual adjustments on everything.
There are several YouTube videos about Page layout generally, and importing XML specifically. I’d recommend sitting down with a hot cup and going through a few of them.
