Multi-staff beaming

Dorico
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See the attached photo from a pencil score (59 years old). The two staves are a harp part. Consider the first two eighths. When I type the Ab in the bass cleff, I get a dotted 1/8 and a 1/16 rest, and in the treble a dotted 1/8 rest and a 1/16th chord. How do I put them on one beam as shown?

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harp
harp2942×1421 345 KB

I asked something similar recently (in the less than three weeks since I started using Dorico). Someone gave me a simple answer, but I’ve forgotten, didn’t write it down, and can’t find it in My Posts.

More generally, I’ve got to learn the technique of dealing with beams and stems in multi-staff parts. In the image shown, there are three separate but related problems. Sometimes I want them to be separate (normal). Sometimes I want the beam in the middle as in this example. Sometimes above even though what’s shown is on two staves. Sometimes I want a single stem on a chord across two staves as seen on the 4th 1/8 of the example.

If someone can point me to the place in the manual that deals with this, I could study it, internalize it, and not have to ask again. I looked and couldn’t find it. I don’t know the name for this technique that would produce a hit in a search. (multi-staff beaming? I think I tried that.)

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The easiest way to create a cross-staff beam is to enter everything in a single staff (to get one single beam, all the notes must belong to the same voice).

For example, here enter the sixteenth note right after the dotted eighth in the lower staff. Then select it and press N (to move it the other way, from top to bottom, press M).

For the second bar, do the same (enter the figure in the top staff, select the bass note and press M). Then select the beam, right-click and choose Stem > Force Stem Up.

And for the middle chord, enter it in the bottom staff, select the top note and press N.

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Yes, writing it on a single staff with a million leger lines and using M (or N) does work. That should be an easy one to remember. This style of music requires that constantly.

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Note that you can use M & N while typing, with the caret active — it only moves the last note entered, and the cursor goes back to its original position.